Disaster Ensues!

I took tonight's recipe from the Top Chef Cookbook. I had been looking forward to Sea Bass, Scallop and Shrimp Sausage with Jicama Slaw, Sweet Chili Glaze and Asian Chimichurri all day. Things did not turn out the way I had planned, unfortunately! Let's take a look at where things went wrong!

Warning: Once things went downhill, the camera got pushed to the side, so I apologize!


The dinner started out like any other...with a mise en place. The link for the recipe can be found above so I'll give you a run down of the exact ingredient measurements:

For the Sausage:

1 pound Corvina or any other sea bass fillet, cut into 1-inch pieces (I used cod, actually)

1/2 pound of black tiger shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 pound scallops

1 garlic clove, minced

One 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced

4 scallions, finely chopped

1 bunch fresh cilantro, stemmed and chopped (I used parsley because Matt hates cilantro)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons soy sauce

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

I put the fish, shrimp and scallops into my food processor and pulsed until it was a smooth mixture. Adding the rest of the ingredients in the above list, I continued to pulse until well combined. 

At this point, I cut a small corner off of a zip lock bag and started to spoon the mixture into the bag. I would be using it like a piping bag. For each sausage, I laid out a 12-inch piece of plastic wrap on my work service, and piped a 1-inch in diameter, 6-inch in length line down the center. I then rolled it up to create my sausages.

So far so good, right!? Okay, I put a pot of water on to boil and started in on my Sweet Chili Glaze. You'll need:

1/2 cup sambal chili paste, or more to taste (I used Korean red pepper paste)

1/2 cup honey, or more to taste

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

In a small saucepan, combine the chili paste, honey and red wine vinegar and bring it to a boil. In a separate cup, stir together the cornstarch and 2 teaspoons of water, stirring until smooth. Once your mixture is boiling, add the water and cornstarch and boil for 3 minutes. If the glaze is too spicy, you can add more honey to it, and if the glaze isn't spicy enough for ya, you can always add more chili paste. Here's the beginning and end images of this process:

Now that my water is boiling, I can add my sausages to the water. They should be in there for 6-8 minutes, until they are firm to the touch. Because mine didn't really seem firm to the touch after 8 minutes, I left them in a little longer. 

So, I let them cook for a few more minutes, and then spooned them into the ice bath as the recipe describes. The sausages seemed to be a bit broken apart within their plastic wrap casings but I allowed them to rest in there for a few minutes while I prepared the jicama slaw and dressing. For that I needed:

1 small jicama, peeled

1 small red bell pepper, cored and seeded

1 carrot

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, stemmed and chopped (I left that out again)

Dressing:

1/2 shallot

1/2 cup peeled chopped fresh ginger

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, stemmed (left out)

1/4 cup sriacha hot sauce

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

I julienned the carrot, jicama and red bell pepper and put them in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, I added all of the ingredients for the dressing and whisked them up. I just realized I was supposed to actually blend them all together in a food processor, but I thought it was really good with the chunkier version. Mixing it into the julienned veggies, I was relieved to see how quickly this slaw came together! 

Here's where things went terribly wrong! I heated up my grill pan in anticipation of grilling my sausages.  I went to the bowl of ice water to unwrap my sausages but alas, it seems they had either burst through in parts of the plastic, or opened so that the water had seeped inside of the plastic. So what I had were a bunch of PIECES of soggy sausage, crumbling all over my grill pan! As I moped around the kitchen, trying my hardest to piece together the sausages enough to resemble their form, they started to brown in the grill pan. They smelled delicious, they just didn't really LOOK very appetizing. I'm sorry that I have no photos - this was no time for a camera!

When I had deduced that the sausages were warmed through and browned to my satisfaction, I plated the slaw and placed the "sausages" on top and to the side. I drizzled it with the Sweet Chili Glaze, and voila...a poor representation of a delicious meal! I'm trying this one again, I swear it!

Radhika's Kebab Sausage with Tomato Jam

Tonight, I'm making sausages! Well, it's a loosely based version of a sausage, as there's nothing being stuffed into any sort of skin, but still...Quickfire Challenge here I come! (For all you Top Chef fans, you know exactly what I'm talking about, but for everyone else - it's from the Quickfire Cookbook, which includes recipes created during challenges on the show, Top Chef.)

This specific challenge was to create a signature hot dog. Radhika, from Season 5, made these great Kebab Sausages, and here we are, making them ourselves! You can find the recipe here. This recipe also calls for a bunch of accoutrements for the sausages. I'm sure these sausages would be wonderful on a roll, like the recipe describes, but I decided to serve them over a delicious, parsnip puree instead! A little heartier, and more ... dinner-like! :)

The first thing I did was make the sausage mixture. For this, I mixed 1 pound of ground lamb, 1/2 a pound of ground pork, and 1/2 a pound of ground beef with a tablespoon of minced garlic, 2 tablespoons of Tandoori Masala, kosher salt and ground black pepper. Once the mixture was blended, I put half of it into a food processor until it was finely ground. Then I mixed the finely ground portion back into the rest of bowl, and mixed some more. I then formed the mixture into the shape of logs, sort of like bratwurst.

Once that was done, I turned the oven to 350 degrees to preheat while I made the sides. I chopped a red onion into slices, and put them in a pan with a little canola oil to cook down for about 20 minutes. These browned onions sweeten as they cook and make a lovely topping for the sausages. In another bowl, I put a cucumber (peeled, seeded and diced), cilantro, white wine vinegar, capers and a little salt and pepper to taste. I set this aside to macerate for 20 minutes. In a third bowl, I made a tomato jam, which consists of mayonnaise, tomato paste, cumin and a little bit of heavy cream. I only used enough cream to thin the concoction, rather than the amount that the recipe depicts.

I browned the sausages on all sides in a skillet and then added them to a baking sheet I had waiting in the preheated oven, and then cooked them for another 10 minutes.

Once they were done, I plated the parsnip puree and piled two of the kebab sausages on each plate. I served the sides separately, allowing us each to choose our toppings appropriately. Once I added my toppings, I took a picture so you could see the finished product!

Voila! And this just goes to show, you don't even need a special tool to make your own sausages. They tasted a bit meat-loafy when cooked, and the sides were the perfect accompaniment to the flavors in the sausage. I really liked my pairing of the parsnip puree. I think it added something that a sandwich roll couldn't have contributed to the dish!