Authors: Victoria Wise
Sausage (11 page)
In this pan-African menu, disparate parts of the continent are melded in a culinary way. The sausage is inherited from the Dutch colonialists in South Africa; the cashews, which were first brought from Brazil by the Portuguese, import a taste of Nigeria on the west coast and Mozambique on the east coast; and the spiced butter, called
niter kibbeh
, wafts in gently from Ethiopia. The rice and collard greens are pan-global.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Spiced Butter
½ pound unsalted butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped yellow or white onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
3 cardamom seeds
1 whole clove
Small pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Small pinch of ground cinnamon
Sausage
½ pound ground beef
3 ounces salt pork, minced
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
Tiny pinch of ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground coriander
Tiny pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons water
Kosher salt
Rice
2 tablespoons spiced butter
½ cup salted roasted cashew nuts
½ cup golden raisins
1½ cups long-grain white rice
3 cups water
6 cups coarsely chopped collard greens, leaves only
2 tablespoons spiced butter
To make the spiced butter, place the butter in a small, heavy saucepan and melt it slowly over medium heat. Add the remaining ingredients, increase the heat slightly, and bring slowly to a boil. Decrease the heat to very low and cook, uncovered, until the milk solids on the bottom are golden and the butter fat on the top is clear, about 45 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth into a small bowl. Transfer the clear liquid to a small jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
To make the sausage, place all the ingredients except the salt in a medium bowl, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended. Cook and taste a small sample, then add salt if needed. Form into 1-inch balls, place on a plate, cover, and set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use, or for up to overnight.
To make the rice, heat the butter in a small, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the cashews and cook, stirring, until beginning to turn golden. Add the raisins and rice and stir to coat with the butter. Add the water and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat until the water is barely shuddering. Cover the pot, set the timer for 22 minutes, and let the rice cook without lifting the lid. When the timer sounds, the water will have been absorbed and the rice will be tender. Remove from the heat and set aside to steam dry and finish cooking for 10 to 15 minutes. Fluff up the rice with a fork just before serving.
To prepare the collards, bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat. Add the collards and parboil until wilted and beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
To finish the dish, heat the 2 tablespoons spiced butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and sauté until browned all around and cooked through, about 15 minutes. Add the collards to the pan and continue cooking until they are tender, 6 to 7 minutes.
Transfer to a serving dish and serve right away, with the rice on the side.
CLEAR BUTTERS
Niter kibbeh
is basically ghee, the preferred cooking fat of India, but seasoned with spices and a bit of onion. Both
niter kibbeh
and ghee are versions of
clarified butter. They are drawn butters, meaning the milk solids have been extracted by gently melting butter to separate the fat from the solids, called the dross. The pure butter fat is poured off and the dross, left on the bottom, is discarded. The result is a sweeter, richer butter with a smoke point that is much higher than regular butter, so it doesn’t burn as readily. In addition, because these drawn butters are without uncooked milk solids that can spoil, they will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator, especially
niter kibbeh
and ghee, which are further condensed by lengthy simmering to evaporate all their natural water. They are a cinch to make, as illustrated in this
pan-African recipe
, and I always have the unseasoned, long-keeping version, ghee, on hand for wilting a mirepoix, cooking pancakes, shallow frying, or sautéing. A note: for making clarified butters, I use unsalted butter.
I dub my Italianate beef meatballs with a nugget of cheese in the center
polpette
, which in Italian means “round food”—as in meatball, fish ball, rice ball—because it is a fun word to say and it describes their jolly, amenable nature. They accommodate meatball needs from cocktail-size tidbits for dipping into
cherry tomato chutney
to large balls bouncing in a
hearty red pasta sauce
.
MAKES 2 POUNDS
⅓ cup
fresh bread crumbs
¼ cup milk
1½ pounds ground beef
1½ tablespoons finely chopped yellow or white onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
Scant ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg
½ cup shredded Fontina, provolone, or other melting cheese, shredded on the large holes of a box grater
Combine the bread crumbs and milk in a medium bowl and let soak for 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients except the cheese, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to overnight, to firm the meat and meld the flavors.
To form the meatballs, roll them into 1- to 2-inch balls, depending on how you are going to use them. Press an indentation into the center of each ball, tuck in ½ to 1 teaspoon or so of the cheese, and then press the meat mixture over the indentation, enclosing the cheese in the center.
Sauté, grill, or braise, or cook as directed in individual recipes. (The uncooked meatballs will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days; they do not freeze well.)
