Chorizo de San Manuel ... mmmm!

Chorizo de San Manuel, this is the good stuff. (Making smiley face)

Chorizo San Manuel

The spice blend in San Manuel is so well balanced. A lot of chorizos emphasize the paprika and you have to do things to tone it down - like, for instance, use less sausage, bring in a lot of vegetables.

Another complaint with other chorizos is they are very greasy and you have to drain them.

San Manuel is not the leanest chorizo, but it is pretty close. San Manuel comes from Edinburg, Texas (I went to college there), and it is about as close to the Mexican border you can get before you have to say it was 'made in Mexico.'

San Manuel is so well made, I'm going to do a really simple dish. The only thing going in the skillet besides eggs is about a quarter of a can of Herdez salsa verde (this is mainly tomatillo, onion and a very small amount of serrano pepper; it's a mild salsa).

Pierce the yolk and toss most of that down the drain, if you're concerned about cholesterol.

San Manuel chorizo in skillet with salsa and egg

I'm heating several corn tortillas on the comal while I cook choriezo and egg in canola oil on medium to low heat. Stirring in the salsa until the chorizo and egg are cooked, but still moist.

Also going forward in the kitchen is the coffee. There's a pot going with Cuban-style ground and a quarter scoop of cinnamon.

Heated up a third cup milk and poured in the coffee.

Okay, this is ready to go to the table, and now I actually have a dinette table to put it on, (just bought one).

Huevos con chorizo en tacos

I sprinkled a little cotija cheese on top and added a little more salsa. Now I can make breakfast tacos.

Buen provecho!

Here's more on the San Manuel story:

Since 1975, Chorizo de San Manuel has maintained the highest control of uniformity in quality and flavor. The main ingredient of the chorizo is the pork meat. We use only top quality cuts of pork which are purchased in large quantities and deboned in our own plant. 

The next ingredients that make our chorizo unique are the spices. We prefer to purchase the whole spices such as black peppercorns, garlic, a combination of chilies and other ingredients which are ground on site by our staff. 

WE DO NOT USE ANY ARTIFICIAL COLOR, FLAVOR, PRESERVATIVES, OR ADDITIVES! This means you get the best tasting chorizo that is 100% NATURAL.

Gumbo! Can Earl Campbell get along with perch?

I don't have any andouille sausage. Andouille is hard to find in Florida. Ah, but I do have some Earl Campbell's Hot Links!

Made in Waelder, Texas, which is located west of the center of the Houston-San Antonio-Austin triangle, Earl Campbell's Hot Links are a spicy sausage that will pass as a good substitute to andouille. But this is primarily a seafood gumbo I'm working on today.

I've said it before, it bears repeating, I often use sausages as a secondary meat, sometimes like a seasoning - the way you would use bacon bits. This is more of a secondary meat than a seasoning, though. Think of it as the "supporting actor" role in a movie. 

Here's most of what's going in the pot: 

There's more than 12 ounces of perch fillet going in the pot. I'm only using one link of Earl Campbell's Hot Links. 

I didn't get it in the picture, but there's about an eighth of a chunk of whole onion going in, too. Chopped up, of course.

From the produce section at the supermarket, I bought a single  container of okra. Chop it up!

Boiling water. I believe it was six cups for the box of Zatarain's Gumbo Mix with Rice.

Funny thing is the recipe on the box does not mention or take into account all this okra and the whole can of diced tomatoes. Heck! No way I'm making gumbo without okra and diced tomatoes.

I'm slicing a sausage link up and slicing perch fillet into bite-size bits and thinking, all that okra and diced tomatoes is going to add water content. It might dilute the seasonings in the gumbo mix. 

So I added two tablespoons of starch, a handful of rice and I added three shakes of soy sauce and six shakes of red pepper flake. I also took one dried guajillo pepper and shredded that in; this is more for flavor than heat - the red pepper brings the heat.

It all worked out fine, except for one thing. the gumbo mix with rice fell into the water in one clump. I expected it to pour out of the box, but it went blump! (That may not be a word, but that's the sound I heard.)

