Green Irish Banger for St. Partick's Day.

Garlic and kale chicken sausage recipe.

You wanna turn your St. Patrick's Day Feast up to 11? How about a green sausage? Today on the blog I've got an banger recipe for you that's as authentic as Irish Coffee and is sure to be a hit at any St. Patty's celebration.



In the natural world, you don't come across green sausage too often. The only one I know of is a chorizo from the Toluca State of Mexico, that's made with green chiles and cilantro. Diana Kennedy mentions it In her book, My Mexico: A culinary odyssey with more than 500 recipes. Rick Bayless gives a recipe for green chorizo that involves spinach powder.



I thought about using spinach for the green, but wanted something more hardy, something that better reflects the spirit of Ireland, and then I remembered kale. While cabbage may be what we Americans think as the "green veg" of the Emerald Isle, kale is perfectly at home in a pot of colcannon.

To make the vibrant green puree, kale needs to be blanched a few times. Set a big pot of salted water on to boil, and set up an ice bath. Drop the kale into the boiling pot for no more than 30 seconds. then put it in the ice bath to slow the coking. Do it 3 times. The point here is to cook the kale without it getting too hot. At a certain temperature the green starts to break down. Puree the cooked kale along with the garlic in a blender, add water as necessary to keep it moving. Since I lent the Vita-Prep to my neighbor to mix grout, I ended up pushing my poorly pureed kale through a metal strainer, it'll be fine. I blanched about a pound (450g) of kale to get my 300g of kale puree.



For that fancy emulsified look grind the meat twice. Here I cut chicken into nice bits, put it into the freezer on a sheet pan, until just crunchy, ground it, spread it out in the sheet tray again, let it get crunchy in the freezer, and ground it again.



Just like pouring paint into the Chicago River, I mixed in the spices then added the green.



To assure the authenticity of this Irish banger, I added potato starch as the binder.



Stuff into prepared hog casings. For a richer patina, let them hang in the fridge for a couple of days.



For the Tricolor trifecta, whip up a pot of Irish cheddar mashers and top with an onion curry gravy.

Kale and Garlic Chicken Sausage

Per 1000 g of Meat
300g Kale puree (see notes above)
15g minced garlic (pureed with the kale)
15 g Salt
5g ground white pepper
2g powdered ginger
2g mustard flour
1g ground mace
pinch of cayenne

20g potato starch or milk powder.

Make as described above. I used a whole chicken cut up for my recipe. If you're buying by the bit, get thighs. Pork will work too.



Happy St. Patricks Day.

Cheers.

Here's a link my other Irish Banger recipe.

Cambridge Sausage and Mash

It's #britishsausageweek or British Sausage Week for my Twitter averse friends. Since Jamie Oliver is participating in the promotion of UK sausage, I figure I could do my bit from across the pond.

Americans have and odd relationship with British cuisine. On one hand we can't resist the urge to regurgitate the cliche of their food as heavy, tasteless and unimaginative. On the other I've lost track of how many gastro-pubs with English sounding names dot our fair city. But what about sausage?

Here in America we know only one British sausage, the Banger! Actually that's the nickname for about any sausage and what we call a banger would probably be the Cambridge sausage in the UK. The Oxford Companion of Food identifies no less than 10 British sausage varieties including one sausage, the Cumberland, which gained Protected Geographical Status, from the EU earlier this year. For my British Banger I chose to focus on the Cambridge sausage.



The Cambridge Banger

900g (2lbs) Pork Shoulder
100g (3 1/2 oz) Rusks or fine bread crumbs (see notes)
14g (2 t) Salt
3 g white pepper
1 g mace
1 g cayenne
4 g fresh sage chopped fine (see notes)
2 g fresh thyme chopped (see notes)

225 ml (1 cup) Ale (see notes)

Hog casings for stuffing.

Grind the pork shoulder twice, then using a mixer with a paddle attachment or a big wooden spoon beat in the rusks and then the remaining ingredients. Continue to mix until you get a uniform pate. Stuff into hog casings.

Notes:

A word about rusks. Many different food products are called rusks. The rusks for sausages are superfine breadcrumbs. Sausages in the UK have a long tradition of containing cereals of one kind or another. It probably started as a means to extend the meat, first for necessity, later for profit. Nevertheless adding bread crumbs changes the texture of the sausage in such a way that it must considered as part of the recipe. That said, I'm not a huge fan of it.

Try to use fresh herbs. Thyme and sage are ridiculously easy to grow. If using dried, use half the amount.

Ale: The alcohol in the recipe enhances the flavors from the herbs and spices. After cooking for 1 1/2 years in a brewpub, I have come to appreciate the properties of beer in recipes. Give it a try, if not use water.

Cooking:

British sausages got their nickname "banger" due to their propensity to explode during cooking. Do not blow up your banger. All sausages, especially ones without added fat, must be cooked gently, and not too long. I cooked these bangers (pictured above) in a 300F oven for 15 minutes.

So we have a banger, some mashed tatties, how about some sauce.



This piquant banger sauce is a pound of sliced onions caramelized then pureed with 3 ozs of Worcestershire and 3 ozs of butter. Wicked good, as the kids say.

Bangers and mash for British Sausage Week. Make it yours.

Cheers.



Sources (Book links to WorldCat)

British Charcuterie by Reekie

The Oxford Companion to Food by Davidson

South Side Irish Shepherd's Pie Sausage

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Are you looking for an authentic "Irish Bangers" recipe? Well good luck, The Irish don't have much of a sausage making tradition, unless yer up for making a Dirsheen, which is a blood sausage. For a further discussion of Irish bangers, click here.

One thing the Irish do have a lot of is sheep, and last week I was obssesed with lamb.



