Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

Cheese and Sausage Appetizers

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This is a great recipe! So delicious, in fact, that it may be a shame to just make this as an appetizer. The meat and cheese combo could be turned into an outstanding sauceless pizza. Just add some mushrooms and sliced onions, and you’d be set! I’ll explain more near the final step of the instructions.

Based on a Food & Wine recipe, this originally calls for 8 oz. of Taleggio cheese, but it’s difficult to find, and it costs about $40 per pound. With that said, $20 for the cheese for this recipe is worth it (Taleggio is really good), but in this case, my local rip-off high-end grocery store was sold out. Brie and Gruyere make outstanding substitutes without being too mild. The Gouda also made for an excellent substitute to the original shredded Fontina that was called for.

What you’ll need

  • 1 lb. Italian sausage—sweet or hot—in bulk, or links with the casings removed
  • 4 oz. mascarpone cheese or cream cheese—shoot for mascarpone, as it lends a nice sweetness to the dish
  • 1T Worcestershire sauce or tonkatsu sauce
  • 1t chopped fresh or dried oregano
  • 4 oz. Brie cut into medium pieces
  • 4 oz. Gruyere, either shredded or cut into medium pieces ounces
  • 0.25t kosher salt
  • 2 large pieces of flatbread, or the equivalent amount of naan or similar bread
  • 4 oz. Gouda cheese, shredded

What to do

If you’re going to make and eat the appetizers or pizza right away, heat your oven to 350°F. Note that the sausage and cheese can be cooked and stored in a covered container for up to 3 days.

Cook the sausage in a 10- or 12-inch nonstick frypan over medium-high heat, breaking it up into small pieces with a spoon until just browned and no longer pink. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a large cutting board. Drain off the fat left in the pan and wipe it out with a paper towel. Let the sausage cool until it can be safely handled, then chop up any larger pieces into smaller pieces.

Return the sausage to the frypan over medium-low heat, and stir in the mascarpone, Worcestershire sauce and oregano, until smooth. Add the Brie and Gruyere and slowly cook, stirring often, until the cheeses have melted, and the sausage and cheese mixture is gooey. Remove the frypan from the heat and let the meat and cheeses cool for about 20 minutes.

At this point, you can store the meat and cheese mixture to finish the recipe later, or make it now.

If the oven is at 350°F, cut your flatbread, naan or whatever type of flatbread into about 4-inch by 4-inch pieces, then arrange them on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. You’ll probably need two sheet pans. Top each piece of bread with enough cheese-sausage mixture to cover its surface. Try to keep it a bit away from the edges. Sprinkle enough Gouda over each piece to just cover the top.

Bake in the oven until the flatbread is toasted and the topping is lightly browned—about 15-20 minutes. Cut each piece into two triangles before serving hot or warm.

Alternatively, you could just make pizzas out of the cheese and sausage mixture. Just top a large flatbread or pizza crust and cook it for the same amount of time as the appetizers in a 350°F oven. While the pizza is baking, sauté some sliced mushrooms and quick-caramelize some onions. When the pizza comes out of the oven, immediately top it with the mushrooms and onions. Cut into slices and serve hot or warm.

Nikuman (Japanese meat buns)

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Note that this is a curry-man. The filling has a bunch of curry powder added to it.


Japanese convenience stores have impressively good “to-go” food. Seriously. Nothing like the crap in American convenience stores. One nice alternative to all the delicious sandwiches and pre-made hot dishes are nikuman, which make a great snack or a couple of them as a light meal. What’s really cool is there are several kinds, including curry-man and the traditional version I made here.

There are many nikuman recipes floating around—with most of the bun/bread recipes being nearly identical. I based mine on the one from Just One Cookbook, chosen mostly because of the number of nikuman I planned to make (10). The difference in recipes is primary the type of fillings, most of which are fairly similar for the “traditional” meat filling. Mine is very loosely based on Just One Cookbook’s, with major adjustments. These do take a bit of time and effort, but they’re well worth it.

Despite my minor pessimism about these turning out good, they really did! The consistency of the bread was perfect, and the meat filling was moist and delicious. If you don’t have a steamer, there looks to be a viable alternative. Check that out here.

Note that you could make the filling ahead of time and refrigerate it for a couple of days before using.

Assembled and ready to cook!


What you’ll need for the bread

  • 300g all-purpose flour
  • 0.25t salt
  • 1t instant yeast
  • 1t baking powder
  • 2T granulated sugar
  • 1T neutral oil
  • 160-170ml water (start with the lesser amount, then add more, if needed)

What you’ll need for the meat filling

  • 2 or 3 dried mushrooms (shiitake are most flavorful, but others work, too)
  • 1 or 2 T minced onion, pressed with a paper towel to absorb some of the liquid
  • 1-2 oz green cabbage leaves, coarsely chopped
  • About 0.75 lb. ground pork
  • 1” piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
  • 1t sugar
  • 1Tbsp potato starch or cornstarch (don’t skip this, it will absorb any liquid that cooks out of the filling)
  • 1t soy sauce (sweet soy sauce or kecap manis works, too, for a sweeter flavor)
  • 1T sake
  • 1T sesame oil
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1t mushroom powder (optional)

What to do for the buns

Add the flour, sugar baking powder and yeast to a large bowl and mix everything together. Add the 1T of oil to the 160 ml of lukewarm water and gradually add the water to the flour mixture while mixing it until everything is incorporated and you’ve got the beginnings of a dough.

Turn the dough out to a lightly flour-dusted work surface and form the dough into a ball. Once formed, knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes, until the dough is very smooth, and a lot of gluten strands have formed—yeah, it’s a long time. When it’s ready, reform the dough into a ball and put it into a large, greased bowl. Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about an hour—it will double in size.

