Pretzel Style Sausage Rolls

My Oktoberfest recipe for this year!

My wife has never been a fan of my original sausage roll recipe unless I take the time to trim all the casings off. This has always seemed a little too time consuming for me, so I don't and she doesn't eat them if I make them for a party. This time I just started with a pound of sausage meat and that made the whole thing much easier.

When I was coming up with this recipe I did some research on egg washes and discovered that doing an egg wash with just a beaten egg yolk gets you a deep brown color when baked. When you add a nice serving of large grain salt, it can give puff pastry a pretzel like exterior.

Ingredients:

2 sheets of puff pastry
1lb of pork sausage meat
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 egg yolk, beaten
salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400

Roll out the sheets of puff pastry. I like to use a rolling pin to smooth any creases, I think it makes it easier to roll in the end. Divide the ground sausage into 4 equal portions.

Take one portion and place it on the narrowest edge of the pastry sheet and form into an even log that stretches along the entire edge. Brush the sausage with some of the maple syrup.

Carefully roll the puff pastry around the sausage and right before the pastry would overlap, brush the bit that would overlap with a little egg yolk to seal it. To make sure the roll has a flat bottom, before I seal it up, I lightly dock, or poke with a fork, the piece that will overlap. This collapses the layers of pastry and keeps them from rising as much. This is mostly a cosmetic decision but I find that it makes the whole batch turn out more even and uniform looking.

Cut the roll off from the remaining sheet. Each roll should take half a sheet, feel free to stretch the dough or roll it out thinner if you find that you don't have enough space.

Repeat for the remaining sausage portions. When they are all rolled, lightly brush with the remaining egg yolk and then sprinkle liberally with large flake salt. If you can get pretzel salt, even better.

Cut the logs into 6 equal portions. I shallowly score the tops twice with a knife, not deep enough that it goes through the pastry, so that they don't expand too much. Again, this is a personal preference that helps the finished product look nice and uniform.

Bake on a greased or parchment covered baking sheet for 15-20 minutes until dark golden brown.

To make the dip, combine equal amounts of maple syrup and mustard. Enjoy!

 If you are interested, here is a great place to find some great info on egg washes and how they work and what they do

Grilled Ham and Pineapple Skewers

A couple weeks ago my work was demo-ing grilled maple flavored ham and pineapple skewers. I thought they tasted great, but I figured I could improve on the concept, make it more sophisticated.

I'll be including instructions on how to do this on a stove top grill pan, but this would work equally well, if not better, on a real grill. The cooking times would just need a bit of adjusting.

Ingredients:

olive or vegetable oil
2 ⅛" thick ham slices
1 lb fresh pineapple spears or rounds
3 tbsp gin aged maple syrup
1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

Heat a grill pan over medium heat until a spritz of water on it evaporates immediately. Brush on the some olive or vegetable oil and lay on your ham slices and pineapple spears. Let them cook on one side until definite grill marks develope and you get good caramelization on the pineapple, flip and repeat.

Remove and let cool before cutting into bite size pieces and arranging on large toothpicks or sandwich spears. Brush liberally with the gin maple syrup, good quality plain maple syrup will work great too, before evenly sprinkling on the fresh thyme and black pepper. Serve and enjoy!

If you liked this recipe please consider supporting me and my content on Patreon. For more info on my patreon, check out my previous post!

Deviled Eggs with Crab

Early last week I was talking to some of my co-workers, and as often happens with me, the conversation turned to food. One of them introduced me to a concept I had never heard of, deviled eggs with crab. I had already been on a bit of a crab kick (more of that to come later) and so I instantly decided that I needed to make those.

They turned out to be really easy to make, the hardest bit is to peel all the eggs, and they taste amazing.