So, now I'm stuck working this clump like I would mole - stirring, mashing with the cooking spoon, around and around, over and over. Eventually, I got it all separated. 

Seafood and sausage gumbo in the pot

The fish goes in last. That way it doesn't overcook.

This makes a lot of food! I easily had enough for six. 

My daughter Shasta told me a story about how you can't make a little bit of gumbo. Her sister-in-law made a pot. It was too much for her family, so after a couple days, she took the pot to Shasta.

Shasta's family had gumbo for a few days, then she took the pot back, and it still had gumbo!

Gumbo's great. And I was in the mood for it. But unless you want to eat it all week or freeze some of it for later, you may want to throw a party.

Gumbo~!

Buen provecho!

Looking at veal sausage: Opa's Bratwurst

Being perfectly honest, I'm probably not the best person to critique this sausage. Opa's, a sausage maker in Fredericksburg, Texas, makes a variety of great sausages.

Bratwurst, however, is made with veal and pork. Veal is one of those meats that pushes my limits - both in taste and on some gut moral level. I'm a meat-eater, but baby calf conjures images of a life unfulfilled.

I don't really get the effect on me personally. Blame it on PETA? I've never had a problem eating cabrito (baby goat). I've even gone on the ranch and slaughtered my own cabrito. But male dairy calves going to slaughter is somehow a stretch. 

Then there's the taste. Veal has a distinctively bland dairy taste. It's like "uncured" meat, if that makes any sense. I assume this is because the calves primarily depend on mother's milk? Whatever the reason, it's noticeable. 

And on that unappetizing note, I get in the kitchen!

Opa's Bratwurst

I tried two dishes, using the same rice with vegetables as a side. the rice was boiled with chopped chipotle pepper. It was white rice, but the chipotle gave it color. And I threw in some frozen peas and carrots and a pinch of salt.

Both dishes are really simple. The first one involved a fresh, ripe avocado, which is cut into sections and symmetrically laid to either side of a grilled bratwurst. This is laid atop a quesadilla (two toasted corn torillas filled with cheddar cheese; it's like a grilled cheese sandwich but fewer carbs).

It was ok, but bratwurst wasn't the best choice for a sausage for these ingredients. A regular all-beef sausage would have worked better. 

For my next dish, I tried going with something more traditional. I took a slice of multigrain bread and put it on the grill with the brat and some poblano pepper strips.

I heated up sauerkraut. Lay the bread on the plate, add mustard, lay on the brat and smother that with sauerkraut. 

The poblano goes with the rice side dish. Going for taste points, I found this worked much better. Bratwurst is meant to go with bread and suaerkraut. I don't think you can get away from that. Putting a rice and veggie dish on the side is about as adventurous as you can get.

I've always seen brats in a bun with mustard and sauerkraut. If there was a side, it was usually German potato salad, but I'm trying to stay away from potatoes - that's a carb load too far. 

Bratwurst on bread with mustard, sauerkraut.

 Buen provecho!

Tomatoey, tomatoey, tomatoey, tomatoey

Say that four times fast. Now don' t you feel silly?

This is one of those mongrel dishes born of necessity. I'll call it Native American pasta because it's got succotash in a Mexican-style pasta with pulled chicken and a Spanish recipe chorizo.

Actually, I used pulled turkey meat because I had leftover turkey in the freezer from last year's Thanksgiving. But I don't recommend turkey. You would get a better tasting dish with chicken.

I started with La Moderna fideo (a short-stem pasta). La Moderna is a Mexican import made in four cities across the country. I found it at Winn Dixie in Florida, which impressed me, (distributed to the USA through InterAmerican Foods Corp. in Laredo, Texas).

Fideo is traditionally cooked with pulled chicken and a little bit of onion, and chicken broth. The recipe calls for 2.5 quarts of water for a 7-ounce packet.

But I don't want soup. I want pasta. So I boiled the fideo for 7 minutes in three cups of water, then drained.

This is a lot of pasta, and with the other ingredients, you end up with enough food to easily serve four hungry people.

