Sausage-making at home

Love great sausage? Then this week's story, "The case for homemade sausage," might just leave you rolling up your sleeves, ready to try your hand at making your own.

Of course, for the first-timer, the act of sausage making can seem a bit confusing -- if not downright daunting. So we've included a step-by-step photo gallery illustrating the process from start to finish. 

It may take a little time to get the feel for the whole process, but sausage-making can be a fun -- and tasty -- activity. Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly in their book "Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book" recommend inviting friends over to help out: "Sausage-making has always been a communal activity, and making sausages together, frying up samples, and tasting, can double the fun and halve the work."

Have fun, and happy sausage-making!

 -- Noelle Carter

Photo by Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

More ways to wake up your cauliflower....

It's always great to hear when a recipe or technique inspires our readers. I've already received a number of e-mails about this week's Culinary SOS, featuring Ad Hoc's rice with roasted cauliflower. Readers loved the idea of roasting the cauliflower to enhance and broaden its depth of flavor.

I wanted to share one e-mail I received from Patrick in Los Angeles, who shared his own recipe for browning cauliflower in a skillet, which he then deglazes with a little mirin. Sounds wonderful!

"Hi Noelle: I enjoyed reading today’s SOS, 'Roasting Wakes Up Cauliflower.' I, too, was baffled about a year ago as to what to do at home with a fresh head of cauliflower. Steaming it just seemed too bland, and I wanted it as a side dish at the time. I didn’t think to roast it, but I did come up with a tasty and simpler way to 'wake it up.'

"I cut up the cauliflower and threw the crowns in a cast iron skillet, drizzled EV olive oil over them and sprinkled with salt and pepper. After letting the crowns brown on one side, I started stirring occasionally until they were browned throughout, but still slightly crunchy. Afterwards, I put about 1/4 cup or so of mirin cooking sake in the pan and covered it to let it “steam” in the wine. (I’ve used chardonnay as well.) Once most of the liquid cooked off, I uncovered the pan and turned the heat to high and further carmelized the crowns until browned to my liking. I have, on occasion, also put in green onions.

"The end result was great with rice and has been a staple as a side to meat and chicken in my kitchen as of late. I’ll try it with some curry powder next time! Thanks!"

Thanks so much Patrick, and to all those great ideas out there!  We love to hear from you, and will post what we can.

-- Noelle Carter

Photo: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Mozzarella, saucy tofu and the sad facts about counting calories

 

More L.A. Times Food news:

From Travel: Italy's Campania region is where fresh mozzarella roams. Near Naples is where you'll find the real thing: silky-soft cheese from unpasteurized buffalo milk. Eat it on its own and, preferably, as soon as you buy it.

From National: All Kelley Coffman-Lee wanted to do was broadcast her love of tofu to the driving public.
So the Colorado vegan applied to the state's Department of Revenue for a vanity license plate for her Suzuki SL7 carrying the message: ILVTOFU. Request denied. Why? "It could be misinterpreted in a way that suggests that she likes something other than tofu," explained revenue department spokesman Mark Couch.

 

From Health: Counting calories is a tough math problem.  Losing weight is nothing but a numbers game. If the number of calories burned is greater than the number of calories consumed -- bingo! Weight loss.

-- Rene Lynch

Photo credit: Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times

 

Evie's top 10 party tips

For a bit o something sweet today, read this post by San Diego food writer and radio host Caron Golden. It's an homage to her mom, Evie:

For as long as I can remember, she's pretty much been the queen of dinner parties. My dad was in the museum "business" so curators, donors, artists and other colleagues were always coming over. Plus, my parents have always loved to have friends and family at the house for meals. My mom is an astoundingly good cook, someone whose gift I continue to aspire to. I regularly served as her sous chef, server and dish washer (actually, I still do). I was told, "watch and learn" -- and that continues today.... So, what's her secret? I sat down with her for lunch at a little Vietnamese restaurant recently and asked her straight out what she thinks are the keys to a successful dinner party. Watch and learn:

Here's an early Happy Mother's Day to Evie and all the moms out there. And here's your Twip of the Day: Follow @carondg

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Photo: Mort Golden

Swine flu: Can I still eat pork?

