food: sausage bake
21 Nov 2011 5 Comments
in food & cooking Tags: comfort food, recipes, sausage, whats for dinner
i know i’ve posted about this meal before on previous blogs that i’ve run, but it bears repeating for 2 reasons. first off, it’s incredibly delicious & easy. second, it’s always changing based on whats on hand.
this week’s incarnation comes courtesy of sausages and produce from granville island. the sausages, of course, come from oyama sausage company (see previous post) and i got to choose these ones…
i selected 3 kinds, and they were all winners. wild boar, venison with blueberries and an okanagan pork sausage with local red wine in it.
for veg, we used golden beets, baby potatoes, carrots, leeks, sweet onion, cherry tomatoes, fennel and red peppers. and lots of fresh rosemary.
a little olive oil, salt & pepper and she’s good to go. 425 for about 40 minutes, then i removed the sausages and let the veggies go for another 20 mins.
here’s the finished product, with one of each sausage.
all of the sausages were delicious, but i think the venison was my top pick. the boar, unfortunately got a little overcooked and was a bit dry. totally my fault, it had a lower fat content and should have come out earlier. the flavour of it was still incredible. the venison was so juicy and the blueberries added a lovely little flavour punch.
the okanagan pork sausage was crazy good too. super juicy and a strong red wine flavour to it. i’d buy any and all of them again.
once again, i’d like to thank that sultry minx nigella lawson for bring this recipe to my attention. it’s a winter & fall staple in my house now.
food: delicious cured meats
21 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in booze & other drinkables, food & cooking Tags: cured meat, pig, vancouver
on sunday my husband and i went on an impromptu adventure for meats & beer.
we decided to head to granville island and find inspiration in the market… easy to do, but dangerous if you’re not focused. distractions are plentiful.
after a delicious shared lunch and some coffee, we headed to our favourite place for all things meat. oyama sausage company. this place is ridiculous. http://www.oyamasausage.ca
i’ve sampled some delightful cured meats, including from the famed bocalone in san francisco… but this place is always on point. and they have EVERYTHING.
with a spread like that (and that is one case of 5) it’s easy to see how one could get distracted… and say… spend $60 on cured meats. (whoopsie)
it’s hard to say what i was most excited about, but i may have to say it was the wild boar prosciutto.
honestly, this is probably some of the best prosciutto i’ve ever eaten. it was rich, incredibly salty and so so tasty. it had very little fat, which was a big selling feature for me… and the flavour of wild boar is just so much deeper and complex than a run of the mill pig prosciutto. we bought 100g of it and pretty much inhaled it. lesson learned: buy more next time.
my husband, however, was most excited about this:
now, he said this is called grelots and after some extensive googling, it looks like they may be called “grelots noisettes ” in french, so roughly; hazelnut sweetmeats.
ummm… yes.
so, as we were waiting for our meat to be put together, a lady came bounding up to the counter, visibly excited that they had these grelots since apparently they only have them once a year.
at $4.50 per (and they’re about the size of your thumb), she bought 10. she was kind enough to ask the clerk to cut off a little piece of one so my husband could try it, and bam. he was sold. we bought two… and wow.
the creamy salami-esque meat with the tender hazelnuts and the sharp moldy rind… so. fucking. good.
but, let it be known that i’m a total sucker for the moldy bits. they’re always the yummiest, yes i am that girl that only eats the rind of the brie.
but this is good. like, definitely worth $4.50 each and we regret not buying 10 as well. there may have to be a mission back down there this week to rectify this oversight.
and really… look how beautiful this is:
so, we put all these treats together with their “country ham” – like a prosciutto but more mild and a dry aged wagu beef which was freaking unreal… and created the meaty masterpiece you see below.
yup. $60 in cured meats well spent.
i will also say that we got 10% off a delicious beaujolais with all this meat purchases. which was excellent and perfectly matched with the above plate.
