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Mild Italian Sausage with Fresh Basil, Fennel and Garlic – Small Batch Version

January 19, 2023

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.

This made-from-scratch Mild Italian Sausage is sweet with fresh basil and toasted fennel seed, and coriander. Since I left the restaurant and meat processing biz, I have not made sausage links at home because stuffing links is a messy process and requires more space than I had. I do, however, regularly make fresh bulk sausage, with some shortcuts (like buying already ground meat) in batches small enough for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer to handle. I consider this Mild Italian Sausage a kitchen staple and I use it in pasta sauces, soups, white beans, meatballs, and stuffed vegetables. I have yet to find a store-bought Italian Sausage that comes close to the flavor of this recipe.

This small batch version of this sausage formulation has been modified to be easy to make at home. If you have meat processing equipment (grinder, kitchen scale, meat mixers, sausage stuffer, ample fridge/freezer/prep space), and/or you hunt or have farm animals and a certain amount of meat trim that you want to use, I recommend this post: Mild Italian Sausage with Fresh Basil, Fennel and Garlic – Master Recipe. The Master Recipe is designed for scaling to whatever size batch you want to make.

I highly recommend using a kitchen scale and going by weight, however, I have provided volume measurements as well. Just be aware that these are approximate and can get way out of wack if you are scaling the recipe up or down.

I’ll run through the steps for making sausage in the recipe but if you are new to sausage making or would like more detailed instructions, read How To Make Sausage first.

The Best Mild Italian Sausage From Scratch – Small Batch Version (2lbs)

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Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 2 lbs 1x
Category: Charcuterie
Method: Sausage Making
Cuisine: Italian

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Description

A staple food in my kitchen used in pasta sauces, meatballs, braised white beans and grilled stuffed summer vegetables. This recipe has been scaled to 2 lbs for you, a perfect size for one batch of bulk sausage in a kitchen aid mixer (or other stand mixer).

Ingredients

Scale

2 lb (4 cups) Ground Pork (70% lean)

14 grams (2 t) salt

8 grams (2 t) sugar

5 grams (1 1/2 lg) garlic cloves

6 grams (3 t) whole fennel seed

4 grams (1 t) whole black peppercorns

6 grams (2 T) dried basil

3 grams (1/2 T) whole coriander seeds

2 sprigs fresh basil, stem removed and minced

1.2 oz (2 1/2 T) cold water

.4 oz (2 1/2 t) cold red wine vinegar

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Instructions

Place the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl if you are hand-mixing your sausage) in the fridge or freezer to cool it for at least 30 minutes.

Measure out the water and red wine vinegar into a small container and place in the fridge.

In a dry frying pan set over medium heat, add the fennel seeds, coriander seeds, and peppercorns and toast until fragrant. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, place in a spice grinder (or mortal with pestle) and grind into a fine powder.

Grate the garlic cloves on a Microplane over a small mixing bowl. Add to the bowl the toasted ground seeds, salt, sugar, and basil (fresh and dry).

Place the ground pork into the chilled mixing bowl. Sprinkle in the spice mixture. Set the mixing bowl into the stand mixing fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add the chilled liquids and continue mixing on medium speed for another 4 1/3 minutes.

When it is done the sausage meat will look tacky. You cannot really overmix it (unless it gets warm) but you can undermix it. If you are not sure, cook up a small patty in a frying pan to test the texture.

Equipment

| Kitchen Aid 6 Qt Stand Mixer |

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Mild Italian Sausage with Fresh Basil, Fennel and Garlic – Master Recipe

January 19, 2023

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.

This Italian Sausage recipe is mild and sweet with fennel and fresh basil, toasted coriander and peppercorns. I consider this a kitchen staple and use this sausage in pasta sauces, soups, braised white beans, meatballs and grilled stuffed summer vegetables. When this is made into links, it makes the best sausage sandwich with grilled peppers and onions.

This recipe is from my Charcuterie archives. In my years as a meat processor, I have made and sold tens of thousands of pounds of this sausage variety.

All my sausage Master Charcuterie Recipes are formulated by weight for 10 lb batches for easy scaling. For example, if you want to make 8.2 lbs of sausage because that’s how much pork trim you happen to have, simply multiply all ingredients by 0.82 and if you want to make 100 lbs of sausage, multiply all ingredients by 10. I highly recommend using a kitchen scale and going by weight, however, I have provided volume measurements as well. Just be aware that volume measurements are approximate and can get way out of wack if you are scaling the recipe up or down. The density of salt also varies by brand and can make a big difference in the final product. If you use a kitchen scale that measures grams, you will never go wrong.

If you are making sausage links and have meat processing equipment at home (grinder, mixer that can handle at least 5lbs at a time- not a Kitchen Aid, sausage stuffer, food bins, and ample refrigeration/freezer/prep space) then a 10lb batch is the right size to stock your freezer and justify the effort and mess of sausage making. If you do not have all of these things and are dabbling in meat processing, I recommend starting with the Small Batch Version of this recipe ( The Best Mild Italian Sausage From Scratch – Small Batch Version) which has been modified to be easy to make in a home kitchen with just a stand mixer and makes 2 lbs.

I’ll run through the steps for making sausage quickly in the recipe but if you are new to sausage making or would like more detailed instructions, I recommend reading How To Make Sausage first.

Mild Italian Sausage – 10 lb Master Recipe

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Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 1 1/2 hours
Total Time: 0 hours
Yield: 10 lbs 1x
Category: Charcuterie
Method: Sausage Making
Cuisine: Italian

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Ingredients

Scale

10 lb (5 quarts) Trimmed Pork Shoulder*

70 grams (10 t) salt

40 grams (10 t) sugar

26 grams (7 lg) garlic cloves

28 grams (5 T) whole fennel seed

18 grams (5 t) whole black peppercorns

29 grams (10 T) dried basil

13 grams (5 T) whole coriander seeds

1 bunch fresh basil, stem removed and minced

6 oz (3/4 cup) cold water

2 oz (1/4 cup) cold red wine vinegar

Sausage Casings (optional)

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Instructions

For a more detailed step-by-step, check out How To Make Sausage before making this recipe.

