Sausage

This meal is a lazy-man’s version of paella. (But we lazy, big-mouthed, big-appetite girls can dispatch this dinner pretty easily, too!)

Food Network is located at Chelsea Market, in Manhattan. The Lobster Place is a great seafood shop within this huge market. I made up this meal one night during a run of taping for 30-Minute Meals. I stopped into the market and took home pure white scrod, some tiny Manila clams, and a little pack of saffron powder as my inspiration. It was so delish that John and I ate it three nights in ten, sharing it with family and friends two of those evenings as the simplest, tastiest way we could think to entertain a crowd. Whether you’re feeding one or some, make a whole pot of this stoup (thicker than soup, thinner than stew), as the leftovers get even better!

Bangers are a mild British pork sausage. If they are not available, any kind of mild pork, beef, or even chicken sausage will do the trick.

Serve the soup in shallow bowls and pass crusty bread for mopping.

Serve with a green salad for a real meal.

Serve with crusty bread.

This meal is good for B-L-D: breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Thicker than soup, thinner than stew, this stoup combines sausage, ham, pepperoni, veggies, and arugula. It tastes like a giant Italian sub!

Pickled chorizo is a harmonious blend of acid and fat that makes something more than the sum of its parts. The sweetness of the vinegars helps balance the heady spice blend of Spanish chorizo. It’s wonderful folded into a ragout of chickpeas or giant lima beans. Pickled chorizo is an intriguing note with marinated raw seafood. It’s delicious as an ingredient in soups and stews, softening the texture of the chorizo and permeating the liquid with its flavor. The resulting vinegar is a wonderful ingredient on its own, for salads and sauces, where that meaty, spicy note helps bring everything else into focus.

One-Dish Sabbath meals like choucroute and pot-au-feu are for Alsatians what cholent is for Jews from eastern Europe. In the nineteenth century, the author Alexandre Weill mentioned the Sabbath lunch meal of his childhood, which included a dish of pearl barley or beans, choucroute, and kugel, made with mostly dried pear or plum. Choucroute with sausage and corned beef is also eaten at Purim and has particular significance. The way the sausage “hangs” in Alsatian butcher shops is a reminder of how the evil Haman, who wanted to kill all the Jews, was hanged. Sometimes Alsatians call the fat hunk of corned or smoked beef “the Haman.” Michèle Weil, a doctor in Strasbourg, makes sauerkraut on Friday, lets it cool, and just reheats it for Saturday lunch. She varies her meal by adding pickelfleisch, duck confit, chicken or veal sausages, and sometimes smoked goose breast. You can make this dish as I have suggested, or vary the amounts and kinds of meats. Choucroute is a great winter party dish; the French will often eat it while watching rugby games on television. When you include the corned beef, you can most certainly feed a whole crowd.

Beach clambakes are a blast. They make me think of Annette Funicello, who I still find very attractive. Anyway … Lobsters, clams, and corn all steamed in seaweed: For me, it’s the perfect summer party. Even if you can’t get to the beach, you can still pull off a great clambake in your own backyard. Be sure to ask your fish guy for some seaweed. Lobsters come in crates packed with this stuff, so he should be able to give you some. Parboil the lobsters to kill them first before putting them on the grill. Alternatively, you can just split the bodies down the middle to kill them and skip the boiling step.