Try this delicious Greek recipe. Just made last night.
Ingredients:
Two bell peppers (your favorites. I used red & orange)
5tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 1/4lb spicy sausage (I used turkey sausage)
14 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
3 tbsp fresh parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste
Cut each pepper into 8 chunks. In a skillet, heat the olive oil and add the peppers. Cook until they are starting to turn a little brown around the edges. Turn off the heat, and put the leftover olive oil into a frying pan. Cut the sausages into bite sized chunks and add them to the frying pan. Cook until brown, but don’t cook through.
Add all ingredients to a baking pan and stir well. Cook on 350 for about 40-45 minutes, stirring every 10. Serves 4.
As a side dish, I made stuffed Portobello mushrooms. Not very Greek, but very easy.
Ingredients:
4 medium mushrooms
1/4 cup of swiss cheese (or whatever you like)
Rosemary
Parsley
3tbsp diced garlic
Put all the stuffing ingredients into a bowl and mix together. Stuff the shrooms. Cook on 350 for about 20 minutes. Yum! As always, you should vary the recipe depending on your taste. Don’t like sausage? Use chicken. Don’t like Swiss? Use feta. In fact, feta might be bettah.
jack fate
What? No crockpot?
Michael D.
No crockpot. Although I did make French Onion Soup in it last week. I call it:
Freedom Onion Soup.
Jen
A banking pan? Is that something you get with the Fair Tax?
Michael D.
Don’t know what you’re talking about! :-)
RSA
Is that a marble countertop?
Krista
Good catch, RSA. You grab your binoculars, I’ll grab my camera, and I’ll meet you in the bushes behind Michael’s place.
TheFountainHead
As a refugee from the Open Caucus thread, which Cassidy has thoroughly stained, I demand a portion of your stew!
Billy K
Tell me how to make this in a crockpot.
(I see a couple folks beat me to it, but I’m posting anyway.)
Billy K
It’s for first-class citizens (Military) only!
Michael D.
I think you would ruin the peppers in a crock pot, but go ahead and try!
The counters are granite.
ImJohnGalt
Looks good on paper, but the plating needs work.
Michael D.
ImJohnGalt: Actually, that’s the best plating I’ve ever done – truly sad. I’m not one for garnishes or drizzles of sauce unless people come over.
Billy K
It took me a while to figure out what you were talking about. My stuff goes in a plastic bowl. I don’t want to admire its beatuy, I wnt to eat it.
/Ruffian
Punchy
Playing the Tim Game, it’s clear from the fungus in that photo that you’re somewhere in or around Atlanta, GA.
Botany, bitches.
TheFountainHead
They don’t have large brown-cap mushrooms outside of Atlanta??
Spider97
I think it’s doubtful that the peppers could stand up to a crock pot very well, but I’m no crock pot expert.
Tim (the other one)
“As a refugee from the Open Caucus thread, which Cassidy has thoroughly stained, I demand a portion of your stew!”
I’m sorry but only active military are eligible.
Tim (the other one)
Geez, Billy K beat me there. Apologies for the plagiarism.
TheFountainHead
I thought the military could only eat meals made by Haliburton or one of its subsidiaries. Michael, WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR!!!????
Spider97
Michael,
Did you serve it with a wine? I’m always on the look out for good wine recommendations with spicier foods.
Thanks.
Michael D.
Spider97: I didn’t. I’m on an alcohol break. However, if I did, I would serve it with a good Boone’s Farm.
dslak
This is the last straw. I want Michael off this blog, now!
Punchy
My respect for Mike D just skyrocketed.
caustics
Was there cake afterwards?
wasabi gasp
The food looks tasty, but you got some fucked up taste in dinner plates.
Funkula
Feta is most assuredly betta.
Gus
Gewurtztraminer is a good spicy food wine.
LarryB
I hate bell peppers. Here’s my favorite sausage fry-up. It only takes 1/2 an hour, including prep time.
Ingredients:
Note: The weights for the main ingredients are approximate. The goal is approximately equal volumes of sausage, potatoes and tomatoes.
1 beer
1 lb sausage (Italian hots)
1 lb small potatoes (I like Yukon golds).
1 yellow onion
1 tblsp cooking oil
1 fat clove of garlic
1 cup canned chicken stock or reconstituted bullion
1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (if your sausage isn’t spicy enough)
1 lb tomatoes ( (Fresh are much better in this recipe, but I suppose canned would do)
1/4 cup parsley
Salt and pepper to taste.