Place the removeable parts of your meat grinder and mixing into the fridge or freezer to cool it for at least 30 minutes.

Measure out the water and red wine vinegar into a small container and place it in the fridge.

Grate the garlic cloves on a Microplane over a medium mixing bowl. Add to the bowl the toasted ground seeds, salt, sugar, and basil (fresh and dry).

Reassemble the meat grinder with the chilled parts. Grind the meat through the medium die into a chilled mixing bowl.

Reassemble the meat mixer with the chilled parts. Transfer the ground meat and the spices to the meat mixer and begin mixing (about 30 seconds to 1 minute). Add the chilled liquids and continue mixing on medium speed for another 4 1/2 minutes (total of 5 minutes).

At this point, you can package the sausage up as bulk for patties or sauces, or you can stuff into casings for links.

Equipment

| Kitchener Heavy Duty Electric Meat Grinder |

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Notes

You can substitute some or all of the pork for boneless skinless chicken thighs for a leaner option. Just make sure to inspect the chicken pieces well for little bone/cartilage fragments.

Seafood Stew with lobster, calamari, shrimp and fish. Perfect for special occasions.

January 12, 2023

This seafood stew is rich and creamy and loaded with lobster, calamari, shrimp, and fish.

This Seafood Stew is a creamy and decadent, made-from-scratch bisque loaded with vegetables and a variety of seafood. When I was cooking at the restaurant, I would make a version of this soup every year as an appetizer course on the New Years’ Eve Prix Fixe Menu. I modeled this dish after a soup from my childhood, served regularly at Ipswich Seafood, a little fish market and grocer in my hometown that has the best homemade soups. As a teenager, I used to sneak out of school during lunch and head to Ipswich Shellfish for a bowl of this soup. Was it worth in-house suspension? Yes, it was.

I haven’t made this soup since I left the restaurant in 2020 but I’ve thought about it (and craved it) often. I just didn’t have the space in my home kitchen to make this recipe, but I’ve recently moved and upgraded kitchens and was very excited for the opportunity to make this for New Years. Most of the recipes on this blog are easy and straightforward and minimize dishes to wash. This recipe does not. It’s really a two-day process and requires a bit of prep space. Sure, you could do it all in one day, but it would be a long messy day in the kitchen! You will read through the recipe and be tempted to take shortcuts, to buy shelled and deveined shrimp and shelled lobster meat, to buy seafood stock from the soup aisle of the grocery store. Don’t do it. There is no store-bought seafood stock that comes anywhere close to this one. Trust me, it is worth the effort. This recipe uses every bit of the lobster and shrimp, including the shells and guts (aka tomalley and roe). You simply cannot achieve the same flavor without these parts so please, buy the crustaceans whole, and don’t take shortcuts with the seafood broth.

There are some shortcuts you can take, though. You can buy already prepped and cleaned squid. You can pour the broth through a coffee filter or muslin cloth and eliminate a day of “sediment settling” in the fridge.

There are lots of variations you can play around with. You could make this an all-Lobster Stew. A variation that I am particularly fond of. Simply triple the amount of lobster and omit all the other seafood. Or play around with different combinations of seafood. Just keep in mind the optimal cooking times for each type of seafood varies and put them in the pot accordingly. Squid (“Calamari”) will need to cook for 30-45 minutes or it will be tough. Octopus is the same and can cook for even longer. Use firm fish that won’t flake apart in the broth like salmon, mahi mahi, or sea bass. Scallops also work great. All raw bite-sized seafood (except calamari and octopus) should only be cooked for 2-3 minutes, just before serving. Already cooked seafood (lobster, cooked crab if using) should be added at the very end, just to warm it through.

Notes on Recipe Techniques

This recipe is all about techniques to extract the maximum amount of flavor from the seafood that you use and to cook each different type of seafood for the optimal amount of time.

To Cook a Live Lobster:

You can buy cooked lobsters from the seafood counter or frozen section of the store for this recipe, but if you live somewhere where live lobsters are available, that is definitely your best option. If you are buying r lobster, place 1 inch of water in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Humanely kill the lobster by either placing it in the freezer for about 10 minutes or driving a knife through its head, between the eyes. Andrew Zimmerman Cooks: How to Kill a Lobster is a good how-to video on dispatching lobsters by Andrew Zimmerman. Once the lobster is dead and the water is at a rapid boil, add the lobster to the pot and cover. Listen carefully for when it returns to a boil. Once boiling, set a timer and steam the lobster for 7 minutes per pound, 10 minutes for 1 1/2 pound lobsters. Run the lobster under cold water or plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking. You can cook up to 3-4 lobsters in a large pot (5 Gallon) but never try to cook more than that in one pot. Calculated the cooking time based on the average size of the lobsters in the pot, not the total poundage in the pot. For instance, a pot with two 1 1/2 lb lobsters should cook for 10 minutes 30 seconds after the boil returns (1 1/2 lbs x 7 minutes), not 21 minutes (3lbs x 7 minutes).

How To Clean a Whole Lobster

Have a medium bowl handy. Working over the bowl, remove the legs, claws, and tail from the body. Lobstery water will likely gush out when you are separating the bits and you will use this in the broth. Using a nutcracker or a hammer and cutting board, crack the shells and remove the meat. Reserve the meat and the shells in separate bowls.

Take the body and open it up, separating the shell from the underside where the legs connect. There will be some yellow/green/blackish stuff in the cavity and some red roe (eggs) if you are lucky. Use a spoon and scrape these guts into the bowl with a spoon. This may sound and look nasty but it is really delicious and the secret to the best bisque ever.

