home made boudin - part 1

A few days ago I wrote about wanting to give making boudin a try. I got the chance yesterday. Not wanting to drive across town for grocery with the holiday traffic I drove to the Japanese (more aptly called Asian these days) supermarket Uwajimaya near my house instead. Uwajimaya sells pork and pork products from Carlton Farm, like An Dong market that I frequent.

I bought enough pork shoulder and pig liver to make boudin. I also bought some meaty pig neck bone for making soup with the leftover Japanese daikon that I have at home.

while examining the bulk food isle at another supermarket i spotted this semolina (durum) flour at half price because they are closing out the item (i bet not too many people make their own pasta); i bought enough to last me a whole year

coming home, i taste test the difference between the parsley from my garden (left) against the store bought Italian parsley (right); there are differences that i cannot describe without spending more time doing A-B testing

we have been blessed with a few of unseasonably warm and not so wet days; i caught this shot of the geese with my iPhone while out walking

 i whipped up a plate of  chiuchow stewed beef lo mein to stem the hunger

caught this photo of the little anna's hummingbird facing off a much bigger bird - guess who is the bully

with a new orleans jazz cd playing i laid back and take in the boudin recipe

 the real cajun book by Donald Link whose Butcher restaurant i visited

i follow more the less his boudin recipe but adjusted some ingredient portions a bit

love this CD i bought in a jazz bar in new orleans; best music to play loud while making boudin

unrelated to the boudin, this is how i make pig neck bone soup - just pepper, salt, and 3 bay leaves

daikon goes in last when the meat falls off the bone

pig neck bone broth with japanese daikon

The recipe calls for 6-7 cups of cooked rice. I was spaced out at the moment and I starting to measure the rice to cook first. As I scoop the cups of rice into the rice cooker, I realize something is not right. There cannot possibly 6 cups of rice to be cooked. I then realize I was measuring the raw rice wrongly thinking the recipe calls for 6-7 cups. It calls for the measurement for the cooked rice.

all the ingredients (except the cooked rice) and seasoning mixed and ready to be stew until tender

strained out the cooked broth before i mix in the cooked rice in case there is too much liquid; i ladled the broth in to reach the right consistence for the sausage stuffing

I used quite a bit more of the pig liver than the recipe as I want a bit more richness. I took care to use very little water in stewing the mixture to maximize the flavors and umami. That was wise as I used up all but just very little of the stewed broth, hence maximizing the flavor of the sausage. A lot of American has pause nowadays with the thought of eating pig liver. I ate a lot of pig liver and kidney when I was a boy. I also cooked a lot of pig liver and onion when I was a poor college student, and my roommates love my cooking.

i scored this used Porkert #8 meat grinder (no longer in production) on feeBay which has a very coarse die great for making andouille sausages

 a bit of elbow grease and the cooked ingredients are ground

 next step is to mix in the cooked rice - there is about 7 cups

my friend came over to see the stuffing process and taste my boudin

my take-no-prisoner sausage stuffer

It was no trouble at all to prepare a link each for myself and my friend to taste. It is the first time he have boudin. I gave him two to take home.

i cooked a link for breakfast - so reminds me of the one at Donald Link's Butcher i had in New Orleans

this is one at Donald Link's Butcher - dug out this photo i just notice the ends of theirs burst open too like mine as i poach it warm (and to cook the raw casing)

I ate two of these this morning for breakfast. It is an ultimate breakfast food because of the warm rice. So tasty with so much umami. I made my own faux Cajun mustard by mixing coarse Dijon mustard with mango curry chutney, in the spirit of the Cajun use-the-ingredients-you-have.

So how do they turned out? I am very happy with the result. By and large, the taste, texture, and mouth feel is very close. It is a bit salty by only a small amount though. It is because I didn't follow the recipe calls for add enough water to cover the ingredients by 1 or 2 inches. I already know the adjustments I want to make next time:

• a bit less salt or a bit more rice
• more celery
• more yellow onion
• prepare the cooked rice with less water and stop it at half-cook
• use real minimally processed Cajun grain rice from Louisiana
• add chicken livers and gizzards
• optional use of oysters

i cannot wait to get to my next batch of boudin and let my imagination soar

Update:
I now have eaten a few meals of this batch of boudin. My initial taste that they may be slightly salty now don't seem so if you serve the boudin with other accompaniments, such as poached cabbage. I had eaten them with Taiwanese cabbage which is a great match because of its sweetness. I also notice that the initial more pronounce taste of the pig liver all but subsided over time with cooked stuffing. The taste becoming more mellower without a loss of richness and umami. I love them.

For the uninitiated, here are a few tips on cooking and eating boudin. Since the boudin stuffing is already well cooked, only the casing is raw. I gentle poach it in water under very low heat basically to warm it up and kill any bacteria around the casing. The rice tend to expand so you have to heat it gently (not microwave).

Don't expect to cut the boudin with the dinning fork as you would a normal sausage unless you are patient and gentle with a very sharp steak knife. The rice stuffing is very soft so the sausage will collapse under the pressure of the knife. Use sawing motion and with patience you can cut it. The other way to eat it is simply to push out the stuffing from the casing and eat only the stuffing. You can even just hold the boudin with you fingers and push out the stuffing into your mouth.

this is what is left if you squeeze out the stuffing between your rows of front teeth, or fingers - i know what you are thinking of