Guatemalan Longaniza

Hey, Mom, I finally re-created the sausage you and Dad and I had at that Guatemalan restaurant (aptly named "Guatemalan Restaurant") in Tucson.

The menu, you'll remember, said:

Longaniza: Guatemalan style sausage stuffed with ground pork,

onions, jalapeno peppers, mint and spices.

The sausage was grilled over hot coals, almost blackened in some places but never burnt. It was stuffed in hog casings that the chef split open prior to grilling. The pork was quite lean and finely ground for sausage. The mint and chiles were fresh and abundant. It was like nothing I'd had before.

So I looked for a recipe. And it turns out this post is destined to become the top search result for the phrase "Guatemalan longaniza," simply because I couldn't find any such thing anywhere on the internet or in any of my cookbooks. There's Spanish longaniza, which is smoked and mint-free. There's Mexican longaniza, which appears to be like Mexican chorizo except in casings (look, a video from Arizona on Mexican sausagemaking in which the narrator has a Castilian accent. Seriously, listen to the Spanish version. Where did they find that guy?)

And there's Filipino longaniza, which is garlicky, spicy, sometimes sweet, and occasionally contains mint.

But no Guatemalan longaniza. I wonder if the chef, the older woman at that restaurant, has connections or family in the Philippines? Maybe there's a Filipino community in Guatemala? You'll have to do further investigative work for me, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I bought a Boston butt on sale at Publix and cut the meat off the bone. I used about three pounds of meat and froze the rest. I decided not to add any fat as I usually would for sausage: the butt was quite fatty already, and I wanted to keep it lean like what we had.

So I mixed the following together and sent it through my grinder fitted with the finer of the two blades:

• 3 pounds fatty pork, cut into strips
• a white onion, diced and sauteed in olive oil
• a clove of garlic, minced and added to saute pan at end
  
• a handful of fresh mint
• a jalapeno from the grocery store
• a few tabascos from last year's garden, frozen, since grocery store jalapenos are so lame
• red pepper flakes to round up the chile flavor
  
• kosher salt
• black pepper (lots)
  
• fresh thyme (not much)
  
• 1/3 cup light rum

I also separately chiffonaded another handful of mint and mixed it in after the grinding, since the grind was so fine and I wanted some visible mint leaves.

But it wasn't quite right. I put the mixture in the fridge and thought about it for a whole day...and finally realized the secret ingredient had to be a good dose of sugar. That would account for the scorched look of the restaurant sausages where the filling had burbled out of the slits. And it worked: it pulled the mint and spices together in a very Vietnamese way.

So I added:

• several tablespoonfuls of sugar

In fact, Lawson's first comment on the sausages (which he liked) was that they reminded him of the Chinese sweet sausages he used to eat in NYC and at The Orient, the Chinese restaurant in Columbia where he learned much of what he knows about Chinese cooking.

Next time I think I will add lime or orange zest or juice, just a touch. I may also play with some other spices besides thyme and pepper.

I stuffed these into medium hog casings, tied them into 5" links, and hung them in the fridge for two days. I used the gas grill to cook them the first batch, but I will grill them over wood next time. I have been enjoying my homemade sausages grilled over wood so, so, so much more than over gas. The wood seems to fill in the flavor gaps and mellow any dominant flavors -- like, my bratwurst over gas taste too strongly of nutmeg, but over wood they have the right musky, earthy-homemade nutmeg solidity but don't necessarily taste like snickerdoodles.

The longaniza was good. I'll make it again -- it's a very summery sausage.

I have sausages and pork on the brain after interviewing local food activist, politician, and fancypants pig farmer Emile DeFelice a few days ago for an upcoming Free Times story. We foraged for mushrooms (well, as much as my inappropriate footwear would allow). Fangirl and journalist struggled mightily within me. Fortunately, the best defense against asking questions like "How'd you get so awesome?" is to ask as few questions as possible and just let a guy talk. (Actually, that's pretty much my one and only interview tactic: Shut the hell up.) Look for the article on Wednesday.

No good sausage or Emile pictures, sorry. My camera woes continue.

The $3 Bill Project: Eating Cheap

In today's Free Times I have a story on Eve Ross and Justin Shearer, who are eating for $3 a day through January and possibly through February and half of March as well -- depends on whether the groundhog sees his shadow.

