Paper Chef #10 - Beer-smoked Creole Hot Sausages

Rounded spicy Creole sausages with crusts of sesame seeds, parsley, chickpea flour or Cajun spices. Made from economical, and healthy low fat turkey mince, these beautifully fresh, flavoursome sausages contain no preservative or artificial colours. Adding eggs, cornstarch and stale bread, or even leftover mash potatoes, helps stretch the budget even further for those wanting to donate to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The deliciously moist texture results from smoking at a low temperature (130-150 degrees celsius) and adding beer to the smoking medium.

Creole Hot Sausage
For a "genuine" New Orleans recipe try Chuck Taggart's version. Otherwise, use this version which utilises cheap, lean turkey mince.



For 24 rounded sausages to feed 4-8 people:
600 g turkey mince
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2-4 bay leaves to make 1/2 teaspoon when ground

To stretch the budget, add the following:
4 slices stale bread, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons cornstarch

Mix everything together and beat with an electric mixer for 5 minutes until the meat gelatinises. Chill overnight for the flavour to develop. Roll into balls or long shapes. Instead of sausage skins, coat with parsley, chickpea flour, cajun spices, or sesame seeds to form attractive crusts.

For cooking thread the sausages onto disposable wooden chopsticks. The sausages were initially threaded onto the stems of garlic hearts (flowers), but the stems discoloured during smoking.



Beer Smoking
Place a bowl of beer at the bottom a wok. Scatter 1 cup of smoking wood chips (mesquite in this case) around the bowl. Heat the wok till the chips start smoking. Place the sausages on an oiled rack. Carefly pour 1/2 cup of beer over the wood chips and quickly cover. Smoke for 10-15 minutes at 130-150 degrees Celsius.



Remove sausages from the wok and unthread from the chopsticks. Thread the sausages with blanched stems of garlic hearts. Allow about 3 sausages per chain.



Assemble as shown and place on a large serving platter together with soaked akudjura, drunken Cajun prawns and "hearts of gold".





Related Articles:

Paper Chef #10 Menu
Paper Chef #10 Ingredients
Paper Chef #10 Drunken Cajun Prawns
Paper Chef #10 Beer-smoked Creole Hot Sausages
Paper Chef #10 Louisiana Hearts of Gold
Paper Chef #10 Akudjura and Cajun Prawn Cocktail
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