Ingredients:

12 eggs

1 tsp mustard

1 tbsp fresh parsley

1.5 tsp Old Bay

1 green onion, chopped fine

½ C mayo

8 oz crab claw meat

Directions:

In a large pot, place your dozen eggs and cover with and inch of water. Optionally, add 1 tbsp of white vinegar to keep egg from leaking out of any that might have cracked. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat and then kill the heat and let them sit in the pot for 10-12 minutes. Shock the eggs in a water and ice bath to cool them quickly, which, in my experience, is the best way to make them easy to peel. Peel the eggs then slice them in half long ways and extracting the yolks.

In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, mustard, parsley, Old Bay, onion, and mayo. Mix well before adding in the claw meat and stirring thoroughly.

Spoon a heaping amount of the filling into each egg half and serve.

BBQ Meatballs

With the start of fall, it's time for me to break out my slow cooker. This is the first of a bunch of slow cooker recipes you'll be getting from me as the weather turns cold. When I was younger I had meatballs served at my birthday party every year. Because my birthday is close to Christmas, we always decorated the tree at my party. Since we would be moving around, any food served had to be an hors d'oeuvre. Meatballs were always my favorite.

Ingredients:

1 large shallot minced fine
1 T of olive oil
1 18 oz (be weight) jar of grape jelly
Same jar filled with BBQ sauce
2 T of whiskey (I used Jack Daniel's)
Aprox. 34 meatballs (I added them in frozen)*

Directions:

Place a medium saute pan over medium high heat and add the olive oil. Heat the olive oil until it shimmers and then add the shallot and saute until the shallot is well browned, about 2 minutes. Put the shallot in your slow cooker and then add all of the liquid ingredients. Mix well, but don't be surprised if it does not mix thoroughly, because the jelly is hard to mix when it is cold; it will mix more thoroughly when the sauce is warmed. Then add enough meatballs for the sauce to cover, in my slow cooker this was turned out to be 34, but that will change depending on the size of the meatball and the size of the slow cooker.

Turn your slow cooker on high and let it cook for 2-2.5 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Once the sauce is thickened to your liking, remove the meatballs and serve. I usually just serve these with toothpicks, but these also make an amazing meatball sub when served with provolone cheese.

*I use frozen meatballs for this recipe because when I am making party food, I'm going to be making a lot of food and I don't usually have time to hand-make meatballs. If you feel like making your own, go right ahead, I'm sure they will be excellent. However, if you are using handmade meatballs, make sure they are cooked through since this recipe's cook time does not take that into account.

Pork Potstickers

I love these pot stickers. My mom claims that my pot stickers are the best things I have ever made for her. I'm not sure about that, but these are quite tasty. They aren't quite as easy to make as some of the other recipes I have put up, but that is mostly in how you make the dumpling.

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground pork
1 T of Worcestershire sauce
1 T of low sodium soy sauce
¼ C of green onion chopped fine
½ C of nappa or Chinese cabbage roughly chopped

½ t of salt

¼ t of black pepper

36 pot sticker wrappers
Vegetable oil (canola or olive)
Low sodium chicken stock

Directions:

Place the pork, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, onion, cabbage, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined. When it comes to assembling the pot stickers I like to have my station all set up and everything organized before I begin.

Here is how I set up my fabrication station: my filling, my wrappers (covered by a moist paper towel to keep them from drying out), a plate for construction, a teaspoon for portioning (and an extra spoon to coax out the filling), some water to wet my fingers to make the seal, and a baking sheet with some damp paper towels to keep the finished dumplings from drying out before they get cooked.