After removing the guts, pick out the meat from the body. There is actually quite a bit in there and most people waste it when eating lobsters. At the location where each leg connects to the lobster, there is a cavity filled with bite-sized pieces of lobster meat. You may need to break apart the cartilage-like elements that separate these pieces of meat in order to get to it, but you can easily do that with your hands- no special tools needed.

When you are done you should have 3 bowls, one with lobster juices, one with meat, and one with shell (including the little legs and body scraps).

Use this same technique for crab.

To Flambé:

If catching something on fire in your kitchen makes you nervous, you can omit this step and simply deglaze the pot with brandy or sherry.

If you want to try this technique out, make sure there is ample space above the stove (without kitchen towels hanging or kitchen cabinets that could catch fire). Use a long-handle grill lighter or light a long wooden skewer on fire and then touch the flame to the booze in the pot. If you have a powerful commercial-grade gas stove, you may be able to just give the pan a little shake and catch it on fire from the burner flames. But if you are using an electric, induction, or average residential gas stove you will need to manually ignite the booze. Brandy will flame up better and last longer than sherry. The booze will pool in the lobster shells and curves of the onion pieces. Those are good places to light. You will want to light the alcohol as soon as you pour it into the pan before it is diluted by any liquid in the pan or the alcohol cooks away so make sure you have everything nearby and ready before you add it. It’s always a good idea to keep a tight-fitting lid nearby in case anything gets out of hand and you need to cover and extinguish the flames. You’ll be using the lid in the next step anyway. All that being said, this is a small amount of alcohol, and it won’t flame up very high or last more than a couple of seconds.

How to Cleaning Calamari (squid)

You can usually buy cleaned squid, already cut into rings, at the store. However, with supply chain issues, when I went to make this soup, I could only find blocks of frozen, whole, uncleaned squid at the grocery store. I didn’t mind because I knew what to do with them after years in commercial kitchens but I was surprised that the store would sell them in that form because it is definitely not intuitive for the average shopper. In case you find yourself in the same situation, here is how to prepare a whole calamari:

1- remove the head/tentacles from the body.

2- Squeeze between the eyes with a forward (towards tentacle) motion. With the other hand, place your fingers inside the tentacles to catch the “beak” that will come out.

3- Cut right in front of the eyes, separating the tentacles from all the guts that came out with the head. In these guts, you will find the little ink sac. If you are really ambitious, you can very carefully set the ink sacs aside for squid ink risotto or homemade squid ink pasta.

4- Squeeze the remaining guts out of the body. This will be the eggs, if present, and the swim blatter. Also remove the piece of cartilage, aka “the quill,” that runs the long way up the body and helps the squid maintain its shape in the water.

5- Next remove the fins and with them the purplish skin that covers the body. Cut the now all-white body into rings.

To Cook Calamari:

For tender calamari, you can either cook calamari low and slow or quickly and for just a few seconds. Anything in the middle will be tough and chewy. For this soup, I use the low and slow methods for tender calamari. It needs to cook for a total time of 30-45 minutes.

Seafood Stew

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Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 3 hours
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
Yield: 2 quarts 1x
Category: Soup
Method: Simmer
Cuisine: French

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Description

This hearty stew is loaded with a variety of fresh seafood and vegetables and served in a rich made-from-scratch bisque. This is not an easy or mess-free recipe but it is 100% worth the effort especially if you enjoy weekend-long kitchen projects. This recipe makes about 2 quarts and serves 4 as a meal and 8 as an appetizer/light meal.

Ingredients

Scale

For Day 1 Prep:

1 1/2 lbs head-on shrimp, peeled and deveined and cut into bite-sized pieces, with shells and heads set aside

1 1/2 lb whole cooked lobster, meat removed with body and shells set aside

1 small onion, quartered

2 medium carrots, peeled and broken into large pieces

1/3 cup brandy or sherry

6 cups water/ reserved lobster juices

1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste if needed)

pinch of saffron (optional)

1 Tablespoon tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon paprika

For the Stew (Day 2)

3 celery stalks

1/3 cup room temperature butter

1/3 cup flour

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 lb whole squid, cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces

12 oz firm (not flakey) fish fillet, diced into bite-sized pieces about 1/2 inch

3/4 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

3/4 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch peices

2–3 Tablespoons of neutral oil for sauteing

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Instructions

Day 1, Prep the Seafood Broth

In a large deep frying pan or brazier, add 1 T oil or butter, the quartered onion, and large carrot pieces and begin to sauté over high heat until the onions are fragrant about 5 minutes.

Add the lobster and shrimp shells and sauté for another 5 minutes or until the shrimp shells turn pink and any water in the pot is gone.

Add the brandy (or sherry) and light the pot on fire to flambé (see note). When the flames subside, add the water, salt, spices, and tomato paste and bring the pan up to a boil. Reduce to the heat, cover, and simmer for about 1 hour.

Remove the broth from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve and transfer it to a storage container (ideally a tall and narrow container instead of a wide and flat one). Cool this broth to room temperature and then transfer it to the refrigerator overnight.

Day 2, Make the Stew

If you haven’t already done so, dice the carrots, potatoes, celery, fish, shrimp, and calamari.

Make a “buerre manie” (an uncooked roux that will be used to thicken the stew) by stirring together the room-temperature butter and the flour until evenly incorporated. Set aside for later.

Add 1 Tablespoon of oil to a 4-6 quart soup pot and heat over medium-low heat. Add the calamari (see note) and sauté for about 15 minutes. Then add the carrots, celery, and potato and sauté over medium-low heat for another 10 minutes. Add the broth and bring the soup up to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer.

When the vegetables are just tender, probably another 5-10 minutes after the broth comes to a boil, add the buerre manie tablespoon by tablespoon, stirring briskly to dissolve and thicken the soup. Add the heavy cream and bring the pot of soup back to a boil. Taste the broth and add salt and pepper if needed. Then add the remaining raw seafood and cook for 2-3 minutes or until completely opaque. Lastly, stir in the cooked lobster meat. Serve and enjoy.

