There is a whole slew of cooking shows on the web that showcase newbie cooks that can show off a good meal, but can't necessarily give you some great background information that a chef can. Above you can watch Dallas' Master Chef David McMillan prepare halibut and clams with chorizo and black bean sauce -- and he not only discusses the dish, but the particulars of what is going into the meal. For example, he explains the different flavors that can be coaxed out of garlic, and the differences between curly and flat-leaf parsley.
It's the debut show, so I imagine there will be lots of great cooking info to come in the future. Enjoy!
I'm posting images of sausage counters the world over each weeknight (and occasionally weekend) witching hour (until I run out), so please use the comments section to post links to your Flickr or personal site faves, and perhaps you'll see 'em posted here late some evening.
We're all fans of the easy summer barbecue: inviting a few friends over for an afternoon of hanging around the backyard, tossing some Hebrew Nationals on the Weber, spilling mustard on your shirt, falling asleep in the lounge chair and waking up redder than a gas station footlong.
But sometimes you want a little more from an outdoor meal. Something that doesn't involve sodium nitrite or a mushy bun. Something that shows off your cooking chops without ruining the casual, social nature of the backyard barbecue. I've collected a few of my favorite grilled sausage recipes from around the globe, stuff that will get you out of your hot dog rut without chaining you to the stove.
- Grilled sausages sandwiches with caramelized onions and Gruyere. This Bon Appetit recipe uses pre-cooked packaged sausages (it suggests white bratwurst) for a luxe take on the street fair classic. Serve them with a German wheat beer and a rustic apple tart for dessert.
- Grilled merguez with fried leeks and French fries on baguette. Merguez, a spicy red sausage of Algerian or Tunisian origin, brings some vim to the barbecue. The We Are Never Full blog has a step-by-step recipe for a great-looking merguez sandwich, the ne plus ultra of French-African street food. If you're not feeling up to frying your own French fries, I imagine they would taste just dandy without.
- Grilled chorizo tacos. This Food Network recipe pairs Mexican pork sausages with roasted poblano peppers, roasted tomato salsa and pepperjack cheese. The DIY nature of individual taco construction is perfect for a big all-ages party.
- Catalan sausage on grilled tomato bread. Pa amb tomaquet - grilled or toasted bread rubbed with garlic and tomato, is a staple of Spain's Catalonia region. Grill thick slices of bread side-by-side with some pork sausages (Catalonian butifarra are ideal, but chorizo would work as well) and you're good to go.
Last night's episode of Top Chef finally addressed the question that show has been toying with all season: Is it better to sidestep the rules and create an amazing dish, or to follow the rules and produce something mediocre? Until this episode, it seemed to me that the judges went with whichever answer matched up with the contestant who they wanted to send home (my mom accurately likened it to a card trick where you know the card before the trick starts, then "find" it through whatever means). But now they have finally established that a better dish is more important than one that follows the rules closely, and I hope for the sake of consistency that they stick by this for the rest of the season. Oh yeah, and the Elimination Challenge was nuts.
If you are looking for a Mexican dish to serve for your Cinco de Mayo celebrations this weekend, my recommendation is to check out Homesick Texan, who will not only give you a bit of history about the holiday, but provides an amazing recipe for Tinga de Puerco.
This dish is a Pueblan stew consisting of pork, chorizo, tomatoes and chipotles. As she states, the stew is traditionally served on crisp tostadas, but may also be eaten with tortilla chips, wrapped in soft tortillas, or eaten like a typical stew simply with a spoon. I'm getting the ingredients for this myself tonight - serve with a few cerveza and Cinco de Mayo has begun!
Rui Daniel Faria Velosa, the owner of the Portuguese restaurant, was fined April on April 12 for an incident that occurred back in May 2005. A server brought the appetizer in the ceramic dish to the table. The food was already flaming, but the server returned with more rum to top off the dish. The rum spilled all over the woman, leaving her with burns on her face and hands. She spent two weeks in the hospital and still suffers from flashbacks, panic attacks, and anxiety.
If that happened to me, I'd probably eat raw food for the rest of my life.
There are several methods to making jambalaya, and I am sure people will argue until the end of time as to which is better, but personally I like them both. The first type, which is what I made, is known as Creole-style or red jambalaya which includes tomatoes. The second type, Cajun jambalaya, is brown in color and does not have any tomatoes added.
Red jambalaya is very easy to prepare and can be made in one pot, though I tend to fry my sausage separately to ensure that it is well done. That's just my choice though, you can do it either way. I chose to use ham and andouille sausage for mine, but there are a number of different meats and seafood you can use, it is all a matter of personal taste and what you have available.
I've included the recipe after the jump, as well as some suggestions as to how you can make this dish suit your personal preferences.
