Zesty Italian Sausage Hash & Babies

Posted by Judy | Bebe Love Okazu on May 17, 2010 in Blog, Pork | 3 comments

Some nights for dinner, I must indulge bebe dada and cook whatever he chooses to bring home from Costco.  Yesterday, he found Zesty Italian Sausage (7 sausages in 1 pack, sold in a 2 pack carton for $8), a huge carton of button mushrooms for $4 and a bag of bell peppers (2 each of yellow, orange and red) for $6… Bebe dada was happy to find some good value items.

You’re probably wondering what we were going to do with 14 giant sausages, 6 large bell peppers and a carton of mushrooms, but the meal wasn’t just for he and I.

Before we get to the details of the meal, I would like to state for the record that I am not a big fan of Italian sausage, bratwurst, or any other large sausage links that fall in this category.  I do like to crumble Italian sausage and add this to stuffing for Thanksgiving or even pasta, and I like Little Smokies from Hilshire Farms and Japanese Arabiki sausage, but eating a big sausage link for dinner was not something my mom made for us as kids and it’s not my typical idea of dinner.

It would probably make bebe dada happy if I cooked big sausage links for dinner more often, especially since I’ve been cooking a lot of Japanese dishes and he’s been craving good ol’ American meat and potatoes (he mentioned steak more than a few times over the past 2 weeks), but I think indulging in a pork sausage dinner once in a blue moon isn’t too horrible.

Now, getting to the meal…. We wanted to make a dish that we could easily make in volume.  Our good friends, the Y Family, welcomed a newborn girl on Mother’s Day last weekend and they recently returned home from the hospital.  We wanted to help-out by bringing their family of 4 (now 5) a hot meal.  I guess bebe dada thought his buddy would enjoy Italian sausage (this must be a guy thing, huh?  My dad and brother also like Italian sausage, bratwurst etc.).  With the peppers and sausages we made a hash using a modified recipe that I previously used to make chicken hash, compliments of Big Daddy’s House.

Have you heard of Big Daddy’s House?

While I was on bed rest with bebe E, I read TONS of books, played games on Facebook AND I watched Food Network all the time.  My obsession with Food Network started over 10 years ago.  I would come home from work, check in with Food TV then go to the gym, eat dinner or go to class (I was in business school at the time) and if I was relaxing at home, Food Network would be on TV.  One of the shows I enjoy is Big Daddy’s House.  This is a newer show and the star, Aaron McCargo Jr. was the winner of Season 4 of The Next Food Network Star.  (Yes, I watch this show too.)

One day, ‘Big Daddy’ made a savory chicken hash for any meal of the day.  It’s true!  You can eat this for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner.  It’s a good ol’ fashioned meat and potatoes dish.  I thought this recipe would be perfect for substituting chicken with Italian sausage for our “meals-on-wheels” dinner for the Y Family.  For those of you out there who are not fans of Italian sausage, definitely try this with chicken.  It is so good with chicken!  (And yes, I recommend Costco rotisserie chicken for this.)

Since we needed to make food for 6 people (including bebe dada and I) I doubled the hash recipe below.  Luckily, since yesterday was a Sunday, I had my helpful sous chef (a.k.a. bebe dada) to assist me in the kitchen.  He chopped all of the veggies for me and he also cooked the sausages – all 14 of them.  What a wonderful husband!  He doesn’t read my blog but I have to give him kudos just in case he decides to read this one day.  :)

Zesty Italian Sausage Hash

Serves 4

• 6 – 8 red potatoes, with skin, quartered
• 2 tablespoons butter (or olive oil)
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
• 1 orange bell pepper, sliced
• 6 – 10 button mushrooms, halved
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or red chili powder)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh (or dry) oregano leaves
• 1 pound Italian sausage (Or try 1 (3-pound) store-bought rotisserie chicken, meat removed and diced)
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh (or dry) parsley leaves
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 3 basil leaves, sliced into thin strips (optional)

1)  Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and cook until tender, about 12 to 14 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2)  In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add butter. Add the onions, mushrooms, bell peppers and garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Add the cayenne (or chili powder) salt, pepper, paprika and oregano.  (If you like things spicy, add extra chili pepper or cayenne pepper.)  Lastly, add 1/4 cup of the chicken stock and a squeeze of lemon.  Because of the volume of this recipe, I cooked the peppers and potatoes separately, but I seasoned them both according to the recipe above.  Remove the peppers and onions from the pan and set aside in a bowl.

3)  In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add butter (I used both olive oil and a touch of butter), potatoes, cayenne (or chili powder), salt pepper, paprika, oregano, and parsley and cook until potatoes are browned and a little crisp.  Once the potatoes are browned, add 1/4 cup chicken stock and a squeeze of lemon.  Cook for 2 – 3 minutes then turn-off heat.  Add the bell peppers and onion back into the pan and gently toss with the potatoes.

4)  Cook the Italian sausage in a separate pan.

Yes, we cook sausage using chopsticks.  It’s an Asian-thing.

If you would like to make chicken hash instead of the Italian sausage hash, add the diced rotisserie chicken to the bell peppers and potatoes hash and cook 4-5 minutes until the chicken is warmed through.

5)  Before serving, season the bell peppers and potato hash with additional salt and pepper, if needed. Stir in additional chicken stock to add some moisture, if needed.  Sprinkle additional parsley and lemon juice over the hash.

I used dry parsley since that’s all I had, but I recently bought a little fresh basil plant at Trader Joe’s so I chopped a few basil leaves and tossed this with the hash, just before serving.  The basil and lemon add a refreshing twist to an otherwise very heavy meat and potatoes dish.

We hope the Y Family enjoyed their very hearty Zesty Italian Sausage Hash.  The first 1 – 2 months of taking care of a newborn is the most demanding and physically challenging, but it’s ALL worth it!  In no time, Baby Girl Y will be crawling!

Our own bebe E started crawling forward (she’s been doing the backwards crawl) this past Wednesday, May 12, 2010, and she seems to be enjoying her new-found freedom quite a bit.  We’re so proud of her!  I confess I got a little teary-eyed as it hit me how fast she’s growing-up.

Bebe E, 9 months old and crawling.  Look how happy she is.  :)

A foodie friend of mine has a picture of her puppy on her blog, and I’ve been wanting to post a picture of my own puppy.  She’s actually an old lady but I still refer to Casie as my puppy.  I recently captured both bebe E and Casie sitting near one another as friends, and wanted to share this picture.

My Casie and bebe E, hanging out at my parent’s home over the weekend.
We celebrated my dad’s birthday and  we made It’s Not Kogi Tacos which my dad really enjoyed.

Bebe E and Casie are what I call “frenemies”.  One week, bebe E might absolutely LOVE Casie, squealing with delight and clapping her hands whenever Casie is nearby.  Then the next week they’ll be arch enemies and she’ll cry and scream at Casie if she gets close to her.  Casie, who is very docile, quiet and gentle is happy to sit near bebe E so long as bebe E is happy.

That’s it for today’s post – Babies and Zesty Italian Sausage Hash.  :)  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.  I’d enjoy hearing from you!

Cheers,

Judy | bebe mama