home made boudin - part 2

This is my second time making boudin now, all within a month. The batch I did last came out great. I also learnt a few tips from the experience. I incorporated the learning to this batch.

The ingredients for this simple boudin may seem pedestrian, but the result is anything but. Sure there are fancier ones with shellfish. I would tackle those when the time is ripe and the ingredients are well priced. I wanted to hone my skills in this basic boudin. I pretty much followed Donald Link's True Cajun cookbook with some minor changes. Instead of common celery I used Chinese celery because I have some that are wilting in the refrigerator. I also prefer the much more pungent and complex tastes of the Chinese one.

all mixed and brined for about 1/2 hour

i have said i would like to use real Cajun minimally processed long grain rice; i have to refrain from getting more variety of rice as i already have plenty; so i substituted Thai jasmine rice instead

the meat and vegetable mixture is simmer at low heat for about 40 minutes

 let the mixture cool and they are ready for the meat grinder

this is my food grade lubricant - beef tallow that i rendered over a year ago! i used it to lubricate the meat grinder parts

 i used my Kenwood mixer and its meat grinder attachment

Unlike grinding raw meat, grinding cooked pork takes a bit more work as the meat chunks is hard and you have to force it into the screw impeller. The liquid also can squirt out of the grinding head and make a mess. I used a big rice bowl as a shield to catch the squirting liquid.

This time I deliberate starve the rice with liquid as well as kept it under-cooked. This way the rice would be more al dente when the boudin is served. I also kept the chopped scallion and parsley uncooked and mixed them in with the ground ingredients before stuffing.

When I mixed in all the meat broth the mixture appeared way too runny for the stuffing. Indeed the mixture was very runny and the finished sausages initially looks too wet. However I was not despaired. I knew the rice will expend in time and hoping the liquid content would be right.

 still very wet sausages

I put the finished boudin sausages in the refrigerator uncover overnight. Sure enough by the morning the rice grains expanded and the sausage is nice and firm, ready for putting into vacuum bags.

i cooked a tiny sample to check for taste - the rice grains are al dente; the sausage is smooth and taut as a baby's bottom

Starting with 3.4 pound of pork shoulder, 1.2 pound of pig liver and the result is about 9 pounds of boudin.

here is a stubby one for breakfast after a bowl of seafood gumbo

by keeping the scallions and pasley uncooked the boudin sausages has the nice specks of green that I didn't have in the last batch

 this previous batch has no specks of green

here is one being served - specks of green

here is one being served - no specks of green

all ready to be sealed in vacuum

ready to store in the freezer for months of enjoyment

I feel that I now have a number of true Cajun and Creole dishes under my belt. I'd like to think my Asian cooking sensibilities make me a born natural for these regional and true American cuisines.