For those of you not familiar with this Portuguese sausage, it's pronounced Ling-GWEES-a. I was waiting tables in a pizza place about 20 years ago and a tourist asked me what this "Linguicka" was.
It's fantastic in sandwiches and on pizza, but you can also make chili with it. One of the best bowls of chili I've ever had was made with linguica instead of beef. It gives the chili a really nice, different flavor, while remaining hearty. I don't know how this place made it, the exact recipe. I'm sure I could call them up right now and say "hey, give me your recipe," but I don't want to do that, even though they probably remember me coming in there.
Nigel Slater puts the season's vegetables and herbs to good use with braised spring vegetables, grilled chorizo with almonds sherry vinegar and spring cabbage, green chicken and coconut soup and salmon with pea puree.
The meat was sealed, added
to the soften onions and garlic, a teaspoon of paprika and plenty of beef stock. Then a low heat as the whole simmered.
I am not sure the potatoes benefited from par-boiling before being added to the dish but that is what I did. Around 30
minutes before the end of the three hours the potatoes were added to the stew and left to cook just as slowly but
without a lid to the dish.
With a real spicy kick the chorizo bled colour into the stew, the flavours mingling with the paprika and
other ingredients. A hearty dusting of chopped parsley added a freshness to the whole but the spice edge from the
chorizo took a heavy hammer to the complexities of the accompanying wine; which was a shame, but the succulent steak
component shone in a near perfect match. Three hours simmering and less than forty minutes to eat; at least the house
hummed with delicious aromas and the guests went home sedated and mellow.
I guess I had better get started if this stew is going to be cooked by the time my guests arrive! (It has just gone
6 in the evening).
As per normal - where there is inevitably some disaster or other - I can't locate the original recipe I was going
to use. I have a chorizo, tins of chopped tomato, onion, garlic, smoked paprika powder, stewing steak, potatoes... but
forgot to buy a pepper (bell pepper) or a bottle of red plonk to go in with the beef stock. Did get some parsley for
the garnish though! Hopeless really, at shopping... even with a list.
The other day I popped into Panzers Deli near Lords Cricket Ground in London (I was there for a New Zealand
Wine Tasting, not the cricket) and spotted uncooked chorizo (this is unusual as I have only seen the pre-cooked version
in the UK) although it doesn't look that different from the ready-to-eat. No idea how long it takes to cook but it is
going in the pot with softened onions,some garlic and the paprika, all after the steak has been browned. Then the wet
stuff.
Today's slashfood mini theme is slow cooking with
three hours the minimum. So I will let this lot simmer gently for a couple of hours before adding the potatoes which
should give plenty of time for the wine to breathe - a gutsy red from La Mancha - one item I didn't forget to
buy!
Give me a plate of cold meats a little cheese, crusty bread and a few
glasses of wine and I am a happy chap. Spanish preferably...
Butifarra - a speciality of Catalonia Butifarra, is a cooked sausage made from chopped lean
pork, just occassionally having a little chopped mushroom in addition to salt and pepper. Sold in strings for grilling
or in larger rounds for slicing and serving cold.
Cecina - most produced around Leon. Made from beef, cecina is salted and smoked over oak
before air-curing for upwards of six months. More intense than the Italian equivalent Bresaola.
Chorizo - perhaps the most well known of Spanish meats with its distinctive colouring
hailing from the use of pimenton (a Spanish paprika). Made from pork and pork fat. Available in all shapes and
sizes.
Jamon - air-cured ham and the king of charcuterie in Spain. Sliced as required from a whole
leg or pre-sliced and vacuum packed. Varieties include Jamon Serrano and Jamon Iberico.
Lomo - a complete loin of pork with all fat removed is coated with a dry marinade of garlic,
nutmeg, salt and pimenton. This is stuffed into a casing and air-cured for at least six months. Delicate in
flavour.
Morcilla - blood sausage/black pudding. Highly spiced with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and
anise. Often plumped up with onions or pine nuts. Sold pre-sliced or in thick chunks.
Salchichon - when chorizo has the pimenton replaced with pepper (black or white) it becomes
Salchichon. Often studded with peppercorns much like a salami. A fuet is a thinner version from
Catalonia.
Spoilers! Spoilers!
A 
If ever you plan to grab dinner at Sporting Clube de Londres in West London, 
For those of you not familiar with this Portuguese sausage, it's pronounced Ling-GWEES-a. I was waiting tables in a pizza place about 20 years ago and a tourist asked me what this "Linguicka" was.
The May issue of the Observer Food Monthly - 
Give me a plate of cold meats a little cheese, crusty bread and a few
glasses of wine and I am a happy chap. Spanish preferably... 
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