Whether the tomatoes are fresh or canned is a seasonal matter: in summer, choose fresh ones; in winter, use canned ones. Both make a delicious, rich sauce for braising meatballs. When using fresh tomatoes, I like to peel them and I don’t bother to seed them, but that is the cook’s choice, depending on time constraints and inclination. The herbs are also a matter of choice: fresh or dried basil (the most usual addition), marjoram, or tarragon all enhance the sauce with a mildly sweet herbal presence; oregano or bay add a more assertive flavor. Spaghetti is traditional for this everyday, home-style dish, but other shapes, such as bow ties, small rigatoni, or penne, will also capture and hold the sauce as the pasta is lifted from plate to mouth. For the meatballs, I like to use my
polpette
, because their cheese centers add an extra oomph to the dish. But you can also use meatballs fashioned from either sweet Italian or Tuscan sausage with good results.
SERVES 6 TO 8
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
1½ pounds
Beef Polpette with a Cheese Center
, or
Sweet Italian Sausage
or
Tuscan Sausage
, formed into 1½- to 2-inch balls
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 pounds tomatoes, peeled or not and chopped, or 6 cups diced canned tomatoes, with juices
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil, marjoram, tarragon, oregano, or bay, or 1 teaspoon dried of any of the herbs
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1½ pounds spaghetti or other dry pasta
¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
To make the sauce, heat the 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonreactive pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches to avoid crowding, sauté the meatballs until browned all around, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining meatballs, adding more oil to the pot if needed to prevent sticking. Set the meatballs aside.
Add the garlic to the oil remaining in the pot and sauté over medium-high heat until it is ever so lightly golden. Add the tomatoes and their juices, the herb, sugar, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Add the meatballs, decrease the heat to maintain a simmer, cover partially, and cook until the sauce is reduced and no longer raw tasting, about 1½ hours.
When the meatballs and sauce are almost done, cook the pasta al dente according to the package directions, drain briefly, and return it, still moist, to its cooking pot. Cover and set aside in a warm place while the sauce finishes cooking.
To serve, combine the pasta with the sauce and meatballs in a large bowl and toss gently to mix. Serve right away, with the Parmesan on the side.
Imam bayildi
, as this dish of Turkish origin is called in Bulgaria, Albania, and Greece, and its story have a special place in my cooking repertoire and in my heart. It was introduced to me by Susanna Hoffman, my longtime friend and sometimes cookbook coauthor, who is, among other things, an esteemed social anthropologist whose special field of endeavor is Greece.
The story of
imam bayildi
has many versions, but details aside, it is essentially a tale of love and household thrift. A bride new to the house of her new husband, an imam, came with a dowry of olive oil. But there was only a certain amount. And the imam loved eggplant above all other foods. In practice, because eggplant, as it cooks, is a great gulper of olive oil, and olive oil is the equivalent of kitchen gold, the dish was using up too much of the bride’s dowry. What to do? How to please the husband and keep the eggplant rich and unctuous without blowing the kitchen budget?
Susanna solved the dilemma by having the thoughtful bride coax the eggplant into softening with the addition of some water, thereby requiring less of the precious olive oil and with equally excellent results. Was the imam thrilled? Did he faint as the original story line suggests? We don’t know, but we presume the clever, money-minded bride kept her place and the imam was happy. In yet another, latter-day telling of the story, I call the beef and eggplant filling a sausage and the eggplant shells the casing, and
imam bayildi
winds up in a new sausage cookbook.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Sausage
2 small eggplants (about ¾ pound each)
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow or white onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
¾ pound ground beef
1½ tablespoons tomato paste
3 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup red wine
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or more if needed
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan or other hard cheese
To make the sausage, cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Scoop the pulp out of each eggplant half, leaving a ¼-inch-thick shell. Coarsely chop the pulp and sprinkle it with the salt. Set the pulp and shells aside separately.
In a large nonreactive sauté pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Crumble in the beef and cook, stirring to break up the clumps, until the meat is browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, oregano, wine, and eggplant pulp and decrease the heat to maintain a brisk simmer. Cook, stirring frequently and adding a little water when necessary to keep the mixture from sticking to the pan, until the eggplant collapses into a puree, the wine is no longer raw, and the mixture is almost dry, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the 2 tablespoons oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add as many eggplant shells as will fit without crowding and sauté, turning two or three times, until wilted all around, about 6 minutes. Transfer the shells, open sides up, to a baking dish in which all the shells will fit tightly packed. Repeat with the remaining shells, adding more oil if needed to prevent sticking.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Divide the sausage mixture evenly among the eggplant shells, filling them to the top. Pour water into the baking dish to reach ¼ inch up the sides of the shells.
Bake until the shells are soft and the filling is bubbling up, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the tops of the filled shells and continue baking until the cheese is melted.
Serve hot from the oven, at room temperature, or chilled.