Now you can make the filling, if you didn’t do it earlier.

What to do for the filling

Soak the dried mushrooms in about a half-cup of water. Put something on them to ensure they’re submerged and let them soak for about 15 minutes. When they’re rehydrated, cut off any tough stems and mince the rest. Press them with a paper towel to absorb any extra water. Set aside.

Spread about a half-teaspoon of salt onto the cabbage to draw out moisture. Let it sit for a few minutes.

Add the pork, onions and mushrooms to a large bowl. Press the cabbage between paper towels to absorb moisture drawn out by the salt. Add the cabbage to the bowl. Mix all these ingredients together—don’t be afraid to use your hands.

Now add the ginger, sugar, starch, pepper, mushroom powder (if using) and the three liquids to the bowl: soy sauce, sake, and sesame oil. Incorporate all the ingredients into the pork mixture with your hands until everything is evenly combined. Set aside or refrigerate until the dough is ready.

What to do to assemble the nikuman

Now it’s time to get the bread ready. After it has doubled in size, lightly dust a work surface with flour and divide the dough ball in half. For each half, roll it into a short log—if possible, without tapered ends—maybe about 7 or 8 inches long. Cut the logs into 5 equal-size pieces. Once you have 10 roughly equal-sized pieces, cover them with plastic so they don’t dry out while you’re assembling. Let them rest for 10 minutes. Then it’s time for the final assembly.

While the dough is resting, if you want, you could separate the filling into 10 portions, weighing each to ensure some level of uniform weight.

For each, nikuman, take a portioned ball of dough and flatten it into your palm. Put it on a lightly-floured work surface and with a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a disk about 4-5 or so inches wide. It’s hard to do, but if possible, try to thin the disk out toward the edges. You’ll have to rotate the dough as you roll it to make it into a circular disk. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly round. It’s going to get scrunched up anyway.

Add a portion of the filling to the center of the disk. Now thinking of the disk as a clock, pull up a flap of dough at each the 12:00 and 6:00 positions and pinch them together over the top of the filling. Do the same at the 3:00 and 9:00 positions. Now pull up any remaining areas of dough and secure them to the top of the bun. Pinch all the flaps together and give it a twist, if you wish. This is the most basic way to seal these up. There are definitely more beautiful ways to do this, but I went with the quick and expedient route. You can find other methods online if you wish for a more ornate-looking nikuman.

Now it’s time to cook. Prepare your steamer and cut pieces of parchment paper into pieces large enough to protect the bottom of each nikuman, then set each nikuman on a piece of paper. If you’re cooking all the nikuman in a couple of batches, make sure to cover them while waiting to cook. If you’re not cooking all of them, wrap up the extras in plastic wrap and refrigerate or even freeze for later use. If freezing them, thaw before cooking.

When your steamer is ready with boiling water, place the nikuman on the steamer tray, leaving a couple of inches between them—they’ll expand a bit during cooking. Steam them for 15 minutes, until the interiors have reached at least 145, the safe temperature to which pork should be cooked.

When done, remove the nikuman from the steamer with tongs and serve hot. Uneaten cooked nikuman can be rewarmed in the microwave, though the bread will lose some of its consistency.

Enjoy!

Hong Kong-Style Crispy Rice

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Based on an Epicurious recipe, this is a delicious and easy-to-make dinner course or light meal. You can use a variety of Asian-style sausages for this. In my case, I used a sweet Chinese sausage from one of our local Asian markets, and slices of this sausage. Realistically, you could use any type of sausage that appeals to you. You could even just cook a ground pork paddy and slice that up. Or just use twice as much Chinese sausage and leave it at that.

Don’t be too concerned about the dark/light soy sauces. If you have them both, use them. If you don’t, just use one kind for both.

Other than that, knock yourself out. This is a really good dish.

What you’ll need for the rice

  • 1.5 cups uncooked long-grain white rice (preferably jasmine)
  • 1.66 cups water, plus more for soaking the rice
  • 5t neutral oil, divided
  • 3 oz. Chinese or Hmong pork sausage, cooked and sliced diagonally (to look cool)
  • 3 oz. other sausage-type meat, sliced diagonally (to look cool)

What you’ll need for the sauce

  • 2t granulated sugar
  • 4t water
  • 2t light soy sauce
  • 1t dark soy sauce
  • Pinch of ground white pepper

What to do

Put the rice in a medium bowl, then cover it with 2 inches of water and soak it for 1 hour.

Drain the rice, then transfer it to a 10-inch cast-iron or nonstick frypan. Stir in the 1.66 cups of water and 3t of the neutral oil. Gently shake the pan to even out the rice, then scatter the sliced sausages/meat on top, like in the photos.

Bring the rice and water to a simmer over medium-high heat. When the mixture reaches a simmer, cover the frypan with a tight-fitting lid, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for about 16 minutes, or until the rice is tender.

While the rice is cooking, make the sauce: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, the soy sauces and white pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar is dissolved, turn off the heat. Set aside until the rice is done.

After the rice is tender, remove the lid from the frypan and increase the heat to medium. Drizzle the remaining 2t oil around the perimeter of the frypan. At this point, the rice will be sizzling and crackling. If it’s not, increase the heat a bit until you can hear it. Cook, uncovered, for an additional 7–10 minutes until the bottom of the rice has gotten crisp. While it’s crisping, you can use a spatula to check the bottom periodically. If it’s not cooking evenly, try rotating the pan a couple of times.

When the bottom of the rice is golden brown, drizzle about half the sauce over the dish, serving the reaming sauce on the side.