Square Sausage?, Beer Biscuits, Mincemeat, Pasta all'Assassina

Square Sausage?
Square Sausage or Lorne is a Scottish invention that does not use the usual gut or artificial tubular sausage casing.  Instead the meat mixture is packed in a bread loaf tin, partially frozen, then sliced and separated by parchment or other waxed paper before being frozen for storage.

1 lb Ground Beef (mince as it's called in the UK)
1 lb Ground Pork (pork mince)
1-1/2 cup Bread Crumbs -- I used Panko, but any breadcrumb will work just fine
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp fresh ground Black Pepper
1-1/2 tsp ground Coriander
1/2 tsp fresh ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Mace
1/2cup cold Water

Combine everything with your Mark I Mixer (hands) and a spatula, mixing and "smushing" things together into a coherent mass.  Chill in the fridge while you prep the loaf pan.

Line the loaf pan or similar container with a single strip of parchment or "baking paper" across the long side.  You can use an empty waxed quart milk carton for the pan and  you won't need the parchment.  If you're really into square sausage you could easily make a square form out of thin wood and seal it with a food-grade sealer.  Since the sausage isn't  cooked until later, as long as the form's surfaces were covered with parchment, waxed paper, or cling film it would certainly be food safe.

Pack the mixture densely into your pan or container, ensuring you get in packed well into the corners.  If you really get into making Lorne you can hunt for (or even make) a container that will give you a  more square than rectangular shape for the batch size you make.  But needs must as they say. 

 Cover the filled container with cling film and freeze it for 3-4 hours.  Then remove from the container and slice into 1/2" thick squares/rectangles. 

I used my bread slicer to get nice even slices.  The recipe made 16 slices.  I cut a few slices and separated them with parchment, then froze the mixture again for awhile and repeated the process until everything was sliced and frozen for the last time.

Fry your thawed Lorne for 5-6 minutes per side in just a splash of oil or butter, and serve  as a rissole, on a bun/roll/bap/stottie cake,  or even as a Square Taco:

(Ginger) Beer Biscuits
I haven't made Beer Bread/Biscuits in a long time with real beer or any other kind of carbonated beverage.  But I wanted some buns/biscuits to go with my Square Sausage.  This is it -- 3-ingedients simple, and very tasty.  Makes 5-6 biscuits 3" in diameter.

2-1/2 cups Self Rising Flour plus more for kneading
1/2 cup  Plain Skyr or Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Beer, Ginger Beer or even Lemon-Lime Soda

Fold everything together into a shaggy sort of dough.  Flour your work surface, then dump the dough out and start folding/kneading it into a normal sort of biscuit/scone dough and pat out about 3/4" thick.  Use a 3" biscuit cutter to cut your biscuits and put them on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Re-knead and repeat until you get 5 or 6 nice biscuits.

Bake at 425F for 15 minutes, until, GB&D.  Slice open and slather with butter, or insert a slice of fried square sausage and some brown sauce or whatever other condiments you choose.  

Perfect as a breakfast biscuit sandwich or with sausage gravy; or serve with sides as a lunch or dinner.  


Mincemeat
This past holiday, mincemeat was almost impossible to find in my entire metro area.  Tio make my mince pies/tarts for Christmas I had to order some on-line.  Not a bad solution... until I looked at the cost.  Then I looked for a recipe to make my own.  About the same cost for ingredients/ jars, plus I get to tweak the recipe with my own ingredients, and "mature" it in screw top jars in the fridge (along side the Christmas Pudding) for the next 10 months...

Spice Blend
1 teaspoon each:  ground cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.  

Ingredients
2 Granny Smith Apples, chopped fine
1+ cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 cup each:
Dried Cranberries
Sultanas (golden raisins)
Dark Raisins
Candied Orange Peel
Candied Ginger 
Vodka Infused Cranberries  -- homemade with 1 cup vodka and 1/2 cup dried berries
Chopped Whole Almonds -- not slivered
Bottom-shelf Brandy -- not the really good stuff

Put it all in a large pot with  1-1/2 cups water and a half cup of butter or Olivio. Bring to a boil and simmer about 30 minutes until the butter melts and the apples have gone tender and most of the liquid has cooked off.  

Remove from the heat and cool for a bit before spooning into screw top jars.   Seal the jars and store in the fridge for at least 6 month to "mature".    The recipe makes about 5 cups of mincemeat.  More than enough for two dozen mince mini-pies and a rustic tart this holiday season...

Pasta all'Assassina 
In Puglia,  Italy  they make a dish called Spaghetti all'Assassina where the pasta is cooked in the sauce in the same way rice is cooked in a risotto by adding a bit of liquid/sauce at a time.  My version uses shaped pasta cooked in a rustic sauce with vegetables added as everything cooks together.  

1 box (8 oz)  shaped Pasta -- I used gluten-free Pagoda shaped pasta
Yellow Tomatoes
Celery
Red Onion
Artichoke Hearts
Mushrooms
Kalamata Olives or other special olives not the usual black/green ones
Zucchini
Bell Peppers
3-4 cups Vegetable Broth -- I used herbed water with a mixture of Italian herbs and spices
Additional Italian herbs and spices like Red Pepper flakes and minced garlic
Shaved Parmesan -- not the grated stuff in the tube...

Chop the tomatoes and add them and their juices to a splash of oil in a large skillet.  Add the fine chopped celery and diced onion and cook until the tomatoes are falling apart.

Now add about 2 cups of broth, the pasta, and additional Italian herbs and spices and bring to a low boil/simmer.  Cover.

Gradually add the rest of your ingredients in longest-to-fastest cooking order, covering and cooking between additions in ten minute segments, checking the liquid level and adding additional broth/water as needed. 

When everything is done, transfer to a serving dish and top with shaved Parmesan.    Serve "family style" where folks can spoon up what they want, along with garlic bread...