Notes

To Cook a Live Lobster:

To Clean the Lobster:

Have a medium bowl handy. Working over the bowl, remove the legs, claws and tail from the body. Lobstery water will likely gush out when you are separating the bits and you will use this in the broth. Using a nut cracker or a hammer and cutting board, crack the shells and remove the meat. Set the meat aside.

Take the body and open it up, separating the shell from the underside where the legs connected. There will be some yellow/green/blackish stuff in the cavity and some red roe (eggs) if you are lucky. Use a spoon and scrape these guts into the bowl with a spoon. This may sound and look nasty but it is really delicious and it is the secret to the best bisque ever.

After removing the guts, pick out the meat from the body. There is actually quite a bit in there and most people waste it when eating lobsters. At the location where each leg connects to the lobster there is a cavity filled with bite-sized pieces of lobster meat. You may need to break apart the cartilage-like pieces that separate these pieces of meat in order to to get to it but you can easily do that with your hands.

When you are done you should have 3 bowls, one with lobster juices, one with meat, and one with shell (including the little legs and body scraps).

Use this same technique for crab.

To Flambé:

If catching something on fire in your kitchen makes you nervous, you can omit this step and simply deglaze the pot with brandy or sherry.

Cooking Calamari

For tender calamari, you can either cook calamari low and slow or quickly for just a few seconds. Anything in the middle will be tough and chewy. For this soup, I use the low-and-slow method for tender calamari. It needs to cook for a total time of 30-45 minutes.

Tasty Little Bites for Parties: Hor d’oeuvres and Canapés

July 28, 2022

Passable Appetizers for your next party.

It’s July. In my past, pre-pandemic life, I would be about halfway through a grueling wedding season. Wrapping and stacking dozens of hotel pans in plastic wrap, carefully loading vans full of fragile and spillable materials to haul on curvey Foothill roads, sometimes to remote locations, and working 14-hour days on my feet lifting thousands of pounds cumulatively over the course of the day. Now, retired from it all, I’m 1 week into eating burgers, playing board games, and reading books as I watch afternoon storms roll through the Bitterroot Valley. It is wild to think how much has changed in a couple of years.

I’m not going to lie, there is a lot I do not miss about catering and the restaurant industry. Being able to spend summer weekends and holidays and birthdays with my kids is something I would not give up again. That being said, there is something special and even meditative about working with your hands and using food as a medium to make little works of art that bring joy to an occasion and then disappear. An artform epitomized by hor d’oeuvres and canapes – the showiest, most playful, and most creative “bites” in the business.

Over the decade that I catered Weddings, Winemaker Dinners, and Showers I created dozens and dozens of different types canapés and hor d’oeuvres. Sometimes I made them up on the fly with slices of baguette, and whatever leftovers I had in the kitchen as a thank you (or I’m sorry) to one of the diners at the restaurant. Sometimes I created them special for a client with very specific criteria, usually gleaned off of Pinterest (caterers love Pinterest😆).

Whether you are in the business and looking for ideas for your next catering quote, planning party food DIY at your home, or feeding little eaters who love fun and colorful bites that fit perfectly in their little hands, having a repertoire of canapés up your sleeve will come in handy a hundred times over. I’ll be adding links to my favorite recipes for party appetizers to this post over time so you will have them all in one place.

Canapés, Hor d’oeuvres and “Bites”. What’s the difference.

Technically, canapés are little bites composed of a starchy base layer, usually bread, and toppings. Hor d’oeuvres (pronounced “or-dervs”), on the other hand, are any other small appetizers served either plated, stationary, or passed. I use these terms interchangeably, but I use canapés more because… it’s easier to spell. I also use the term “bites,” and when I do I am usually referring to a single unit/ portion. For instance, a 3-hour cocktail party with no meal served would require about 15-18 “bites” per person, made up of 1-2 each of 10-12 different canapés/appetizers. A 3-hour party with a meal served, 4-6 “bites” per person, 3-6 different canapés.

Passable Party Appetizers, Canapés and Hor d’oeuvres

Sweet and Savory Stuffed Figs. Perfect for summer and fall parties.

So Many Ways to Stuff a Fig!

July 28, 2022

A delicious and versatile party appetizer for Summer and Fall. Shown above: Fig stuffed with blue cheese, honey, and walnut (left), with blue cheese and pistachio (right)

Stuffed Figs are one of my favorite and most versatile appetizer dishes during the late summer and early fall. There are so many ways to stuff a fig. Stuffed figs can be served warm, grilled, roasted, or at room temperature. They can be served whole, cut open like a flower (shown above), or halved with the “stuffing” on top.

Figs are very sweet. Various fig varieties produce different notes ranging from nutty, honey, and berry to floral. This fruit wants to be balanced out with salty, bitter, and acidic ingredients like cured meats, nuts, pungent and tart cheeses, vinegar reductions, gastriques, and honey. Figs also make excellent desserts paired with cream, honey, and nuts.

Types of Figs

Any ripe fig works for stuffing. Some of my favorite of the most common varieties common in the US are as follows:

Green Figs

Calimyrna Figs – Bright green figs with a bright pink interior. Sweet. Visually striking. Great with blue cheese and goat cheese. Nutty flavor.

Kadota – Large bright green figs with a bright pink to honey-colored interior. These figs are less sweet than some other varieties. Their large size and sometimes hollowed-out interior lend themselves to cutting them in half and then stuffing.

Purple Figs

Mission Figs – Dark purple exterior and bright pink interior. Mission figs are very sweet. When roasted or grilled, their exterior takes on a really nice char and earthly flavor that contrasts with the sweet interior.

Black Turkey Figs – These are larger, homelier, and less sweet than other figs. Great for roasting or grilling and drizzling with honey.

