Easy Sausage Stromboli

Ingredients

1 pack of refrigerated pizza dough (not pizza crust) *

2 Italian sausage links (pork, chicken, turkey, or veggie)

1 cup water

½ cup diced green peppers

½ cup diced onions

1 cups Zesty Garlicky Basil Tomato Sauce

1 cup Italian shredded cheese blend

Approx. 1/3 cup flour

* Your favorite pizza dough recipe may also be used.  

Step One:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the sausage from the packaging and place it in a

saucepan. Add 1 cup of water to the pan.  Lid the pan and heat it over medium-high heat until sausage is cooked through.  Once the sausage is cooked remove it from the pan to cool. Once it’s cool slice or crumble the sausage. 

Step Two:

When using refrigerated dough remove it from the refrigerator.  Discard the packaging and place the dough in a medium sized bowl.  Cover the bowl with a moist paper towel.  Allow the dough to warm to room temperature.   If using you favorite dough recipe, then prepare according to that recipe. 

Step Three:

Add the onion and peppers to the Zesty Garlicky Basil Tomato Sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Step Four:

Spread some of the flour over the  working service.  Place the dough on the floured surface.  Roll the dough in to an about 1/8 inch thick rectangle.  Flour will need to be used during rolling.  The amount of flour depends on the dough. The entire amount of flour may not need to be used. 

Step Five: 

Starting at one end of the dough rectangle spread a 1-2 inch wide line of sauce across one end of the rectangle. Next place some of the sausage and cheese on top of sauce.  Carefully roll the topped section over on to the dough rectangle once. As if making a spiral with the filling on the inside, add the sauce, sausage, and cheese with every roll until there is 2 inches of dough left.  Roll the Stromboli over a find time to form a seal. Gently press t the ends of the Stromboli together. Place the Stromboli on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Smoked Pork Shoulder

Ingredients:

1 3-pound boneless pork shoulder

1/2 cups Light Brown Sugar

1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 teaspoons black pepper

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Approximately 2 cups soaked hickory wood chips

Step One:

Remove the pork shoulder from the refrigerator and let it warm up to room temperature for approximately 15 minutes.  During that time mix the remaining ingredients, save for the wood chips, in a container.

Step Two:

Place the pork shoulder on a cutting board. Generously rub the mixture onto the meat pressing it in as you go. The mixture is called a dry rub because what your doing is rubbing it onto the meat.  Place the rubbed pork into a container. Lid the container and place it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours. The
pork can also be plastic wrapped and then placed in the container.

Step Three:

Soak the wood chips for 30 to 45 minutes. Heat the smoker, and once it is ready add 1/5 of the wood chips, you’ll need to replace the wood chips once an hour or so. In the order of preference there are three types of smokers that can be used for this preparation: charcoal (offset, vertical with a water pan), gas (propane or natural gas), and Electric.  

If using charcoal, then you’ll need to monitor the smoker to ensure against flare-ups or fading temperatures. There are other smoking methods such as pit smoking (think Hawaiian luau) or cold smoking (think gravlax), but they are not particularly well suited for this recipe. Ensure the thermometer on the smoker reaches 225 degrees and not much higher.  A hallmark of smoking is slow and low.  Since shoulder is a working part of the pig, it is tougher than the loin so if cooked too fast at high temperatures it becomes too tough to eat.

Step Four:

Place the pork in the smoker. Smoke the pork 4-6 hours. The internal temperature should be around 165 it is done.  The pork will have a shiny crust from the sugar and internally there should be a pink ring around the pork. The result will be tender, moist, and flavorful. 

Note:  If you want to have a smokey flavor, but do not have 5-6 hours to monitor a smoker, then you can smoke the meat for 2 hours and then finish it the oven or a crock pot set to 225 degrees for the remaining 3-4 hours. The result will be good.  A lot of restaurants actually use this method, and it works well.  