According to the national Centers for Disease Control, eating properly prepared pork is safe:

"Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food. You cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork and pork products is safe. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses." -- Key Facts About Swine Influenza (Swine Flu), CDC

Following are some links to the most current information available on swine flu as of this post:

• Key Facts About Swine Influenza (CDC)
• Swine Flu: The Basics (Los Angeles Times)
• Swine Influenza and You (CDC)
• International Disease Outbreak News (World Health Organization)
• Preventing the Flu: Good Health Habits Can Help Stop Germs (CDC)
• Swine Flu Cases Rise to 40 in the U.S. (LAT)

-- Noelle Carter

Photo: A government official works to disinfect a pig farm in central Taiwan as a preventative measure. Credit: Sam Yeh / AFP / Getty Images

Gadget porn

We've all got them -- those kitchen tools that seemed to be just the hottest, most got-to-have thing when we first saw them, only to wake up in the morning wondering, "$60,000 for a corkscrew?" Think I'm exaggerating? Check DVice's list of "8 of the most outrageous food gadgets money can buy." Note that cost isn't the sole determining factor: They're democratic that way. A $50 All-Clad asparagus pot is on the list too.

--Russ Parsons

Schnitzel mania!

 

I guess everyone really does love schnitzel. When I wrote that in my California Cook column this week, I was half-joking. But considering the responses I got from cutlet-hungry readers, I guess the laughs are on me.

The first note I got was from Berlin: Taska Harnischfeger wrote: “I just wanted to let you know that in Germany, as opposed to Austria, your version of the schnitzel [made with pork rather than veal] is standard. If you are at an Austrian restaurant, and you order "Vienna Schnitzel" (Wiener Schnitzel), you will get veal, but most restaurants in Germany offer "Schnitzel, Vienna style" (Schnitzel, Wiener Art), or just plain schnitzel, which is pork. I personally like the pork version better.”

A couple of readers bemoaned the lack of good German restaurants in Southern California since Knoll’s Black Forest Inn closed. “My parents were German and my mother made the dish often,” wrote Ronald Ross of Los Angeles. “During the last 10 years, I have been very sad to see almost all German and for that matter most Continental-style restaurants disappear, the last one being Knolls Black Forest. There used to be many such as the Swiss Cafe, Scandia, the Gourmet, etc.”

A couple more wrote with recommendations:

Notes from the Test Kitchen: "Over easy" marshmallows

So how do you like your eggs -- er, marshmallows?

We weren't trying for eggs when we tested the recipe for "Marshmallow daisies" for a recent story "Homemade Easter candy, an old-fashioned treat" by Liz Pearson. But that's what we got.  

Every recipe we run in the Food section is tested before it is printed. Many times we're lucky, and a recipe will work perfectly the first time. Other recipes might take a couple, or several, tests to work out any kinks. (We ran a cookie recipe two years ago that went through 17 tests before we were confident enough to publish the recipe.)

With the daisies, we had a little trouble nailing the timing for just one step in the recipe -- how long to beat the marshmallow cream -- and ended up with wildly different results with each attempt. The first test yielded a cream that was much too stiff to pipe. The second (pictured at left) was just a bit too runny.

I contacted the author to consult with her and see what we might be doing wrong. It took

VIDEO: How to select the best seasonal strawberries -- and what to make

Watch this video about buying the best strawberries, and then consider making this, this, this, this or this. Or this or this.

The Biggest Little Garden: A box of grow-your-own vegetables

The Biggest Little Garden is a compact, three-tiered planter made of a handsome (and rot-resistant) cedar -- just the right size for a small balcony. The 32-inch-wide planters are narrow enough to squeeze through small apartment doors, raised high enough so no stooping is required for planting and picking, and built with a trellis on the top tier to support bean and squash vines. And for residents of New Westminster in Canada, it's free. Click to read more.

-- Deborah Netburn

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What to do with those greens once they're grown? Here are some recipe suggestions from The Times' Test Kitchen.

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Photo: Fraserside