Violette de Bordeaux (Negronne)– One of the most cold-tolerant varieties of fig. Violette de Bourdeaux tends to be a small to medium-sized fig, perfect for stuffing whole, with very dark skin and a bright red, very rich, berry-like sweet interior.

Stuffed Figs

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Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 24 bites 1x
Category: Appetizer
Method: Cold Prep
Cuisine: French
Diet: Gluten Free

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Description

Stuffed figs can be prepared as an appetizer or dessert. These tasty bites are easy, beautiful, and fun for parties in the late summer and fall.

Ingredients

Scale

For 2 dozen Stuffed Fig “Bites”

24 small-medium figs with an x cut on the stem end of the fig to create a cavity

(or 12 large figs cut in half lengthwise)

Select a Stuffing Variation Below (or make up your own)

Blue Cheese, Pistachio, and Honey (shown above)

1–1 1/2 cups of room temperature blue cheese

1/2 cup chopped shelled and blanched pistachio (or sub walnuts)

Drizzle of honey

Milk and Honey (dessert or sweet appetizer) – serve chilled/room temp

1–1 1/2 cups mascarpone

honey for drizzling

1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts (or sub almond, walnut, pecan, or pistachio)

Bacon and Goat Cheese

1–1 1/2 cups softened goat cheese

1/2 cup bacon lardons*

balsamic reduction (either store-bought or home-made)**

Proscuitto and Summer Herbs

1–1 1/2 cups Ricotta Cheese

6–8 thin slices (4–6 ounces) of prosciutto torn into 3-4 pieces each for 24 strips in total

12 large leaves Basil and Mint (combined) and cut “chiffonade” ***

Honey to drizzle (and or balsamic reduction)

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Instructions

prepare your figs

Select your fig variety. Look for ripe but still firm figs with unbroken and unshrivelled skin.

If the figs are large, slice them half lengthwise. If they are small to medium cut an x on the top where the stem is and open up to create a cavity for your stuffing.

Place 1/2-1 Tablespoon of soft cheese filling in the cavity of the fig or on top of the fig half.

If Heating (optional for most of these variations): Place in the oven, under the broiler, or on a grill at 425-450 F for about 4-5 minutes. Too long and the fig will become very soft and will need to be eaten with a fork and knife, maybe served over a bed of arugula😉. If you would like to be able to eat the figs with your fingers as an appetizer or dessert, keep the cooking hot and short.

On top of the cheese filling add cured meat, chopped nuts, and/or herbs if using.

Drizzle or place a drop of sauce over the top of each fig. Alternatively, you may drizzle sauce on the platter first before placing the stuffed figs on top – which looks nice…. at least until the first fig is removed.

Notes

* To Make Bacon Lardons: Cut your thick bacon slices lengthwise down the middle and then cross-wise into strips about 1/4 inch thick. Ideally, your using your own dry-cured slab bacon, and can cut the lardons a little thicker than sliced bacon. Fry the bacon lardons until crispy, set aside on a paper towel to drain, and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate if not using right away. These are great for all sorts of dishes – salads, soup garnishes, loaded baked potatoes, etc.

** To Make Balsamic Reduction (or any Vinegar Reduction): Place 2 cups into the smallest saucepan you have in your house (no bigger than 2 quarts). Make a mental mark of where the balsamic comes up to in the pan. Place over the burner and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and simmer until the vinegar has reduced to 1/4 of its original volume. You will need to watch this closely. It will burn and taste like tart carbon if you are not careful. You can check this by pouring it into a measuring cup (after it has cooled down a bit). When it is down it should coat the back of the spoon and be about 1/2 a cup. It will continue to thicken as it cools.

*** “Chiffonade” pronounced “SHif-a-nad” or “Shif-a-nād” is, according to the Oxford Language Dictionary, “a preparation of finely cut leaf vegetables used as a garnish for soup.” It can actually be used as a garnish for a lot of things – including these stuffed figs. To prepare “chiffonade”, stack the leaves neatly, roll them up into a tight log, and then slice the log cross-wise as thinly as humanly possible into little threads…or ribbons, depending on your knife skills.

Beautiful Radish and Butter Bites

July 5, 2022

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.

Radish served with butter and salt is a classic french snack. It’s one of those things that is so simple that a recipe is hardly needed. The most important thing is the quality of the ingredients. Use the best quality sweet (unsalted butter), the best salt (I love Maldon Flake Sea Salt for this), and the freshest radishes (Multi-colored “Easter Egg Radishes” are my favorite followed by “French Breakfast Radish”, no bigger than a golf ball). Avoid split or pithy radishes.

If you were going casual, you would serve the radishes on a plate with a slab of room temperature butter and a small pile of salt. But we’re entertaining with this recipe so we’re going to fancy them up. The ingredient cost per “bite” for this dish is about $0.20 or less.

Radish and Butter Bites

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Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 24 1x
Category: Appetizer
Method: Cold Prep
Cuisine: French
Diet: Gluten Free

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Description

These “Radish and Butter Bites” are a variation of crudité that is perfect for formal events and impressing your guests without filling them up too much before the main course.

Ingredients

Scale

12 radishes

1/2 lb room temperature sweet butter (you will have some leftover)

Maldon Salt for Sprinkling

Microgreens or chive, parsley, or tarragon sprigs (optional)

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Instructions

Prep

Several hours before you plan to assemble and serve these Radish and Butter Bites, set the butter out to warm and soften.

Trim the radishes, snipping the root end and cutting off the greens. Cut the radishes in half lengthwise. Slide the round, uncut, side of the radish over a mandolin or the slicer blade of your food processor (about 1/16th” or 1 mm thick). This will help them stand without rolling around. Reserve the colorful circles that are left for garnishing.

Fit a pastry/piping bag with a small star tip. Load the butter into the pastry bag. You will only need about 4 tablespoons of butter for 2 dozen “bites” but you need to fill the bag enough to squeeze through the nozzle, expect to have some left over.

