March 17, 2014 Sautéed Italian Sausages with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Root vegetables and chocolate baked pudding and crème anglais

March 17, 2014 Sautéed Italian Sausages with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Root vegetables and chocolate baked pudding and crème anglais

I stopped at Lowe’s on my way home from court today and bought 2 red new potatoes ($.50/lb.), a head of green cabbage ($.17/lb.) and an about 1 ½ lb. package of short ribs ($5.49/lb.).  When I arrived at home, I decided to cook short ribs and roasted vegetables.

I called Suzette and she reminded me that she had bought a bag of Brussels sprouts that was in the garage fridge.

I braised the short ribs in olive oil and put in ¼ cup each of sliced carrot and carrot and some garlic stalks.  I initially burned the vegetables, but then removed the offending vegetables that were delicious.  After braising the meat for about fifteen minutes I added 1 cup of Spanish red wine, 1 cup of water 1 sliced carrot, ½ sweet onion, and three or four sliced garlic stalks to the meat.  After about another ½ hour, I added the other potato diced, another carrot and and then in fifteen minutes more ab out 5 mushrooms diced and a beef bouillon cube.

I then filled the ceramic baking dish with 1 turnip, 3 medium carrots, 1 small onion, about ¾ lb. halved Brussel sprouts, about 5 halved cloves of garlic, 1 stalk of celery and covered the baking dish with aluminum foil and roasted it for about 1 hour.

Suzette came home around 6:00 and stirred and finished cooking the roasted vegetables.

By 7:00 it was apparent that the short ribs were hours away from being ready to eat, so we decided to cook Italian Sausages instead and eat them with the roasted vegetables.

Suzette has a special way of cooking sausages that we like a lot.  She puts them in a skillet with about 1/3 inch of beer and simmers them turning them to cook evenly.  When the beer evaporates the sausages get braised in the skillet and their skins turn brown and crunchy.  This produces a sausage with a soft flavorful meat center and a crispy slightly charred skin, which we like a lot.  We usually drink beer with the sausages.  Tonight was no exception.  We make a dipping sauce for the sausages with various amounts and mixtures of mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and horseradish.

We watched Larry Wilmore, Rachel Maddox and John Stewart while we ate.

A little while after dinner, Suzette wanted to eat some of the PPI baked chocolate pudding with crème anglais sauce I made last weekend.  I drank a cup of tea with my dessert and sipped a bit of Calvados as we reviewed and discussed the proposed Spring menu for the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery.

Bon Appétit