Weeknight London Broil

I don’t remember the first time I had London Broil.  I remember liking it, but it was one of those things never made at home. If I recall correctly I only encountered it in restaurants and at catered affairs.  In essence it’s simply a thick cheaper cut of beef that’s been chemically tenderized and then cooked at high temperatures.  The result is crusty rare to medium rare slices of heaven.  It all sounds great, but I work and something like London Broil has to be marinated, but not over marinated. It has to be broiled to just at rare to medium rare. The whole thing can be a bit of a fuss.   Then, however, I started thinking and toying around; I figured that since I could not leave it in the marinade the 9 hours I was at work I could salt it ahead of time.  In theory, other things could be added so it would be like a rub, but there will be more on rubs next week (hint pork shoulder).  The salt would help tenderize the meat while I was at work, without over seasoning it like leaving it in the marinade would.  Once home, I whipped up the marinade. The flavors are pretty strong, but the steak would not be in the marinade long. Then I cooked it, by broiling to obtain a crust, and then roasting it to desired level of doneness.  

Ingredients:

1½ -2 pounds London Broil  (Top Round steak, at least 1 inch thick)

¼ cup coarse Sea Salt or Kosher salt

¼ cup cooking oil

¼ cup Worcestershire Sauce

¼ cup white or red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon garlic power

1 teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon black pepper

Step One:

On a cutting board pat half of the salt onto the topside of the steak. Flip it over and salt the other side with the remaining salt.   Place the steak into a sealable container or a zip top bag (ensure the bag doesn’t leak).  Refrigerate the salted steak for 6-9 hours.

Step Two:

In a small bowl add the remaining ingredients and whisk them together to combine well.  Open the container with the steak and pour in the marinade. Reseal and move the container around to ensure the marinade is evenly distributed.  Refrigerate for 30 - 45 minutes.

Step Three:  

Preheat the broiler (grill, or grill pan) on high.  Remove the steak from the marinade and discard the marinade.  Place the steak under the broiler for 10 minutes.  Afterwards flip the steak over and cook for another ten minutes.  At this point a brown crust should appear, but the inside is very rare. It perhaps may only register 120 degrees.

 

Step Four:  

Turn the broiler off and turn the oven on to 400-425  to roast the steak the rest of the way towards the desired level of doneness.  A great tool to use is an in oven probe thermometer.  These can be set to the desired temperature and it will alert you when that temperature has been reached.  Remove the steak from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. 

Black Eye Peas with Turkey Bacon and Chilies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup dry Black Eye Peas

10 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons oil divided

5 slices of thick turkey bacon cut in to 1/4" pieces

1 1/2 cups diced onion

1/4 cup diced hot chili peppers

1 tablespoon pressed garlic

1 teaspoon black pepper

Step One:
Pour the black eye peas into a colander and rinse. Dried beans can contain stones, and other debris.  Transfer the beans to a large pot and fill it with 6 cups cold water. Add salt and bring the water to a boil for 3 minutes. Remove  from the heat and cover for 3 hours.









Step Two:
Remove the turkey bacon from package and cut  it into 1/4" pieces. The bacon here is the thicker cut kind of turkey bacon. If your grocery only carries the thin kind, then you can use that, but you'll need 8 slices.  Thick cut pork bacon can be used as well. Another posibility here would be to use smoked poultry or meat products. Add 1 teaspoon of oil to a 6-quart pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat and render the bacon. Remove it from the pan and reserve. Continue using the same pot for the next steps.












Step Three:
Reduce the temperature to medium. Add one teaspoon of oil. Add the onion to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes or until the onion is soft and golden. Add in the chili peppers and cook until they too are soft stirring occasionally.

Step Four:
Add the garlic and the reserved bacon to the onion and chili mixture. Stir frequently for about 1 minute until garlic is fragrant. Add the beans and 4 cups of water to the mixture and bring it to a boil.  Remove mixture from the heat. Pour the bean mixture into a slower cooker. Set the slow cooker to medium (or low depending on your model) and cook for 6 hours.