Prep:
Open the beer. Slice the sausage, Chop the onions, wedge (don’t dice) the tomatoes, mince the garlic and parsley.
In a large pan with a close-fitting lid, add a little oil and fry the onions until they’re soft. Scrape the onions over to one side of the pan, add the sausage and cook till brown but still a little underdone. Don’t forget to stir the onions occasionally or they’ll burn. Add the garlic and pepper flakes. After a minute, turn up the heat and add the stock. If you’re like me, there’s about half of that beer left by this point. Throw it in, also. With the lid off and still at high temperature, boil off most of the liquid, When it’s down to about a third of the original volume, it will start thickening. Throw in the tomatoes and parsley, clap on the lid, and turn down the heat. By the time you set the table it will be done. Don’t overcook the tomatoes! They should be hot but not cooked to mush. Check the seasoning and serve.
Zifnab
Double the serving, invite a few friends over, and you’d have a real sausage fest.
LarryB
Shoot, I forgot the potatoes:
Prep:
Cube them. If you’re using small boilers, just cut each one in half.
The potatoes go in with the stock and beer. By the time the stock is reduced, the potatoes are done.
Face
Damn you Zif, I was running for the Mike/sausage grade-school-esque joke first and you got your clown on first.
/swears at stubby fingers
Kirk Spencer
Plating is “to feed the eyes”. That said, only for company, or for show. Since you’re showing, and you say it’s your worst, a couple of tips.
Less food on the plate. In this example, if you’d reduced the pepper dish serving by about a third you’d probably have had it about right. For display, you want nothing on the rim – whereas you have everything slightly onto the rim in your case. One alternative – the illusion of “Tons of food” – is done by having the food almost to the very edge of the plate.
Contrast is your friend. Red food on a red plate doesn’t appeal (usually, but that’s advanced tricks). The ideal for plating is white. The second best is the complementary color – green, in this case.
And garnish. Yeah, I read your line about garnishes and drizzles, but you’re SHOWING OFF. Since your recipe uses fresh parsley you’ve got some. Even though it’s cliche to add a sprig in this case it’s meets the “reflects the food ingredients” guide many experts recommend. In the center of the peppers, or forming a third point of focus, either works. (For some reason, odd numbers of points of focus are more enticing than even numbers. Dunno why, just have seen it in play too often to doubt it any more.)
All that said – the food looks good. Nice recipe.
Anne Laurie
The food looks tasty, but you got some fucked up taste in dinner plates.
I have a gay friend who says that lesbians may get toasters, but gay men are assigned Fiestaware.
Krista
Riesling also works well with spicy food. As does beer.
Zuzu
Okay, apropos of nothing in this thread:
Does anybody have a foolproof method for avoiding the chest/cough/fever/icky thing going around right now?
I’m doing my old standby of garlic (yes, I’m at home) and massive doses of Vitamin C. Also elderberry lozenges and hand sanitizer every time I handle a shopping cart or open a door at a public place, etc.
What else?
wasabi gasp
Chicken soup, Zuzu, preferably prepared by the oldest woman alive.
And, for an extra dose of Vitamin C, eat it out of Mike D’s Fiestaware.
MNPundit
That is a terrifying amount (450 calorie worth) of olive oil. Anyway I could reduce that?
ImJohnGalt
Kirk, nicely put.
A few more plating resources – it’s amazing how much artful presentation can make good food great at a dinner party. It’s also a great conversation starter.
Food Presentation Tips
Plating Food
Plating Tips
weinerdog43
michael, your recipe looks excellent. Looks like about a little more than an hour total time? Is that about right? Assuming mostly sober (less than 5-6 beers) prep time.
Yum!
Xenos
Agreeing with the Chicken Soup for the latest virus. I just doled out a couple gallons of Chicken Avgolemino to my clan as the sniffles hit critical mass.
And as for the olive oil in Micheal’s recipe – he needs to double it. Damn the calories!
Bombadil
Hey, if we’re going for specific wines, let’s be more specific with the beer, too. Spicy foods call for wines that match, so you want something hoppy — like an IPA for example. Stouts and brown ales just wouldn’t cut it with spicy foods.
Went to an Indian restaurant the other day and tried an Indian beer, Kingfisher (never heard of it before — it was listed under the “Indian beers”, anyway), with the spicier foods — beer was light and dry and went perfectly with the spiciness.
Bombadil
That should read “Spicy foods call for beers that match”.