Pam's Roti, Hot Italian Sausages, Golden Cook Caribbean & more -- The Top 5 Food Posts of 2019

A few days ago we posted our annual review of the top posts of the year (in terms of hits) Fare Evasion Frauds, NDP Debacles, Racism in Canada & more -- 2019 on The Left Chapter. As any regular reader of this blog knows, The Left Chapter also has many food related posts.

This year saw many recipes including some more offbeat ones like The Sputnik -- Salami and Fried Egg Sandwich w. Green Chili Pickle, the Montreal Smoked Meat, Lime Pickle and Avocado Naan Wrap and Spicy Peanut Butter and Dill Pickle Sandwiches.


We continued our always popular vintage cookbook series with posts such as 1941's Wilson's Meat Cookery w. Oyster Pie, Chicken Gumbo, Deviled Broiled Pig's Feet & more and Great Meatless Meals w. Mediterranean Lemon Soup, Potato Kugel, Savory Onion Quiche & more. 

Some recipes such as Spicy Sausage and Beef Meatballs with Homestyle Tomato Sauce and Peruvian Inspired BBQ Chicken made it very close to the top five.

I want to thank everyone who contributed recipes to the blog and to our readership for such a great year and I look forward to what 2020 brings.

Here, without further ado, are the top five food related posts for 2019:

1) Pam's Roti w. Goat and Veggie Roti, Samosas, Pakoras and more

2) Hot Italian Sausages with Onions and Peppers

3) Golden Cook Caribbean Restaurant Reinvents Itself in New Toronto

4) Light and Crisp Steak and Vegetable Lettuce Rolls

5) Slow Cooker Curried Lamb Shoulder Chops w. Garlic & Onion

Thanks again for a great fourth year.

Do you have a left point-of-view or opinion, a recipe or a story you want to share?

Send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!

See also: Trini Gardens, Kothur, Zippy Pickle Soup & more -- The Top 5 Food Posts of 2018

Spicy Sausage and Bok Choy Stir Fry

Recently we took a look at the vintage cookbook The Best of Seasons w. Tuscan Bean Soup, Sour Cream Apple Pie, Guacamole & more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT and I adapted one of the recipes in it to make Lamb Chops w. a Balsamic Shallot Sauce.

Today I am going to adapt another recipe from the book that mixes sausage and bok choy. My version is spicier and uses somewhat different cooking techniques to produce a stir fry that is relatively easy to make and very flavourful. 

To begin you want to make the sauce that will ultimately be used in the dish.


Sauce Ingredients:

1/4 cup beef broth
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 - 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

Take all the ingredients and mix together in a bowl until blended thoroughly.

Main Dish Ingredients:

5 hot Italian sausages (you can substitute for a different sausage if you wish but these work very well)
2 large onions chopped
1 to 2 sliced, unseeded small red hot chili peppers
2 - 3 minced cloves of garlic
1 large head of bok choy, chopped
peanut oil

Heat some peanut oil in a large saucepan or wok over medium high heat. When the oil is ready you want to brown your sausages for around 2 minutes a side. Once browned remove to a plate and coarsely chop the sausage into small bits and pieces.

Without cleaning the pan add a little more peanut oil. Add the onions to the pan and fry, stirring occasionally, for 3 - 4 minutes.

Add your sausage and garlic to the pan and continue to fry the onions, garlic and sausage for around 6 more minutes or until the sausage is just cooked.

Then add the bok choy, chili peppers and sauce to the pan or wok and fry for another 2 -3 minutes stirring constantly until well mixed.

Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for around 15 minutes or until reduced to your liking.

This spicy, tart dish is terrific served over rice. Leftover it is also nice tossed in ramen or lo mein style noodles. 

Enjoy.

Hot Italian Sausages with Onions and Peppers

Today we are going to look at how to make one version of a classic combination -- Hot Italian Sausages with onions and sweet peppers. As with most great comfort food dishes it is fairly simple to make but delivers bold flavours. It is also one of my family's favourites.

To begin you want to pick up some Hot Italian Sausages. You can use any sausages but the spicy really contrasts well with the "sweet" of the onions and peppers.

Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan and then brown the sausages for around 2-3 minutes a side. Remove from the saucepan and set aside on a platter. These are not fully cooked at this point but that is fine as they will be later.

Do not drain or clean the pan. In the juices and oil saute 1 or 2 sliced onions and 1 or 2 sliced bell peppers. Here I used 1 yellow onion, 1 red onion and 1 large green pepper, but you can use any combination you like. Saute for around 5-7 minutes.

While the onions and peppers are sauteing slice the sausages width-wise in about three evenly placed spots around 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through.

While some folks like to cut the sausages into several small pieces I prefer it this way as people can still get an entire sausage if they wish.

Once the onions and peppers are finished sauteing add the sausages back to the pan and then add enough chicken stock to get about 2/3 of the way to the top of them. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer.

Cover the pan and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until done. According to Health Canada sausages are done when they reach an internal temperature of 160-165 degrees.

Serve the sausages covered with the peppers and onions. They go really well with sauerkraut or coleslaw on the side or, if you wish, you can have them on a bun.

Enjoy.

See also: "Green Bay Packer" Wisconsin Beer Brats with Sauerkraut & Mixed Vegetables

See also: Charcoal BBQ Hot Italian Sausages and Onions

Charcoal BBQ Hot Italian Sausages and Onions

Today we are going to look at a technique of making sausages with onions that does not require cutting, where the sausages come out very moist and with that great smokey BBQ flavour. It also avoids the need to separate your charcoal into the two sides of your BBQ or to cook the sausages around the edges or by finishing/starting them in the oven to avoid burning them.

