Conference turris::cooks

    
    
    What about either baking or broiling them and serving with mashed
    potatoes and a vegetable?

    There are several recipes in note 1258.

    Louise, every now and then we throw together a sausage dish
    that is eash to make and pretty tasty....Im sure you could
    adapt it to turkage.....
    
    In a casserol dish put a little olive oil in the bottom....then
    add sausages, thinly sliced potatoes, chunks of green pepper, and
    chunks of oinin.
    
    Bake at 350 until sausages are done....
    
    What I did last time is put the sausage and potatoes in for about
    30 minutes then added the onions and peppers for the last 20-30
    minutes or so....that way, the onions and peppers were more on the
    crunchy side....
    
    Rick

  Since you mentioned pasta ... we sometimes use spicy Italian sausage
  on pasta. Sautee them like you would for breakfast sausage (in oil or
  butter if necessary), crumble them up and sprinkle on plain pasta with
  a little olive oil, oregano, grated cheese, pepper, etc. Not very
  creative, I admit, but tasty as a pasta side dish.

  One delicious thing I love to do with sausage is add it to stuffing
  for turkey, goose or duck. This sausage, being lower in fat than pork
  sausage, would probably work pretty well in a duck or goose, but that
  may negate the original reason for your choice of this sausage ...

    For a hearty winter dish, we like to add chunks of cooked sausage
    to a large can of New England style baked beans and cook over very
    low heat for 30 minutes or in the slow cooker for a bit longer.
    This serves 4 people (including 2 teenage boys) with only 1 pound
    of meat.   

    I used to date a South American who used Italian sausage in his
    cooking.  I've adapted the dishes to use "turkage".

    Refried Beans
      Spray skillet with Pam.
      Slice turkage into chunks (you can sometimes buy loose turkage)
      Brown in skillet
      Pour one can on kidney beans with the juice in skillet.
      Add one can of water.
      Simmer until mixture thickens.
      Add one packet Achiote (premixed spice found in most food stores that
        sell GOYA products)  
      Add oregano, parsley salt and pepper to taste  (not a lot)
      Add one more can of water -- reduce again.
      Add ketchup or tomato paste (about 1 tbsp)
      cook long enough to blend flavors.  (this depends on how hungry you
      are.)
 

    Turkage and Yellow Rice.
      Cook enough rice as you would normally serve.
      Follow your normal rice cooking directions... Except, add one packet
         Achiote to rice water when you start the rice.
      While this is cooking...
      Slice turkage into bite size chunks.
      Brown in skillet.
      When rice is near to done  add the meat and finish cooking the rice.

    NOTE:  According to this friend, rice is "done"  when a crack appears down
    one long side of the grain.  This requires just a little bit more water 
    than most Americans are used to using, and a bit more time too.

	When I was a kid, my mother used to make this hearty (but sweet) dish
for winter suppers.  My kids have gone on to make a variation of it, so I will
give you the base recipe as well as the variation.  Both recipes should easily
satisfy four good appetites.

			Sausage Bake

1 lb. sausages, fried
3 large apples, sliced and lightly sauteed
3 large yams/sweet potatoes, boiled and skinned, cut into pieces
1/2 cup maple syrup

Combine sausages, apple slices, and potato pieces in a baking dish (about 2
qts.).  Pour the syrup over.  Dot with butter (or pour drippings over).  Bake
uncovered at 350 deg. F. for 30 minutes.

Variation:

1 tblsp. cornstarch
2 tblsp. brown sugar
2 tblsp. margarine
1 can (8-16 oz.) mixed fruit or fruit cocktail, drained
1 can (18 oz.) sweet potatoes, drained, sliced
1 lb. sausages, fried, cut up, or 1 large can (1 lb.) Spam, cubed

Combine the cornstarch and brown sugar in a medium saucepan.  Slowly add 1 cup
of the liquids from the fruit and/or the potatoes.  Add the margarine.  Heat to
boiling, stirring constantly; simmer 5 minutes.  Transfer to a medium (1-2 qt.)
baking dish and stir in the fruit, potatoes, and meat.  Bake, uncovered, at 350
deg. F. for 15-20 minutes. 

    Looking through my Fanny Farmer cookbook one day I found the following
    recipe. I've tried it with breakfast links and it was a bit boring. I
    will try it with turkey sausage soon. The quantities of ingredients
    depends on how many mouths there are to feed.
    
    baking potatoes
    sausages
    
    Wash and peel potatoes. Using an apple corer cut a hole in the potato
    big enough to accomodate a sausage (potato should be open at both
    ends). Use pieces of the cut potato to plug up the ends  Rub the
    potatoes with some sort of oil/shortening/margarine place in a baking
    dish and bake at 375 for about an hour (or until potatoes are cooked).
    To make this a main dish, cook onions and peppers in the roasting pan
    too. (use the fat, if any, in the baking dish to coat them.) 
    

    There seems to be a general trend to use the sausages with 
    potatoes, and you're right; it sure is good.  I made
    a dish similar to one mentioned here, with potatoes, onions,
    sausage, and a sprinkling of herbs, oven baked.  It was quick
    to fix up and delicious with a salad for dinner.

    --L