So once upon a time when I was a housewife with two very small children …….
Amazingly I read one day in the National Trust Magazine and noticed an article for a competition. They wanted someone to invent an amazing Chocolate recipe. The thing that caught my eye was a year’s supply of Green and Blacks chocolate, along with the main prize of a new Aga and my very own recipe in their prestigious magazine (which never happened – I’m not bitter).
Uplifted now, I set to work that night and wrote pages upon pages of marvelous recipes, which was exhausting. Which one would be the winner? It could only be the ‘Chocolate Sausages’ which shone like a bright light in the sky. I had never even tried this recipe but decided to deceive the magazine into thinking that I’d made them all the time she sent the incredible recipe attached to my favourite pigeon off into the sky……..
Several weeks later my pigeon arrived home with a note telling me that I was picked amongst 5 runners up to go to Wimpole Hall for a Cook off. ‘Oh no’ I exclaimed feeling most distraught amongst the excitement – ‘I have not even tried the recipe!! And there are only 4 weeks to the final’
At once I searched high and low throughout the land to find a supplier for the skins, once this was in order I set about trying the amazing recipe “Fantastico” it was incredible! It worked and not only that they tasted and smelled divine in a slightly good but unusual way.
Gradually every weekend for the next four weeks I made batch after batch and corrected seasoning, adjusted the quantity of chocolate and perfected the art of the ‘Sausage string’. Fortuitously the local butcher allowed me to help make sausages one afternoon so I could perfect the sausage stuffer, followed by the twist and then the sausage link.
Even on the day, although nervous, laden with all Organic produce, a mincer, sausage stuffer machine and a professional set of knives, I battled it out almost to the death
Winning by a sausage skin to a Maya Chocolate Stolen.
So much pandemonium, press, journalists, photographers but most importantly - plenty of chocolate.
What a day ! What a recipe ! What a sausage!
The End
If you would like to make this delicious recipe here is the original, for a simpler version go to the recipes search engine -
Organic Pork Chilean Chocolate Sausages
Use: Sausage machine or large piping bag, 2cm-3cm (1/2in-1 in) nozzle.
Enough sausage skins for 1 kg or 2lb mix.
500g/ 18 oz organic coarsely minced belly of pork
250g/ 9 oz organic small-diced belly of pork
2 sage leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
1 teaspoon flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon thyme, chopped
25g butter
1 tablespoon corn oil
175g/ 6 oz red onion, finely chopped
1 green chilli finely chopped without the seeds
6g (1/2 in) skinned ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
1/8 whole fresh nutmeg, grated
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
90g dark chocolate 70% (Green and Blacks of course)
- Soak the sausage skins in a bowl of tepid water with a tablespoon of vinegar for about half an hour, they will become soft and elastic
- Wash the sausage skins thoroughly in cold water and run the water through them by attaching them to the tap
- Mix the ground and diced pork, sage, coriander, parsley and lemon thyme in a bowl using your hands
- Sauté the red onion, chilli pepper, ginger and garlic in the butter and corn oil until soft, but not browned
- Add the mace, paprika, nutmeg and cumin to the sautéed mixture while it is still hot.
- Cook together for a few minutes to release the flavour of the spices
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl, suspended over simmering water/Bain Marie
- Add the onion and spice mixture and the melted chocolate to the bowl of pork and mix together well, seasoning with a good dash of salt and pepper, your sausage filling is now ready
- Alternatively, if you’re not in a hurry leave the mix to infuse in the fridge overnight
- Load up your sausage machine or piping bag with the filling (if using a piping bag do not put all the filling into the piping bag at once as it makes it more difficult to force it through)
- Ease the casing over the nozzle tying the casing at the end leaving about three inches hanging loose
- Feed the filling through making one long, fat sausage and then once the casing is almost full make a knot at the top end
- Divide it up into individual sausages by twisting each section in alternate directions to prevent the sausages unwinding. Cut the sausage skins in the middle of each twisted section
- Sausages are best-rested overnight- to prevent the skins from splitting when cooked- but you can cook them straight away- but cook them slowly
- Grill, roast, B.B.Q, pan-fry or griddle the sausages till just cooked- don’t nuke them
HINT: If you think filling the sausages sounds too daunting, I suggest you could give the mix to your local friendly butcher and bribe him to make them!