First, select the type of sausages you wish to make. You can make any from Oktoberfest style, to Eastern European variations, etc. Here we used hot Italian sausages.


While you are getting your charcoal going slice up 3 or 4 onions. I like to use a combination of red and white. Place them evenly across an aluminium foil baking tray and season them with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper all to taste. If you have them you can add a few fresh basil leaves as well. You can also add sliced green peppers, mushrooms or even sauerkraut if you like.

When your charcoal is ready for grilling take your sausages and place them directly on the grill over the coals and sear them for 1-2 minutes a side or until nicely browned with some grill marks. Do NOT slice them like they do at hot dog carts as that simply dries them out as you cook them.

Take the browned sausages and place them in the tray on top of the bed of onions and any other veg.

 

Place your tray on the grill above the coals and cook the sausages for approximately 30 minutes or until done, turning once. You need to regulate the heat and flames with the BBQ lid. I generally do this by cooking 5 minutes lid off and then 10 minutes lid on unless the coals are unusually hot in which case I take the lid off for even less time.

When finished serve on buns topped with the onions if you like or simply on a plate with them with a side of rice or a salad. These go especially well with Dijon mustard.

It is an easy way to make sausages and caramelized onions with great charcoal BBQ flavour.

Enjoy.

See also: Charcoal BBQ Jerk Style Chicken

See also: Korean Style BBQ Beef Short Ribs with Grilled Eggplant

Spicy Slow Cooker Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo

Today we are going to take a look at making a spicy shrimp and sausage gumbo in the slow cooker that you serve over a bed of rice.

Before beginning, gumbo is traditionally made with spicy andouille sausage, but here we used spicy chorizo instead. I like the smoky flavour that chorizo infuses into the gumbo. If you prefer a less smokey taste, you can use the more traditional andouille.

Ingredients:

300-400 grams spicy chorizo, sliced
300-400 grams frozen cooked shrimp
1 large bell pepper minced (we used an orange pepper)
2 medium carrots minced
1 large onion minced
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, minced
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
1-3 teaspoons hot sauce (Tabasco is a traditional one)
5 cups vegetable broth (I like to use Vegeta seasoning as the broth in which case you use 4 tablespoons for 5 cups of water)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup whipping cream

First, slice your sausage into round, bite-sized pieces.

Then chop up your pepper, garlic, celery, onion and carrot until finely minced.

In a large saucepan heat some olive oil and saute the garlic and vegetables for around 4-5 minutes adding the thyme as you go.

Place the vegetables and the sausage in your slow cooker.

 
Add the hot sauce, vegetable broth and the two bay leaves and mix everything together.

Cover, set the slow cooker to low and cook for 6 hours. Then, turn the cooker up to high and add the frozen shrimp and the cream stirring it in slowly.

Put the lid back on and cook for a further 15 minutes until the shrimp is heated through.

Serve the gumbo over rice. It also goes nicely with cornbread. 

Enjoy.

See also: Fiery Caribbean style peel-and-eat shrimp

See also: Slow Cooked Curried Goat Stew

The Sausage Hero -- Reinventing "Chunky Wiener Hero" Sandwiches -- Vintage Cookbook #TBT

The Nokomis Hospital Auxiliary Cook Book is one of that subspecies of once very prevalent fundraising community cookbooks -- a number of which we have looked at over the months here at The Left Chapter and the earnestness and reflection of time and place of which I really love.

This one was put together, as is the norm, by submissions from the community and was to raise money for a hospital in Nokomis, Saskatchewan. It was published in 1980.

It has lots of recipes worth a look and the whole cookbook is very charming. As is always the case with cookbooks of this type the recipes vary greatly in quality. But today I wanted to reinvent one that was, to be honest, not one that I would have ever made in its original form!

This is a recipe for "Chunky Wiener Heroes". It was conceived as a triple-decker sandwich using hot dogs and, among other things, a mustard-margarine mixture!

While this recipe is very dated, the idea of a triple-decker sausage (as opposed to hot dog) sandwich with cheese and a sauce did appeal me. I decided to reinvent the recipe while keeping these aspects.

Our Sausage Hero Sandwich starts with sausage that has already been cooked. I would suggest using Hot Italian Style (which I did) or a German Bratwurst Style sausage.

You can prepare the sausage anyway you want, but for reasons that will become clear, I would suggest making them as I did in a previous Left Chapter recipe, Slow Cooker Beer and Sauerkraut Sausages.

For the sandwich bread we are going to replace the French Bread (which would have been very hard to cut in three as the original recipe suggests anyway!) with three toasted slices of rye bread. Make sure to toast the bread as otherwise the bread will become soggy (and the toasting replaces the oven portion of the original).

In place of the (awful) mustard-margarine blend, we will use instead a blend of hot mustard and mayonnaise. You want one part hot mustard for each two parts mayo stirred thoroughly to make this sauce. For the mustard you can use Coleman's or one of any number of European ones. I used a Polish style one I bought at a local deli.

Coat the first piece of bread with the sauce and then place the cooked sausage on top cut in half lengthwise. On my sandwich I managed to fit three slices of sausage.

On top of this layer place another slice of rye. Top this slice with Swiss Cheese and cover the cheese with a thick layer of sauerkraut. You can use fresh deli bought sauerkraut, sauerkraut from a jar or, if you made the recipe I linked to above, the incredibly flavorful kraut you get from slow cooking it with beer, seasonings and the sausages themselves!

Top with another slice of the toasted rye, slice in half, and serve with ice cold beer!

It is an absolutely delicious sandwich. Enjoy.


See also: The Oliver: Reinventing a 50's Colossal Salami Sandwich -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

See also: The Ninkasi: The Ultimate Game/Party Day Submarine Sandwich