Their goal is to examine their own food spending habits, and to donate the saved money to a local food bank. And they were kind enough to actually make dinner within their budget for me and Graeme, the photographer. Yes. It was awesome.

I loved everything they made us, but especially the soup. Here's Eve's recipe for a similar version made with squash.

Inspiring all around, and good company.

Devi Raju

I interviewed Devi, who runs the amazing Touch of India and Touch of India Express restaurants, and wrote a 650-word piece on her for this week's Free Times. I wish I'd had more space; she gave me a lot to work with.

Of the most interest to this blog was the fact that she doesn't taste the food she's cooking. Here's the relevant unedited section of the interview (I cut this way down for the article):

***

Eva: Do you keep notes about what you put in each dish, or do you have recipes you've written, or is it just all in your head?

Devi: All in my head. That's why it won't taste the same every time you eat it!
I don't have fixed menus because today it may be hot, tomorrow it may be cold, you don't know what...
And plus I don't taste my food.

Eva: I wondered about that, cause you're a vegetarian, right?

Devi: Even vegetables

Eva: So even the vegetables you don't taste...Why's that?

Devi: So that's what we practice in India. We used to offer food to the god when we cook some days, like prayers days. If you’re practicing sucking your fingers all the time, if you taste the food, that is not going to be good to offer to god.
That is the reason we practice when we are gone to mother in law's house, we don't eat food until we feed the family and we later.... Some days offerings may come, priests may come, someone come to eat, and that's why I never eat my food first when I cook.

Eva: Do you feel like that affects your cooking somehow?

Devi: No, I don't know, I don't know the taste because I'm cooking that much and I don't know the difference.

Like if someone is there, my son, my daughter in law, my husband there, they will check, they will taste for me. Me, no. I never taste my food.

Eva: So does it surprise you sometimes when you do eat it?

Devi: Nah. But I know when I cook, like the items, when I cook, it's going to taste good anyway. But the item...If I like, like if I do the okra, if I say oh, I like that okra, I like that okra because it tastes so good to me to eat that, then I'll eat afterwards. But not in the beginning.

It won't surprise me at all because I know when it looks good.

When you look you can tell the food usually. That's why I don't have to taste anything to know whether it's okay or not.

***

It reminds me of something you said to me once, Mom, about being able to smell when food has enough salt in it. Similar thing: Devi can can tell by looking whether the food is right.

I do find myself tasting the food I cook less all the time, but I still usually have to taste for salt. Maybe it's because I use different salting agents -- sometimes fish sauce, sometimes table salt or coarse-ish sea salt, and usually of varying brands, so always different. I don't know; I always have salting problems. Maybe I need to look and smell more.

By the way, Lawson has been a customer of Devi's for many years. He once told me that years ago he was eating some meat or poultry dish at Touch of India and Devi asked him how it was; she had never tried the dish, even though she cooked it, since she was a vegetarian. So that was one line of questioning I wanted to pursue in the interview, and luckily she wanted to go there, too.

This was the first in what will become a series of interviews with local food people -- restaurateurs, farmers, caterers, what have you...I hope they're all so much fun.

A Book Review and More

I almost forgot! For the Entertaining section of this month's Abode I reviewed Paul Johnson's Fish Forever: The Definitive Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Preparing Healthy, Delicious, and Environmentally Sustainable Seafood. What a cool book that is.

Here's to more fish in the rest of 2008. Judging by our posts here over the last few weeks, even, we're off to a good start.

Frittata in the Free Times

I wrote several pieces for this month's Abode, which is finally online for the first time ever this month! Looks like one article didn't make it online...for that, you can pick up the print version in the Free Times all around Columbia this week.

I Promise I Will Shut Up About Collards After This

I wrote the Entertaining page again this month for Abode, the special home section that appears in this week's Free Times. Once again, it's not online, but if you're in Columbia, South Carolina, you should pick one up.

The main article is about collard greens. The auxiliary articles are about 1960s desserts and decompressing from holiday entertaining.

The Shrimp of Tarts

I have a few short articles this week in Abode, the special monthly home section of the Free Times. One piece is about shrimp and grits and was based in part on an interview with Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills. Another is about tarts, for which we have many recipes here at Cooking Habit. There is a third piece, but it is not about food.

Abode isn't online, unfortunately, but if you're in Columbia, make sure you pick up a Free Times this week. Mom, I'll send you one...and hey, welcome back from your trip!