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Fresh Kielbasa

phatj

By phatj
in Cooking

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phatj

phatj

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I was perusing my local butcher looking for porky things to smoke, my pork- and smoked-meat-hating wife being away for the weekend, and I come across fresh kielbasa.

I've never seen this stuff before, although I enjoy smoked kielbasa of the Hillshire Farms ilk. It looked pretty unassuming, more or less like a raw Italian sausage, but it was just $3/lb, so I picked some up.

I just braised one length of it with beer and onions, as my smoking apparatus is currently clogged with ribs. Wow! Tender and juicy, with great garlicky pork flavor.

I'm thinking I'll smoke the rest tomorrow. Should I expect something similar to the standard supermarket kielbasa? By the way, I can only hot-smoke; I can't hold temps under ~200F.

Any other suggestions for cooking this stuff, when I eventually buy more?

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phatj

phatj

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I should have specified "no sauerkraut" in my request. Any other ideas?

EDIT: I just noticed I posted this in the wrong forum. If someone could move this to "Cooking," I'd appreciate it.

Edited by phatj (log)
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phatj

phatj

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I should have specified "no sauerkraut" in my request. Any other ideas?

NO SAUERKRAUT! :shock::angry::sad:

I've had a Kielbasa dish with beans and tomatos, similar to this recipe, but ....

SB (no sauerkraut, what next?)

Steve, I'll probably give the sauerkraut a try at some point. I've grown to appreciate reubens, I can probably dig sauerkraut with kielbasa. But sauerkraut is not a favorite of mine.

Beans are just out, though.

I thought I wasn't a picky eater... :blink:

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rooftop1000

rooftop1000

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I get around the sauerkraut thing by using heaps of sauteed onions and pickled red cabbage... not nearly as funky as sauerkraut

actually I make the onions, take mine out then add peppers because my hubby gets Italian sausage and I get keilbasa

tracey

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

Maxine

Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

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DTBarton

DTBarton

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I love fresh kielbasa. We are forunate enough to live near Baltimore and can get it from here: http://ostrowskifamous.homestead.com/index2.html

Big John's fresh kielbasa is amazing. It's fat, probably 2 - 2 1/2 inches in diameter, very flavorful and garlicky.

It smokes beautifully, but pay attention with a meat thermometer as it can dry out. Also, to me it cooks more quickly than you think. I cook it to about 160 degrees internal temperature.

Fresh kielbasa is also delicious in bean dishes and gumbos.

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Lilija

Lilija

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I do this with regular kielbasa a lot, I bet it would rock with the fresh stuff.

I saute some onions and diced bacon, with green or savoy cabbage, a bit of vinegar, brown sugar, like you would make red cabbage (or scrap both and add half a bottle of beer, and let it simmer down), and good cabbagy seasonings, garlic, pepper, salt, bay leaves, paprika, whatever. Then blend the sauteed cabbage with cooked homemade egg noodles. Regular egg noodles are fine, for a weeknight thing, but home made fresh egg noodles take this over the moon. Generally a 2:1 ratio, noodles to cabbage, works for me, but use your own judgement.

The kielbasa fits in one of two ways. Either grill/roast/fry that badboy up, and have it on the side with lots of spicy mustard and horseradish, or brown it with the bacon and onions, and sorta cook it in with the cabbage.

Edit again: Some diced apples in with the onions, sauteed with the cabbage is AMAZING, too.

Edited by Lilija (log)
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phatj

phatj

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I do this with regular kielbasa a lot, I bet it would rock with the fresh stuff.

I saute some onions and diced bacon, with green or savoy cabbage, a bit of vinegar, brown sugar, like you would make red cabbage (or scrap both and add half a bottle of beer, and let it simmer down), and good cabbagy seasonings, garlic, pepper, salt,  bay leaves, paprika, whatever.  Then blend the sauteed cabbage with cooked homemade egg noodles.  Regular egg noodles are fine, for a weeknight thing, but home made fresh egg noodles take this over the moon. Generally a 2:1 ratio, noodles to cabbage, works for me, but use your own judgement.

The kielbasa fits in one of two ways. Either grill/roast/fry that badboy up, and have it on the side with lots of spicy mustard and horseradish, or brown it with the bacon and onions, and sorta cook it in with the cabbage.

Edit again:  Some diced apples in with the onions, sauteed with the cabbage is AMAZING, too.

This sounds fantastic. I love the idea of the cabbage mixed in with egg noodles, which are among my favorite things to begin with. Homemade egg noodles will probably have to wait, though they sound amazing.

no discussion of kielbasa is complete without one of my alltime favorite eG blogs: the Col. Klink Kielbasa Diary.

It starts here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=12443&hl=

and continues here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=16087&hl=

Awesome. At some point I'm going to have to get the necessary attachments for the KitchenAid and try some of that myself.

I did end up smoking the rest, and it turned out delicious. I have some pics from my kielbasa bonanza the last couple days, but my computer situation is a little awkward. I'll post them whenever I can.

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lemniscate

lemniscate

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I grew up on fresh kielbasa soup. A couple of rings of fresh kielbasa, a small handful of dried Polish mushroom, cooked for about an hour, creamed with sour cream, and served with macaroni.

A splash of vinegar in the bowl was a popular addition.

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