At this point, you can wrap and refrigerate the radishes and little round slices until ready to assemble and serve. Keep butter at room temperature.

To Assemble

Pipe approx 1/2 t of butter per radish half.

Sprinkle each half-radish with a couple flakes of Maldon Salt.

Stand the radish round up in the butter.

Sprinkle with microgreens and fresh herbs if using.

Serve.

Variations

Some variations to try:

1) Whip the butter so it is nice and airy.

2) Mix into the butter a little bit of anchovy paste or roasted garlic paste.

3) Substitute salted butter for the unsalted butter and reduce/omit the salt.

4) Use the small white tokyo turnips in place of radish or mixed in with the radish.

Equipment

| Disposable Piping Bags |

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Notes

You cannot refrigerate these once they have been piped with butter because the butter will become hard. The soft creaminess of the butter is an important part of the dish.

If you assemble and salt these ahead of time, the salt will cause the radish to weep water and the butter may slide right off. Salt can also wilt the microgreens.

These should be assembled right before you plan to serve them. Without microgreens, in a shady place, these radishes will look and taste great for about 1-2 hours. With microgreens, that time is reduced to about 30 minutes – less if it’s hot out.

Simple, “Healthy-ish” Peach-Pecan Tart Recipe

June 1, 2022

Peaches are one of those things, like tomatoes, that are simply not worth eating out of season. A ripe peach is a thing of beauty and I wait all year for early-mid summer when local peaches are sweet and juicy. Enjoy this tart for dessert, perhaps with some late harvest Reisling. This tart is lightly sweetened and a great choice for breakfast or a midday snack.

Simple, Healthy-ish Peach-Pecan Tart Recipe

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Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: 30
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: Dessert
Method: Baking
Cuisine: French
Diet: Vegetarian

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Ingredients

Scale

5 small-medium peaches

10 inch square of puff pastry (or pie dough)

1 cup pecans

1 egg, separated

1 teaspoon sugar (see note below)

1 Tablespoon Honey

1 Tablespoon Butter

Demerara sugar for sprinkling (or sub regular sugar)

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Instructions

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a food processor, add the pecans, egg whites, and sugar and pulse until paste-like. Set aside.

Slice the peaches. Cut the peaches in half around the seed, twist the halves to separate from the seed. If the peach pits are not cooperating, slice the halves away from the pit. Place flat side down on the cutting board and slice. Keep the sliced halves together on the cutting – this will make it easier to arrange the slices nicely.

Lay the puff pastry out on the prepared sheet pan. Spread the pecan paste, leaving a 1 inch boarder around the perimeter. Fan out the peach slices and lay them on top of the pecan paste. Completely cover the paste layer. It’s ok to overlap the peaches somewhat.

Fold the edges up and over to contain the tart filling.

In a microwave-safe cup, melt the butter and honey together. Stir. Drizzle this mixture over the peaches. You may want to use a pastry brush to evenly distribute.

Add about 1 tablespoon of water to the egg yolk and whisk with a fork. Use a pastry brush to apply the yolk mixture to the visible puff pastry. Sprinkle the puff pastry and tart all over with demerara sugar.

Bake the tart for 20-30 minutes or until the bottom of the pastry is golden brown. The filling will look wet when it first comes out of the oven. Allow the tart to cool for 10-15 minutes. The filling will thicken so that it is sliceable. Enjoy warm or at room temperature with whip cream or sweetened creme fraiche (optional).

Notes

This recipe makes a slightly sweetened pastry. If you prefer sweeter, add 1-2 teaspoons additional sugar to the pecan paste.

Simple Smoked Asparagus with the Easiest Hollandaise Sauce

May 16, 2022

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.

I love smoking vegetables on my Traeger alongside a big piece of meat that’s been going all day. Tender, smoked asparagus is a Spring-time treat. The tips of the asparagus really absorb the smoke flavor and the stems become creamy and sweet with slow cooking. Served with lemony hollandaise sauce and smoked chicken or pork loin, this is a simple and delicious meal and perfect for special occasions when you do want to fuss too much.

Hollandaise sauce is one of my favorite sauces. It reminds me of being a kid in the 90’s and having artichokes at home, served with a side of Knorr Hollandaise from the powder packets. This was a special meal as artichokes were pretty foreign in New England at that time. Not surprisingly, home-made hollandaise made with just a few simple ingredients – butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and spices, tastes better than the processed powdered variety. This sauce is perfect for eggs benedicts, artichokes, chicken, fish, pork, broccoli, and asparagus.

Making hollandaise the traditional way is a somewhat nerve-racking and difficult process, even for experienced cooks. Hollandaise, and its cousin aioli, were two things I would always delegate out to the cook who could focus on that one singular task until it was finished. Whisking egg yolks and lemon juice in a double boiler with one hand while very, very (painfully) slowly adding hot butter, a couple of drops at a time with the other hand can be a challenge, especially when you have a lot of other projects going on simultaneously. In a busy kitchen, it is the equivalent of rubbing your belly while patting your head and balancing a tray full of dishes on one raised knee while standing. It takes total concentration. If the butter is added too quickly the sauce will break and then the best you can do is to try to beat it into submission while adding water which thins it out, beyond what is ideal. Luckily for us, there is an easier and more forgiving method: using an emersion blender (or standard blender or food processor). This is one of those recipes and techniques that you’ll want to memorize and keep up your sleeve.

Smoked Asparagus with the “Easiest Hollandaise Sauce” recipe

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Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: Side Dish
Method: smoker
Cuisine: French
Diet: Gluten Free

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Ingredients

Scale

For the Asparagus

1 lb fresh asaparagus

Olive oil to coat

Salt and Pepper to taste

Hollandaise Sauce Recipe

3 egg yolks

10 Tablespoons salted butter, melted in the microwave and still hot

pinch of sugar

pinch of fresh ground pepper

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 dash Tobasco

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Instructions

Preheat smoker to 225 F.