Steps in pot sticker construction:

Here are my wife's instructions for how to assemble the pot stickers. She is much better at it than I am:

1. Place one on wrapper on the plate in front of you, dip a finger in the bowl of water and then wet the outside edge of the wrapper, and place about 2 teaspoons of filling in the middle. (Note: Be sure to only lightly moisten the dough. It should feel a bit tacky, but not slippery, so that the wrapper sticks to itself without sliding.)
2. Fold the wrapper in half and seal it by pressing gently outward from the bulge of filling to the edge of the wrapper. Make sure to get out as much air as possible, since air pockets will expand as they're heated up and might burst open in the pan. Then moisten both sides of the wrapper along the outer edge of the crescent.
3. Starting just inside one corner of the crescent, curve the wrapper into a small S shape.
4. Flatten the S shape so that the wrapper is folded against itself, and pinch it tight.
5. Continue making crimps until you reach the other corner of the crescent, making sure that none of the crimps overlap. (I can usually fit four to five crimps along the edge of each wrapper.)

When you are finished constructing the dumpling. place it on the cookies sheet lined with a moist paper towel. Make sure to also have a damp paper towel to place over top the waiting pot stickers. My wife usually fills one and I cook the pot stickers on that one while she fills the next. You can also freeze the pot stickers on the sheet pan and then stash them in a plastic bag in the freezer to cook later.

Heat a 10" skillet over high heat, one with a lid, on my electric stove I put it at 8 out of 10. Heat the pan until water spritzed on the plan doesn't skitter but boils off instantly. Put a tablespoon of oil in the skillet and use a paper towel or basting brush to thoroughly cover the bottom. Place the pot stickers in the skillet with a little space between each, in a 10" one I can usually fit 6 or 7.

Cook on high for 2 minutes, or until browned on the bottom, then pour in ½ cup of chicken stock, slap the lid on, and reduce the heat to low. Steam for 3 minutes and then remove from the pan. Repeat until all the pot stickers are cooked. If you are cooking frozen dumplings, add ¼ cup more chicken stock and steam for 2 minutes extra.

Pigs in a Blanket with a Ketchup Glaze

I love pigs in a blanket as hors d'oeuvres or party food, right up there with meatballs. (Don't worry, those are coming soon.) They are fun to make, easy to eat, and plenty tasty. They are a hit with kids of all ages. When I came up with this recipe, I wanted to make pigs in a blanket that wouldn't require you to carry a dipping sauce around all night and possibly make a mess. So, I researched how to make a ketchup glaze and went from there.

Ingredients:

½ C of dark brown sugar
½ C of ketchup
1 14 oz package of mini sausages*
2 tubes of croissant dough

Directions:

Preheat the oven according to instructions on package of croissants.

Put the ketchup and brown sugar in a small saucepan and mix until smooth. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Let it simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the sauce is thickened, add the package of mini sausages, bring the sauce back to a simmer and simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. When you are satisfied with how thick the sauce is, take it off the heat and allow the sauce and sausage mixture to cool.

Now unroll one croissant (bottom left in picture) and cut it into two pieces (top two pieces in picture). Roll each sausage in a piece of dough and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake according to the instructions on the croissant tube and serve. Any leftover glaze can be served as a dipping sauce if you desire.

*I prefer Hillshire Farm 14 oz Lit'l Smokies. If you can find the Cheddar Lit'l Smokies, even better.

Caprese Salad

Caprese salad is one of my favorite presentation dishes to make. It involves no cooking and little mess, but is packed with color and flavor. Again, I added my own spin to this classic dish, but this time it is mostly in the presentation. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

20 fresh basil leaves
20 cherry tomatoes
20 ciliegine or "cherry size" mozzarella balls
3 T extra virgin olive oil
3 T balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Arrange the basil leaves on a plate and place one cheese ball and one tomato inside each leaf. Once all the of the leaves are filled, drizzle the balsamic vinegar and olive oil on top. For best results, let it chill for about an hour. This will let the oil extract some of the fat-soluble flavors from the vinegar and really kick up the flavor.

In this version, I used heirloom grape tomatoes because they were available locally and added a little extra color, but you don't have to. Standard grape tomatoes work really well and get you a much more traditional Italian flag look.

Alternatively, you can serve these on skewers or toothpicks if you are hosting the kind of party where people will be doing a lot of moving around or if you want to make them beforehand and then travel with them.