Sausage Rolls

 

Sausage rolls

 

·        1 lb ground pork sausage (Fred Meyer store brand has worked best for us of grocery store options- WinCo ended up dry)

·        1 package puff pastry

·        1 cup Bread crumb

·        1 tsp. Ginger

·        ¾ to 1 cup fresh Sage chopped and loosely packed

·        ½ tsp. nutmeg

·        1 tsp. Onion powder

·        Mustard (dijon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix everything but the mustard and puff pastry together and split into 2 equal portions,

Roll out the puff pastry and cut each piece into 12 equal rectangles (24 total). Put a small dot of dijon mustard in the middle of each piece and wet the edges slightly.

Each half portion of sausage mixture should be split into 12 equal portions again. And placed on top of the mustard dot. Wrap the sausage in the pastry and seal edges.

 

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until puff pastry is golden and sausage is fully cooked.

Lavender Lemon Curd

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (a little over 1 lemon)
• lemon peel (use a peeler to take the peel off without getting the white part)
• 1 tbs. lavender blossoms
• 1/4 cup butter

Mix together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice, peel, and lavender in a small pot. Use that pot in a double boiler over gently simmering water and whisk often for about 10-15 minutes. It should just start to thicken. Take off the heat. Add in the butter and mix till incorporated. Strain the peel and blossoms out. Chill for at least 4 hours.

The lavender is entirely optional but adds a nice flavor.

This makes a great substitute for syrups or jams on breakfasts and sandwiches.

Cheese Souffle

• Butter, room temperature, for greasing the souffle
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• 1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/3 cups milk, hot
• 4 large egg yolks 
• 6 ounces ages white cheddar
• 5 egg whites plus 1 tablespoon water 
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Use some butter to grease an 8 inch souffle dish. Then use the grated parmesan to coat the edges. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small saucepan, heat the butter, and allow the water to cook out. Whisk in flour, mustard, salt, and garlic. cook for 2 minutes. 

Whisk in the milk slowly and turn heat up. As soon as it boils, remove it from the heat.

In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks till creamy. Then slowly temper them in to the flour and milk mixture. Mix well. Add the cheese and take them off the heat. Mix well. 

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Then slowly fold in the egg whites into the cheese mixture. 

Slowly pour into the souffle dish. Bake for 35 minutes. Top should be browned and egg should be cooked through. 

This recipe originally comes from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/cheese-souffle-recipe/index.html#!

biscuit quiche

My roommate led me to this recipe http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/bacon-quiche-biscuit-cups/404b70ce-f223-45d7-9db1-44e4f85ab47e.

Ive made a few modifications to help it turn out even better.

• 5 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 package of cream cheese, softened
• 1 bunch of green onion, chopped
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbs milk
• 1 package of pillsbury flaky biscuit dough. (8 biscuits)
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheese (swiss works best but cheddar or parmesan will work)

Start by blending the cream cheese and milk till soft and smooth. Add in the eggs. Then add in the bacon, green onion and cheese. Mix well.

Open up the can of biscuits and cut each of them in half. Roll each half out flat into a circular shape and mold into a greased muffin tin. 

Press into the sides of the tin.Repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Try not to overwork the dough. 

Just fill each biscuit shell with the filling, Its okay if there is a little space at the top. The filling and dough both expand.

Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes or until the dough is browned and the filling has set. 

Don't go for the off brand biscuit dough. To work well, you need the good stuff.

Kalispell Trip

I recently went back to where I attended high school for an awesome week of fun and food. Hello again to the beautiful Kalispell Montana. Here are a few of the food highlights from my trip.

Montana Coffee Traders

328 W Center Street

Kalispell, MT 59901

$5 Bowl Lobster Bisque: This item is a special that is not always available, but it is well worth checking in for. It has a lovely flavor with large chunks of lobster throughout. I would definitely order this again. Look forward to a coming post with my version of lobster bisque.

$8 Trader’s Traditional Breakfast with Bacon: The traditional breakfast comes with two eggs cooked any style, hash browns, two triangles of buttered toast, a small section of fruit and the optional meat. In my case I chose bacon but ham and sausage were other options. The eggs were cooked exactly the way I ordered (over easy) and the hash browns were nice if a little underwhelming. The bacon was cooked perfectly though. It was a good thick sliced bacon that was crispy and delicious. Overall, a filling breakfast that was a better choice than many national chains for both flavor and price, but nothing incredibly special.

Midori

2835 Hwy 93 N

Kalispell, MT 59901

$10 Teriyaki Beef lunch special: It was a nice dish that included a cup of miso soup, a small salad, and the main dish with teriyaki beef, white sticky rice, and tempura veggies. The veggies were good and I liked the batter but they tasted a little oily. They didn’t feel oily but there was an oil flavor to them. The miso was a touch bland but still good. The salad had a great strong flavor but was slightly overdressed so it ended up a little overpowering. The rice and meat were cooked well and the sauce was just right, not too sweet.

Alley Connection

22 1st St W,

Kalispell, Mt 59901

$3 Wonton Soup: This soup comes with pork, and fried and boiled wontons in a nice broth. The broth was just a touch bland but with a tiny bit of soy sauce added it was really good. The bowl is actually quite filling for the size.

I have eaten other dishes at Alley Connection in the past and enjoyed them as well.

Bullman’s

175 Hutton Ranch Road # 107

Kalispell, MT 59901

$19 Large Bitterroot Pizza with Prosciutto: This is a thin crust pizza cooked in a wood fire oven. It has an olive oil and sea salt base with mozzarella cheese, pistachios, red onions and rosemary. On its own it is delicious, but adding prosciutto takes it to another level. This is a pizza that I crave and I have yet to find a similar one elsewhere. Look forward to my version of this pizza coming up in a future post.

$7 Cheese Sticks: The cheese sticks are a simple pizza crust with tons of seasoned cheese cooked in the wood-fire oven. Delicious, I order it every time.