Rinse and dry the asparagus and trim off woody ends.

Toss the asparagus with oil, salt, and pepper, and place in a grill basket or on a sheet of tin foil with holes poked through it on the grate of the smoker.

Smoke the asparagus for about 1 hour or until tender, stirring once halfway through the cooking process.

10 minutes before the asparagus is slated to come off the smoker, measure out 10 Tablespoons of butter into a microwave safe liquid measuring cup. Cook 1 minute at a time in the microwave until melted and very hot, careful though, not to boil away all the water content of the butter.

Meanwhile, separate the egg yolks from the whites. Discard or reserve the whites for another use. Place the yolks in the blender cup for an emersion blender. Add the lemon juice, dijon, Tobasco, sugar, and pepper. Blend this mixture for 30-60 seconds. While the emersion/hand blender is going, add a couple of drops of butter. Move the blender head up and down to incorporate the butter. Add a couple more drops and repeat. Then add the rest of the butter in a slow and steady stream, moving the blender up and down as needed. You can also use a small food processor or a standard blender for this as well.

Keep the sauce in a warm place until ready to use it.

Remove the asparagus from the grill. Drizzle the hollandaise over it and serve. You could also serve the hollandaise from a gravy boat at the table.

Hollandaise is best enjoyed right after it is made. You can keep it warm on the stove in a double boiler for 30 minutes or so. In theory you can reheat it (very very gently), maybe whisking in a little hot water if needed, but it is just never the same the next day.

Equipment

| Traeger Smoker and Grill |

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Kitchen Aid Emersion Blender

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Notes

TROUBLE SHOOTING

You shouldn’t need these tips with this method but they are good to know and also work for aioli:

If the sauce is too thick- add water, a little bit at a at a time while blending/whisking

If the sauce is too thin- keep blending for 30-60 seconds. This will heat up the egg yolks and help with thickening. If this doesn’t thicken it up, you can transfer hollandaise to a heavy bottom pan over low heat and gently warm while stirring constantly. As soon as it begins to thicken, remove it from the burner and continue stirring/whisking.

If the sauce breaks – add water a little water at a time while whisking/blending. This will also thin it. But a thin sauce is better than a broken sauce.

Country Pâté with Pistachio and Duck Confit (Terrine de Campagne) Recipe

April 28, 2022

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.

Passed Canapes – Country Pâté with Pistachio and Duck Confit, microgreens, whole grain mustard, sliced cornichon.

This recipe is way overdue. I have received tons of requests over the years for this recipe, especially after I left the Charcuterie during the pandemic and it was no longer available for sale. This is a minimally livery rustic country-style pâté. It is delicious on warm crusty bread with mustard and cornichons. A sandwich with this pâté, mayo, dijon, sliced tomato, raw onions, hard-boiled eggs, and salad greens is one of my all-time favorite sandwiches. This can be dressed up for special occasions, little canapes served on slices of baguette and passed around at a party, or treated as an everyday staple. In my house, this pâté is as common as sliced deli meat.

Yes, it’s a bit of a project to make. But for many of us Home Cooks, big kitchen projects are a therapeutic activity. It’s definitely worth making a large batch of this and freezing it for later. You use the “x2, x3” function on the recipe card to scale this recipe to 2 or 3 loaf pans.

I have also posted by Master Recipe for Terrine De Campagne. This recipe is meant to be customized and scaled to large or random quantities (for example 6.5 lbs of various trim from the freezer). For the home kitchen, I highly recommend sticking to pâté batches that use 3lbs of meat or less. Larger batches can be difficult to manage in most home kitchens unless you have already invested in meat processing equipment and have a spare project refrigerator that would provide sufficient space for cooling this product down in a timely manner.

About the Ingredients

Some of the ingredients are hard to find but don’t worry, they can be omitted or substituted.

Caul fat is the lacey fat membrane that surrounds the internal organs of cows, sheep, pigs, deer and elk. It can be omitted and the pâté can be wrapped with bacon slices or professional grade plastic wrap.

Duck confit can be made ahead of time, or, depending on where you live, you may be able to buy 1-2 legs at a gourmet grocery store. If you cannot find or make it, you can simply use diced ham or omit it altogether. You’ll still have a great product.

Shelled Pistachios are now pretty easy to find at the grocery store but they are usually roasted. Raw or blanched pistachios are the best if you can find them. The bright green color adds a visual accent to the pâté. However, roasted pistachios add a nice toasty flavor and will definitely work.

Country Pâté with Pistachio and Duck Confit (Terrine de Campagne) Recipe

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Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 1 hour (appox)
Total Time: 48 hours
Yield: 1 loaf pan 1x
Category: Charcuterie
Method: Baking
Cuisine: French

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Ingredients

Scale

1 1/2 lbs pork

2 1/2 ounces (.15 lbs) bacon

4 ounces (.25 lbs) liver

milk to cover livers

25 grams onion

1/2 cup chopped herbs (parsley, chives, sage, thyme and/or tarragon)

18 grams garlic

15 grams salt (2 1/2 Tablespoons)

1.4 grams (scant 1/4 teaspoon) curing salt #1

3 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) ground black pepper

2 grams (1 teaspoon) pâté spice (see note)

1 egg

1 1/2 T flour

1 1/2 T brandy

.4 (scant 1/2 cup) cups cream

65 grams (1/2 cup) shelled pistachio (preferably raw or blanched)

1/2–1 cup duck confit pieces chopped (1 duck leg or less)

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Instructions

Pâté Prep

Organize your materials and make sure you have a clean sanitized surface and equipment. You will need:

4-5 mixing bowls (1-2 large, 3 medium)
Cutting board
knife
measuring cups and spoons
Spatulas/ wooden spoons
Terrine dishes (8 quart capacity/1 hotel pan for every 10lbs of meat)
Parchment
Plastic Wrap
Tin Foil
Probe thermometer
Whisk
Meat Grinder (optional)
Meat Mixer (optional)
Gloves (optional but nice)
Kitchen Scale
Weights for terrine (see instructions)
Clean prep space
Enough refrigerator space to fit terrines and allow for air circulation

The night before making this terrine, soak the liver in milk to cover them.

