Southside Market Hot Beef Sausage

       Founded in 1882, this is the oldest BBQ joint in Texas.  Started out primarily as a meat market it evolved into a successful operation, both restaurant and market with several locations throughout Texas.  We have been there many times.  The BBQ is very good, but our primary purpose is to stock up on our favorite sausage.  SSM offers several very good sausage products, but our favorite is the 1882 Hot Beef Sausage. 

 

      Old-timers will tell you that Southside’s original sausage recipe was spicier, with more cayenne and cracked black pepper.  In tribute to them, and their own spicy history, they brought that hotter recipe back and named it for the year of Southside’s birth – 1882.  This is a premium all beef sausage, coarsely ground in a natural pork casing, made fresh, in-house daily just as it has been done for over 139 years.  Delicious beef with large cracked black pepper.  A little heat, but not HOT.  

      Available at all their locations, it is also available for order online.  1882 Hot Beef Smoked Sausage | Southside Market & Barbeque

      You can use this in practically any recipe calling for beef sausage.  You can even simply grill and eat it.  Some recommended recipes include:  

1882 Hot Beef Sausage & Hatch Green Chile Cheese Dip 

This spicy, gooey dip is a popular appetizer. The recipe involves combining diced and sliced 1882 Hot Beef Sausage with cream cheese, sour cream, hatch green chiles, and Mexican blend cheese. This mixture is then baked at 375°F until bubbly and served warm with chips.

 

Southside Sausage & Shrimp Cajun Foil Packets

This versatile dish can be cooked in the oven or on the grill. The recipe includes Southside 1882 Hot Beef Smoked Sausage cut into circles, corn, shrimp, red potatoes, white onion, and green bell pepper. These ingredients are combined with butter and Creole seasoning, sealed in foil packets, and cooked until the potatoes are tender, and the shrimp are done. Garnish with parsley and lemon. 

Southside Smoked Sausage & Hash Brown Breakfast Bake

This is a hearty breakfast option suitable for feeding a crowd. The recipe uses diced Southside Smoked Sausage (Hot Beef is recommended), thawed hash brown potatoes, diced bell peppers, and onion. These are mixed with a whisked mixture of eggs, milk, cheddar cheese, and seasoning, then baked at 350°F in a greased dish until golden brown and set. 

      You can Google any of the above recipes to get the exact recipe.  Obviously with this sausage you are only limited by your own imagination.  We picked up 4 more pounds during our Texas trip in December.  

"Love and sausage are alike. Can never have enough of either."

Dean Koontz

      

Crockpot Flanken Ribs

 

     Flanken ribs are short ribs cut across the bone rather than along it into thin slices, popular in Korean and Eastern European Jewish cuisine. Each piece typically contains 3 to 4 small cross-sections of bone. 

      Flanken ribs have a rich, flavor and good marbling. The thin cut makes them suitable for quick, high-heat cooking methods, distinguishing them from thicker, "English-style" short ribs, which require slow cooking or braising to become tender. 

2 lbs. Beef Flanken Ribs

1 small Yellow Onion sliced into thin pieces

1 cup carrot pieces

1 cup redskin potatoes or rutabagas

Sesame Seeds garnish

Green Onion garnish

Sesame Oil for searing

Ramen noodles or broccoli slaw

Marinade

1 Bartlett pear, cored and chopped

1 1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 cup Mirin or Sherry

1 cup water

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp honey

4 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp dried ginger

      Remove the flanken ribs from the packaging and pat them dry to remove excess moisture.  Place the ribs into a shallow dish or container and set this aside.

      Make the marinade by adding all the ingredients together into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside about 1/2 cup and store in a separate container.  Pour over the ribs and make sure they are fully coated.  Add in the sliced onion and mix everything together, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

      In a small pot on the stove, cook down the saved 1/2 cup of marinade and let it reduce in half on low heat.  Remove from the burner and set aside.  Remove the flanken ribs from the marinade and discard the remaining liquid.  Pat the flanked ribs dry and prepare them for searing.

      Heat a large cast iron griddle over medium high heat or heat a grill to medium direct heat.  If searing on the cast iron griddle, add a little sesame oil and then sear each side of the flanken ribs for 1-2 minutes.  Add to crockpot with carrots and potatoes/rutabagas; adjust heat to high.  

      Prepare serving dish with a bed of cooked ramen noodles, mashed taters, or broccoli slaw.  

      When they are cooked, place them on the bed of noodles, taters, or slaw and brush them with the reduced marinade, garnish with sesame seeds and green onions and serve!

"Push your boundaries, when it comes to cooking always look for more"

Rich Hilts

Governor Shrimp Tacos

 

       

        Another recipe from Mexican Chef Pati Jinich. The story goes, governor shrimp tacos, or tacos gobernador de camarón, were created in the state of Sinaloa in the early 1990s to surprise governor Francisco Labastida Ochoa, after he told a few friends how much he loved his wife’s shrimp tacos. That bit of information was passed on to the owners of Los Arcos in Mazatlán restaurant, before he headed there to visit.

      The chef was given the quest not only try to match the governor’s wife’s tacos, which no one besides the governor had tried, but to beat them. So quite a few taco recipes were developed and tested. When the governor showed up to eat, he liked them so much he named them “tacos gobernador.”  I have modified this recipe for less heat.  

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 white onion slivered

2 poblano chiles stemmed, seeded, slivered

5 garlic cloves finely chopped

1/2 cup Grape Tomatoes, halved

1 tsp each of smoke paprika

A splash of vinegar 

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt or to taste

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper or to taste

1 1/2 pounds (about 11-15) shelled xtra large raw shrimp cut into large chunks

3 cups shredded Oaxaca, mozzarella, asadero or Muenster cheese

6 to 8 medium flour tortillas

Sliced avocado for garnish

1 Chile Manzano sliced and mixed with the juice of a lime, 1/4 red onion and salt to taste

       (you can use Habanero or Scotch Bonnet peppers, but they will be hotter, use less) 

      Heat the butter in a large nonstick skillet set over medium-high heat.  Once it melts and begins to bubble, add the onion and poblano and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes.  Add the garlic, stir, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Incorporate the tomatoes, cook for a minute, and as they begin to soften, add the sauce from paprika, tomato paste, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  Stir well, cook for another minute, then add the shrimp and cook just until they change color, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Turn off heat and scrape into a bowl to prevent the shrimp from overcooking.

      Heat the tortillas on both sides in a warmer for a minute.  Add about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese onto each one. Once the cheese begins to melt, add a generous amount of the shrimp mixture, fold in half and continue heating until cheese has completely melted and the tortillas have begun to lightly brown and create a crust.  Serve with sliced avocado and choice of chiles and onion.

Yeah, these are sloppy, but still DELICIOUS

 “Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.”

 Cesar Chavez