Hot Dog Day Afternoon

This morning I had to go to the eye doctor to get my eyes checked. This resulted in me having my pupils dilated, which meant that I had to stay indoors the next couple of hours to avoid the very bright sunlight of today. But instead of just squinting the day away I took out my sausage maker (something that can't help but cheer you up).

Here's what I used in both sausages and ketchup (from a recipe by Claus Meyer):

Sausage
– Potato
– Onion
– Garlic
– Pork/Veal
– Rosemary
– Fennel seeds
– Allspice
– Milk
– Eggs
– Entestines

Ketchup
– Onion
– Garlic
– Sugar
– Aniseed
– Curry
– Salt and pepper
– Tomatoes
– Apple vinegar

First thing I did was to boil me a potato, an onion and a clover of garlic:

Then I poured out the water and mashed the whole damn thing before I blended it with ground meat (pork and veal) and salt.

Then I poured in the remaining ingredients: Rosemary, fennel seeds, allspice, pepper, milk and eggs:

A few moments later they came out of my magic sausage making machine looking like this:

And then there was the ketchup.

First of I fried the onion and garlic very lightly before putting in the spices: Aniseed, curry, salt and pepper along with the sugar allowing the whole thing to get caramelized:

In go the tomatoes and the vinegar:

Let it boil quietly for about an hour:

Then blend and sieve it:

The old lady made some very nice bread to pour the whole thing into once it was done:

Done!

The Art of Sausage Zen

Sausage with mashed potatoes, camouflaged as sushi.

Every year around Christmas we prepare an orgy of sushi treats as a way of balancing all the very heavy traditional Danish Christmas meals. Our father, however, is notoriously afraid of anything remotely foreign or new, which means that this meal is by far the hardest part of Christmas for him.

One year our mother, who can be quite the trickster, thought up something ingenious: To roll the traditional (crappy, industrial, yet dad-beloved) red sausages in mashed potatoes wrapped in sea weed. Of course this was served with mustard, ketchup and fried onions. Need I say it was a tremendous success?