Moving on, I still have some Goya chorizo. This is a Spanish-style smoked chorizo that is sold unrefrigerated, like jerky (it's not quite that salty, though). Chorizo is usually used for breakfast meals, but this is something that can be an ingredient in a lunch or dinner dish. Like I've said before, it's similar to pepperoni.

Keep in mind the paprika in this chorizo makes it tart. It has a pronounced sharp taste, like a real sharp cheddar cheese, so go light on the chorizo. And that's why I suggest chicken to provide more protein without overwhelming your dish.

Slice up two links of chorizo, and grill in the skillet. After the grease is flowing and sizzling, add some canola oil to avoid burning the chicken. Toss in the cooked chicken (a half-pound of pulled thigh or breast meat should do), and stir.

Succotash was introduced to Europeans by Narragansett Indians in New England as a mix of corn and lima beans. I just opened a can of cooked lima beans, and measured off an equal portion of frozen corn an tossed that over the meat.

Get a jar of pasta sauce. I used roasted garlic Ragù. This is a 1 lb-10 oz jar. Use all of it, but three-quarters of a jar will do if you're a little short.

Gently dump in the pasta so you don't splash anything, and bring it to a simmering boil for a couple minute - not too long because the pasta is already cooked; you're just trying to heat up the sauce and succotash by this time.

So, what's so great about fideo versus spaghetti? Well, spaghetti tends to be clumsier to deal with. I don't know the origins of fideo, but I suspect a no-nonsense Mexican mother got really pissed off at watching her kids slurp-suck up long-stem pasta, splattering sauce all over their faces and giggling at the result at the dinner table, and she decided to snap the pasta stem just to spoil their fun.

If you've got a more accurate version of history, I'd like to hear it. In the meantime, buen provecho!

Goya Chorizo: a New York tradition

Having grown up in Texas, I always saw Goya products in the groceries. But I always assumed they were Mexican imports. Goya has always targeted the Hispanic market and it's one of the few Latino brands I see everywhere.

They stock more kinds of products in Latino groceries than any other brand. Well, surprise, surprise. The company started in Lower Manhattan, New York in 1936. Don Prudencio Unanue and his wife Carolina, immigrants from Spain, started with one grocery store.

I came across a Goya Chorizo at my local Winn Dixie and that led me to investigate a company that, product-wise, is as diverse as well-known giants like Del Monte Food Brands.

Goya Chorizo

This chorizo is packaged in Secaucus, N.J. and does not need refrigeration until you open it. I found it located next to the El Miño brand, which was a two-link package for about half the price. Goya's product is four links and weighs 3.5 ounces.

When cooking it, I found it to be higher in fat content than El Miño. The Goya chorizo behaves exactly like pepperoni when cooked. I sliced it into coin sections and let it sizzle on medium heat on the skillet.

Let's talk breakfast!

Since I'm dealing with a Spanish sausage, not Mexican, I took one liberty with a traditional Mexican breakfast recipe. I made mild 'huevos a la Mexicana' and added one stalk of chopped bok choy.

Traditional huevos a la Mexicana is scrambled eggs with onion, serrano pepper and tomato. I used onion, bok choy and tomato. No hot sauce here. (Actually, I sprinkled on a hot sauce after I cooked this and that's not in the second photo; I just couldn't resist, but I'm trying to put out a plate that anybody can try without worrying about searing their taste buds).

I separated some yolk from two eggs (watching that cholesterol), and poured the egg white over vegetables that had been cooking in canola oil for about three minutes. Separately, I put two northern Mexican-style chicken-filled tamales in the microwave and heated that for 1 minute (I say northern Mexican because I've seen tamales in Florida that come in aluminum packets, and I know southern Mexican tamales are cooked in banana leaves).

I chopped fresh Anaheim pepper (very mild and just a little section), and spinkled that over the tamales. The chorizo is laid out on the plate between the tamales and the 'huevos-not-so-Mexicana.' Nice, orderly looking plate - that should appeal to a Cuban's sensibilities. Maybe?

I had this with a mocha coffee. I used a packet of Ganocafé Mocha, which is a powdered cocoa with ganoderma, an Indonesian mushroom that has been dessicated. It's distributed in the USA through Dallas and my dad loves this stuff.

