Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Beans, greens, and sausages



These are Great Northern beans, turnip greens (actually the lovely tender tops from the fresh turnips I bought at the market the other day, produce of Texas), and Usinger's brand chorizo. Usinger's, a local institution, specializes in German sausages. Their chorizo seems suspiciously interchangeable with their andouille and neither one is the real McCoy. But when you shop at the factory store you can always find one or the other at a crazy reduced price on the "seconds" table. There's always something worth buying from the "seconds": applewood bacon, corned beef chunks for hash, wursts you've never even heard of. Some people look at me funny when I tell them I like to buy discount sausages from the Usinger's store, but I tell them that these products merely have defective labels. I don't know that for a fact; I say it to make it all seem not quite so sketchy. But nothing I've bought there in the past couple of years has ever been bad.

Is there a recipe for this dish? It's just as it looks. Simmer the beans in plenty of salted water (no canned beans, please), cook the greens, chop up and brown the sausages, sauté some onions and garlic, add a bit of stock or, if there isn't any around, the bean cooking liquid or the greens' pot likker, simmer everything together, see if it needs salt, and spoon it up. This goes well with saltine crackers, sour cream, and Tabasco sauce. All of the ingredients are subject to variation and this actually isn't my favorite combo. I would prefer cranberry beans, kale or collards, and a more authentic spicy sausage. But this is what I had so this is what I made. A person's lunch could be worse.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sendik's carries a good brand of chorizo. It's made locally, but the Real Live Spanish Lady who taught the class I took in tapas gave them her endorsement. (I want to say it's Tia Maria, but that's not quite right. Something like that, though.)

7:31 AM  
Blogger mzn said...

Stacie, I know exactly the kind you're talking about. I always look at them when I'm at Sendik's but they always seem a little pricey. Now that I've heard about the Real Live Spanish Lady, though, I'll be sure to give them a try.

9:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A person's lunch could be a lot wurst.


( sorry, I can't always help myself.)

7:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"saltine crackers, sour cream, and Tabasco sauce"

jeez, that'd be a meal in itself, and a tasty one at that! Can I have some raw meat now?

6:37 PM  
Blogger Kalyn Denny said...

Yum, yum, yum. This looks great to me. And, I know you don't care, but beans are considered a "good" carb (as opposed to a naughty carb which needs to be disciplined.) I haven't tried turnip greens, but I think I will since I recently discovered that I just love collard greens. Who knew?

11:23 AM  

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