Italian Sausage with Peppers, Onions and Beer
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| Italian Sausage with Peppers, Onions and Beer (20120927) |
Having been invited to a potluck, I decided to make Italian sausage with peppers, onions, and beer.
A main part of cooking this dish was deciding which beer I should use. Logically I stopped by a liquor store and asked the friendly workers there if they knew any beers that were good for cooking. One of the two workers suggested just using a cheap beer, but the other gave it some thought and suggested using a brown ale. After deciding on the Brooklyn Brown Ale, I had the choice of getting two single bottles or a six-pack, and went with the six-pack. I intended on using two bottles for the dish and bring the remaining four bottles to the potluck.
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| Most of the Ingredients (20120927) |
I pretty much followed the recipe to the letter.
Comments:
In my attempt at cooking this dish, I removed some of the sausages prematurely and eventually had to go back and cook them some more. This resulted in some wasted heat and time. In addition to giving the sausages more cooking time in the pan, I let the sausages simmer with the other ingredients for longer than I thought was necessary to ensure the sausages were cooked thoroughly. As a result, the peppers and onion were overcooked and soft.
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| Chopped! (20120927) |
Results:
At the event, people were kind enough to say good things about the dish. I, myself, also enjoyed how it turned out. Of course sausages are naturally delicious and adding peppers and onions serve as great flavor enhancers, so it's hard to go wrong with this dish.
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| Sweet Italian Sausages! (20120927) |
In case I make this dish again, I would cook the sausages longer before cooking the peppers and such. In addition, I would also use a fork to hold the sausages down when cutting them so that my fingers don't get burned.
[20121201][20161106 Edit]
20121201:
A couple months have passed and I had the urge to make the dish again. This time, however, I combined it with asparagus and mashed potatoes.
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| Italian Sausage with Peppers, Onions and Beer (20121201) |
I prepared for the dish by cutting a green bell pepper, a red bell pepper, and an onion. In a pan, I heated olive oil and vegetable oil. Then I added the onion and began cooking the (sweet) Italian sausage until brown. I removed the Italian sausage from the pan. Continued with Step 2 and 3 to the letter.
Having opened another bottle of Brooklyn Brown Ale to drink, I eventually had about two tablespoons left of it in the bottle and decided to add it to the simmering pot.
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| Sweet Italian Sausage (20121201) |
I was originally thinking about using a beer other than the Brooklyn Brown Ale. However, I wanted to drink a bottle of Brooklyn Brown Ale and there weren't any single bottles available at the local liquor stores. Thus, after buying a six-pack of Brooklyn Brown Ale, my options for cooking consisted of a single 22 oz bottle, a four-pack (of ???), or this six-pack of Brooklyn Brown Ale. Since I had previously used Brooklyn Brown Ale and it was the beer in greatest quantity, using a bottle of it was the logical decision.
I had cut one of the sausages perpendicular to the length and then I realized I should start cutting the sausage diagonally! At first I made drastic diagonal cuts: 30 degrees from the axis along the length of the sausage. Unfortunately, these slices appeared long and visually unappealing so I began cutting slices closer to 60 degrees from the axis running along the length.
The sausages cooked much quicker this time around, which was a good thing. In fact, the whole process went by more smoothly this time around than the last.
The smell of this dish while cooking filled my apartment with the most wonderful smell.
Results:
While biting into a bell pepper on its own might not be so flavorful, I cook with it because bell peppers contribute nutritional value and texture to the dish.
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| Horizontal slices, 30 Degree slices, and 60 Degree slices (20121201) |
20121202:
Having eaten more of the dish, I realized the bell peppers do have a taste. I believe, however, their taste had suddenly become more noticeable because the dish was now cooled. I'm ecstatic with how the dish turned out.
[20121202][20161106 Edit]
Relevant Links:
Best Ever Sausage with Peppers, Onions, and Beer! (AllRecipes.com)*
Deglazing (cooking) (Wikipedia.org)
My Brooklyn Brown Ale post
My Sausage, Asparagus, and Mashed Potatoes post
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| Brooklyn Brown Ale (20120927) |
The following is the original recipe with any changes and comments for 20120927 found in brackets '[]' and for 20121201 in braces '{}'. Note that the recipe for 20121201 was scaled by a third.
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:*Roughly 3 units fresh herbs = 1 unit dried herbs; the actual amount depends on how fresh the dried herbs are, because fresher dried herbs are stronger in flavor. In other words, with more freshly dried herbs, one can use less to achieve the same amount of flavor.
3 tbsp olive oil [{estimated the amount of oil needed]}
3 lbs Italian sausages [2.96 lbs]{Scaled: 1 lb}
3 red bell peppers, sliced [Used only 2 instead of 3]{Scaled: 1}
2 green bell peppers, sliced {Scaled: 1}
2 large red onions, sliced {Used yellow instead of red, Scaled: 1}
3 garlic cloves, chopped {Scaled: 2}
2 (12 ounce) cans beer {Scaled: 1} [{Used Brooklyn Brown Ale]}
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste {Scaled: 3 oz.}
3 tbsp chopped fresh oregano [Used 1 tbsp dried oregano]* {Scaled: 0.5 tbsp dried oregano}
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro [Omitted; Possibly added more oregano in it's place] {Scaled: 1.5 tbsp}
2 tbsp hot sauce [{Omitted]}
salt and pepper, to taste [Used 1 teaspoon Jane's Mixed-Up Salt][I might have also used some sea salt] {Mostly used Jane's Mixed-Up Salt, then some freshly ground pepper, and just a little freshly ground sea salt}
Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium high heat. Cook sausage until browned on all sides. Remove sausage from pan, and set aside.
2. Pour in 1 can of beer {Scaled: 1/2 can of beer} to deglaze the pan, scraping up any blackened bits from the bottom. Place the red peppers, green peppers, onions and garlic in the pan. Stir in the remaining beer and the tomato paste. Season with oregano, cilantro, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until onions and peppers are tender. {I just heated it up a little. I didn't need the onions and peppers to be tender if I'm going to have them simmer more with the sausage.}
3. Slice the sausage into bite size pieces and add to the skillet. Cover and simmer until sausage is cooked through. [The sausages were still hot when I was slicing into them. My fingers were so tender afterwards.]
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