I put a few ounces of milk in a cup, mixed in the powder, the pour in the coffee and stir. It's great, but the taste is slightly different from regular coffee mocha because of the mushroom, which is supposed to have health benefits. I don't know about that, but it is pleasant on the palate.

The meal turned out very nice. Goya's chorizo is decent enough, but I'm going to have to say that given a choice between El Miño and Goya (both being in the unrefrigerated category), I'd go with El Miño because it was less greasy. I know, that's a contradictory thing to say for someone raised on uncooked Mexican chorizos that are really greasy!

Both Goya and El Miño are smoked, but I get the impression El Miño is smoked longer. The flavor is more pleasant (I'm a sucker for well-smoked meats) and I just think if you're going to buy a meat that is marketed as 'no refrigeration required' go for the one that has less grease.

Buen provecho!

El Miño Chorizo by 814 Americas

I was walking through my local Winn Dixie last week and, in passing the Latin foods section, I saw several brands of chorizo.

This was not in the butcher section. No coolers, no freezers. The chorizo was assembled without refrigeration. I thought, 'That's odd!'

I bought a package of something called El Miño. It's made by 814 Americas Inc. also known as Abuin Packing. This is a Cuban family that started the business in Cuba in the 1920s. It used to be known as Severino Abuin & Co., but in 1960 Fidel Castro confiscated the business.

The family re-established the business in the United States. They are based in Elizabeth, N.J.

Not knowing what to expect - I had never used smoked chorizo that was labeled "no refrigeration required" - I first tried mashing the link on a hot skillet like I usually do. That doesn't work very well.

I wanted morning breakfast tacos. The usual huevos con chorizo, with a few chopped vegetables. There are a number of pros and cons here.

First, let me say it is a good tasting chorizo. But it is smoked and it's dense. This is like slicing pepperoni. In fact, that's what you have to do. Slice it up. After that, I just went ahead and diced it.

You see, Mexican chorizo from the butcher requires cooking. And it is full of animal fat that is drained. But you leave some of the fat in and the fat and spices spread into the egg and vegetables that eventually are grilled with it.

None of that diffusion of grease and spices happens here. So I diced it to get the flavor spread around. I suppose it's healthier to have a chorizo that gets on your plate with a lot less grease. It worked out ok, but if you're expecting a Mexican-style result, ain't gonna happen.

Texturally, it's more like machacado. Machacado is where you use dried shredded beef (like pulled pork, but it's beef, dry and kind of tough). Say you diced the beef, instead of shredding it; this chews like that, but the taste is definitely chorizo.

Buen provecho!

Garlic goes with spaghetti, right?

Right!
Back to the 'Real Meat, Real Smoke, Real Sausage!'
Yes, taking another look at Kiolbassa Sausage, this time their Roast Garlic offering.

Kiolbassa's Roasted Garlic Smoked Sausage

Awhile back, I tried an Italian sausage with spaghetti. The Italian sausage is normally found on pizza, but it works with spaghetti, too.

I did have one criticism about it. Oregano is a prominent ingredient in Italian sausage. You really notice it. And you might not be that crazy about oregano. I'm a fan, but I can see where it could be over the top.

Of all the Kiolbassa brand sausages, the one that works best with spaghetti is the Roasted Garlic. This really hits the spot. Again, sorry, can't find it in Florida.

Putting the meal together is really simple. Grab some spinach, frozen or otherwise. Get an onion. Get the spaghetti boiling.

Chop the sausage into coin sections and grill on low heat. I chopped the onion in semi-large sections - slightly chunky. And toss that in with the sausage and some butter. I put the spinach in next, after the sausage has been turned a few times to melt its fat, with a half jar of store-bought, bottled spaghetti sauce (brand of your choice).

Once the spaghetti is done (seven to ten minutes boiling time) drain and rinse. Now you can mix the spaghetti in with the other ingredients, or you can set it aside and pour the other ingredients on top. I mixed them together in the big skillet. 

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and red pepper on top.

Spaghetti with garlic sausage, spinach and onion

Buen provecho!