I went looking for a saddle (that's a cut not a ride) but I ended up with what the packer called a rear quarter; It was cheaper than a leg, but it looks like a leg to me. I chopped up the joint and made stock with the bones. I planned on making Shepherd's pie, so I fired up the search engines and got a couple of books from the library and looked for the perfect recipe. They all boiled down to this: Ground lamb, ketchup, peas, carrots and mashed potatoes. Yumm-o? I realized what I really wanted was a lamb stew, yes that's it, topped with mashed potatoes and browned in the broiler. With a nice stock, it's not too hard to make a stew.





I browned the lamb then removed it from the pot. Next I threw in some sliced onions and carrots let them saute for a few minutes then sprinkled over a bit of flour over the mixture and deglazed with beer. After the beer reduced, everything gets thrown in: Stock, tomatoes, garlic, seasonings, lamb. Set for stew.

For the topping I made what the pros call Duchesse Potatoes. They are potatoes that you mash add a little butter and some eggs. Then using a pastry bag, The potatoes are piped into whatever shape you want. So I put my stew into a casserole topped it with potato and browned it in the oven.



Stew is good but sausage is good and fun. I started thinking about all the ingredients for Shepherd's Pie in a link.



I put together the spices and I got grinding. I did a ratio of fifty percent potato to lamb and twenty-five percent onion to lamb. Also like the stew I added a wee bit of beer.


I had planned on using Guinness, but I forgot to get some, so I ended up using something even better: Home brewed pale ale, made in Beverly by me friend John. Now I have the sausage, I just have to find a party.

St Patrick's Day in Chicago.



On Saturday we went downtown so the boys could see the Chicago river change from dark green to bright Irish green.





Then Sunday we went up to Beverly for the South Side Irish parade. Corinne, John, Jack and Will hosted an open house. We had corned beef, cole slaw, shepherd's pie sausages and more basement brewed ales.



What a weekend, and nice weather to boot. I'd give you a recipe for the Shepherd's Pie Sausage, but I forgot to write it down. I'll make it again soon. In the meantime enjoy St. Patrick's Day, the green means Spring is coming.

Cheers.

South Side Irish

Yeah I live on the Southside. Yeah I have an Irish last name. Ergo, this Irish Bangers recipe has got to be authentic.

Irish Banger

2 lb pork shoulder diced
3 slices (90 g) whole wheat bread dried in the oven chopped into fine crumbs
20 g salt
1/2 t (1 g) dried marjoram
1/2 t (1 g) grated nutmeg
1/4 t (1 g) powdered ginger
1/2 t (2 g) ground black pepper
1/2 t (1 g) finely grated lemon zest
100 ml milk

Combine ingredients, except milk, and rest the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour. Grind through fine plate into chilled bowl. Add milk and stir mixture until it starts to come together, about one minute. Stuff into hog casings. For that fancy pub look, twist the sausages into 4 inch lengths. Gently saute them to an internal temperature of 150F. To finish the authentic look make some grilled onions, some curry gravy and mashed potatoes.

The recipe originally appeared last year in the post St. Patrick's Day Bangers and Mash.

Cheers.

St. Patricks Day Bangers and Mash

Irish Bangers recipe

"Bangers and Mash" you see it on just about any pub menu in our fair city, but what is a banger? Since the bacchanal de vert is upon us I figured it was a good time to explore the sausages of the Emerald Isle...

And that completes the tour of sausages of the Ireland. What did you miss it? That's because there's not much. The Oxford Companion, lists several regional sausages of the UK but nary a one in the land of Erin. Larousse, mentions a blood sausage, drisheen, of Irish decent, and says bangers are an old name for Chipolata. Whatever. I searched for a "Bangers" recipe and came up with a smattering of unimpressive ideas. In Bruce's Aidells' , Complete Sausage Book, he states the sausage he had while living in London, which tasted like it was made with "Sawdust, salt and grease," was his motivation to start making sausage at home. I kept on hitting dead ends, but I was not deterred, we must have something to go with our green beer.



Rusk.

Just about all the recipes I found called for bread crumbs or rusk. As a general rule I have always shied away from cereal fillers in my sausage, but in spirit of being authentic, we'll give it a go. Rusk, according to the dictionary is "A slice of sweet raised bread, dried and baked again in the oven." We'll use toast. Let's go to the boards:


Irish Banger


2 lb pork shoulder diced

3 slices (90 g) whole wheat bread dried in the oven chopped into fine crumbs

20 g salt

1/2 t (1 g) dried marjoram

1/2 t (1 g) grated nutmeg

1/4 t (1 g) powdered ginger

(2 g) ground black pepper

1/2 t (1 g) finely grated lemon zest

100 ml milk


Combine ingredients, except milk, and rest the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour. Grind through fine plate into chilled bowl. Add milk and stir mixture until it starts to come together, about one minute. Stuff into hog casings. For that fancy pub look, twist the sausages into 4 inch lengths. Gently saute them to an internal temperature of 150F. To finish the authentic look make some grilled onions, some curry gravy and mashed potatoes.


Being 'twas a weeknight when I made me bangers, and I hadn't any potatoes (horrors!) I truly embraced the Irish spirit and instead of going to the grocery, I found somethin else in the pantry to mash:

Mac's mashed acorn squash with a wee bit o curry.

Peel quarter and clean one acorn squash. Put the pieces in a roasting pan, liberally sprinkle with salt pepper and olive, and cook until soft in a 350F oven, about 30 minutes.

I let the pieces cool a bit, then I put them in the food processor with a little milk and curry powder to taste. Since I was doing this ahead of time, I put the puree into a buttered casserole dish to warm just before serving. It was real good. One small acorn squash served two people. To finish the presentation, I had to have something green: Swiss chard sauteed with garlic and crushed red pepper. A wee bit of Guinness, and we're ready to chase the leprechaun.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Cheers.