The next morning, drain, rinse and dry the livers. Trim them of any unsightly spots.

In a bowl, combine all the dry spices. Mix well. Add the meat, bacon, liver, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs. Let this mixture sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight. NOTE: If you are using ground meat, everything else should be minced. If you are grinding your own mixture, you can leave these things coarsely chopped and grind everything up together.

In another bowl, combine the eggs, cream, b,randy and flour. Whisk until all lumps are gone. Refrigerate until ready to mix with the meat mixture. This is your “Panade”

In another bowl, combine your garnishes.

In another bowl, place your caul. You may find it helpful to soak this in water to make it easier to pull apart without ripping.

Grind the meat mixture (optional step)

If you are using ground meat, you can skip this step and save yourselves some time and dishes. However, grinding your own mixture gives you more control over the final texture of the product and is ideal if you are using your own game or farm-raised meat. I like to grind my own because I like some of the mixture to be ground fine and some to be coarser. I run everything through the medium or large die once and then I put about half the mixture back through for a second time. You could also switch between the coarse and medium die or the medium and fine die to achieve the same effect (but then you’d lose some time and end up with more dishes).

If grinding your own meat, put the auger, the die, and the tray of the grinder into the freezer or refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you plan to start grinding.

Assemble the cold grinder pieces with a mixing bowl set up to catch the ground meat.

Grind the meat mixture into the mixing bowl.

Mix the forcemeat

Add the panade to the meat mixture. Mix the meat and panade together until it is completely incorporated and the meat mixture begins to look tacky. This takes about 5 minutes. You can do this by hand for amounts less than 5 lbs, or use your stand mixer with a paddle attachment on low-medium (up to about 2lbs).

Fold in the garnishes

Once the forcemeat is mixed, fold in the chopped pistachio and duck confit.

Spray the loaf pan with cooking spray. Line the dish with caul so that it overhangs the loaf pan enough to fold over and cover the top of the terrine when filled.

Fill the terrine with the forcemeat. Try to avoid air bubbles. I do this by spooning in a little bit at a time and pushing it down in the dish. Then add more and layer it up to the top. Fold over the overhanging caul. Cover with a layer of parchment paper followed by a layer of tin foil.

Bake at 300 F until a probe thermometer inserted into the middle of the pâté reads 140 F (if no poultry or poultry liver) or 155 F if using poultry (it will continue to cook after it comes out of the oven).

When the thermometer goes off, slowly pull the probe out, pausing to read the temp on its way up. Usually, the probe settles to the bottom of the loaf which is the hottest part. The middle will be less done and the top even less. Make sure the coolest part of the loaf (the top half) is reading 140 or 155 F.

Remove the loaf(s) from the oven. Keep covered for another 10 minutes. Remove the cover and let it cool to room temp over a period of 1-2 hours (if you have a cold and clean garage, you can move it there to speed the cooling process).

Wrap the terrine completely with plastic wrap, all the way around the terrine dish (aka “hotel wrap”). Weight the terrine down. You can do this by cutting out a piece of cardboard to fit on top of the terrine and then add full cans from the pantry on top, or you can take another similar-sized loaf pan and fill it halfway with ice water and place that on top. Refrigerate the weighted terrine for 12-24 hours. See note below for important food safety info.

Portion and Serve Terrine

Invert the terrine onto a cutting board and slice it into portions. At this point, you can serve it or vacuum seal/wrap in several layers of plastic wrap and freeze it. Vacuum sealed, this product will last 6 months or more in the freezer. Wrapped in plastic wrap, 2-4 months.

Country Pâté with Pistachio and Duck Confit, portioned and ready to vacuum seal.

Equipment

| Kitchen Aid 6 Qt Stand Mixer |

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| Pyrex Mixing Bowl Set |

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| Kitchener Heavy Duty Electric Meat Grinder |

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Notes

1) IMPORTANT FOOD SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS:

If you are using the curing salt, you have 15 hours to get your terrine cooled down from 140 F – 41 F or below. If you are NOT using the Curing Salt, you have only 4 hours to get your terrine from 140-41 F. After that amount of time, botulism may become a risk. If you are making a 2-quart loaf pan of pâté, this is pretty easy to achieve without much effort. However, if you are making a larger batch using half or full-size hotel pans and placing it in a tightly packed refrigerator, you would be surprised how long food can stay above 41 F and in the “danger zone”. Do not attempt to make large batches without first having plenty of fridge space (like an extra empty fridge for projects like I have) and plenty of ice. You will want to weigh the terrines down with ice water to accelerate the cooling process.

2) Kara’s Pâté Spice

25 grams (1 2/3 T) ground white or black pepper
12 grams (2 1/2 t) ground nutmeg
12 grams (2 1/2 t) ground ginger
2 grams (1/2 t)ground cloves
10 grams (2 t) of ground coriander

If you want to use a pre-made spice blend instead, look for “Savory Quatre Épices”

Soups for Spring eBook Available Now

April 18, 2022

Image of eBook cover with bright green soup on black background. — A beautiful 54 page eBook with over a dozen seasonal recipes plus tips and tricks for building flavors and taking shortcuts.

A beautiful 54 page eBook with over a dozen seasonal recipes plus tips and tricks for building flavors and taking shortcuts.

Hi Readers,

I have been working on putting together this little book for a while and am excited to announce that it is now available here. This book includes over a dozen recipes and all my spring favorites along with tips and tricks for building flavors. Many of the soups in this book were popular recipes served at The Farm Table during my years there as Executive Chef/owner. Some are just favorites of mine, like “Avgolemono”, or my go-to get-well recipe “French Garlic Soup.” I hope you enjoy them.

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