Monday, August 20, 2007

Looking a Gift Meal in the Mouth

Everything on our plates today was free, except for some purchased peppers which we sauteed to soft acceptabilitiness.
There were the grilled zucchini halves, burned to the point of tasting like seaweed. (Lesson learned.) The zukes were a gift from our garden, and by the looks of things out there, we'll have plenty of opportunities to perfect our zucchini grilling techniques.
And the sausage. Oh, dang, the sausage! A perfect coil of homemade pork wackiness, courtesy of Anita and Cameron from Married... with dinner.
Cameron suggested that we run a couple of skewers through the coil to keep it stable while it grilled over — BONUS! — gifted charcoaled wood from the Rev. Biggles.
It came out so good. I told Cranky I only wanted a few inches of it, but I ended up eating almost half the coil. Delicious, inexplicable taste. Heat, yes, and herbs. Perfect fat ratio. But I kept detecting a lactose-y goodness. Like the ghostly flavor profile of cheese. Me like, very much.
Thank you, everyone.

14 comments:

meathenge said...

MmmmMmmmMm, meat coils.

Cut zuchs a little thick. While it won't help for burning, it will help them stand up to the heat/cooking. Garnish with bacon.

Biggles

Zoomie said...

That sausage looks wunderbar and you have generous friends! Lucky lady! Why are you so mad?

Monkey Wrangler said...

Yeah, kinda like the Irreverend said but: mmmmm, skewered meat coils. Damn this sounds good. And cheese in sausage.......brilliant!

I would have dipped a few of them pears in one of your homemade vinegars and grilled it alongside. Tried anything along these lines with the bounty?

Anita (Married... with dinner) said...

You're spooky: Did we tell you it had cheese in it?

I'm glad you liked it. :)

cookiecrumb said...

Biggles: Yes, bacon would help.

Zoomie: Well, right now I'm mad at Leahy for being a wimp. But with friends like this, it's hard to wipe the smile of my face.

MW: I didn't *say* it had cheese in it; only that I tasted something lactose-like.
AND it hadn't occurred to me to grill pears. Actually it had, briefly, but I thought they'd be too wet... Hm!

Anita: OK, that is spooky. You didn't tell me about the cheese. Are you serious?
In my estimation, BTW, you are the best charcutier in the Bay Area right now. Huge applause to you.

Anita (Married... with dinner) said...

Yup, 100% serious about the cheese. It's even local. :)

I am so tickled that you love the sausage, but we're not even playing the same sport as Fatted Calf, Cafe Rouge or the dozens of other local folks making much of pig parts -- they're making real charcuterie; we're just cranking up fresh sausage.

You'd flip if you saw how easy it was. The shopping is the hardest part. Wanna come to the next sausagefest?

cookiecrumb said...

Anita: Sign me up for the next pork-a-rama.
I am serious about how good your sausage is; maybe you don't make a living curing meats, but this was first rate.
(And I've been floating all day, just knowing that I detected the mystery ingredient. I think I've elbowed Cranky three times already and said, "Y'know what?" and he says, "YES.")

Anonymous said...

Pity you couldn't have found a way to add a little strawberry sauce to that dish, eh? ;-)

cookiecrumb said...

Sean: Interesting you should say that. Because I think I want your slushy strawberry preserves with something milky, lactose-y.
Um. Homemade ricotta. I think that's it. OK. You on? I'll tell you when. Soon! Eek. Fun.

Stacie said...

score!

Kevin said...

CC,
That does look good. I'm way behind in my sausage making.

Anonymous said...

Well I can certainly attest that it goes very well indeed with some vanilla ice cream, so homemade ricotta should also be delectable. Or as a foundational layer to a creme brulee perhaps? (I just did the same with some fig jam...)

cookiecrumb said...

Stacie: If you lived close to me, you'd have gifted me with some of your homegrown Jacob's Cattle beans, right? You farmer. xx

Kevin: I almost wrote that I've never made sausage, and must do so. But I remembered I have made the Jacques Pepin aluminum foil roll-up pork sausage a couple of times, and it's awesome for a rank beginner (me). Yep. Gotta do more.

Sean: My vestigial sweet tooth needs a little less sugar than ice cream or creme brulee. I might just put those strawberries on some pork!!

Anita (Married... with dinner) said...

Maybe the strawberry sauce would be good on pear-pecorino ice cream. A little black-pepper garnish?