I want to go to There

Passport & Plate - Lao Sausage

Laos | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 1 photos

Ingredients
After feeling super nostalgic, I found this recipe online (http://laorecipes.blogspot.com/2) and I tried to switch it up to mimic the taste of the sausages my mom used to make.

5 lbs of ground pork
Fresh Pork Casing

2 small onions
3 green onions
8 shallots
1 head of garlic
3 dried pepper
9 stalks of fresh lemongrass
15 lime leaves or more if you want

1 Table Spoon of Paprika or a little more
5 Table Spoons of Palm Sugar
4 Table Spoons of Fish Sauce
3 Table Spoons of Black Pepper
4 Table Spoons of Oyster Sauce
Sea Salt to taste

Two empty 2 liter plastic bottles with the necks cut off
rubber bands

Olive oil - I guess you can use any oil but i used Olive oil
Maybe Makes about 15 to 20 Sausages.

 

How to prepare this recipe
Chop up all the vegetables into very 1/2 inch pieces or smaller.

Roughly HAND Chop up the bottom of the lemongrass stalks. 'Do not try in a processor. I tried it once and it seemed to dilute the smell and potency of the lemongrass. This is just my opinion but it just didn't work out that one time.'

Mix everything together by hand mix thoroughly for about 10 min just to make sure every bit is equally scattered.

The mixture should be saturated with lemongrass and the veggies. The meat should not overpower the veggies because that is how my mom made it and that's how I like it.

Test a ball of it by frying in a bit of Olive oil. Taste the cooked tester ball. Add ingredients to the original mix if needed. Once your tester ball suits your taste buds, you are ready to fill.

I bought fresh casing from a local meat market. It was already soaking in water. If you buy frozen casing, it lacks the snappy-ness when you bite into it. So try to get fresh casing if you can.

Cut it in half and give half of it to your pal who will help you fill.
Cut the 2 liter bottles 3 inches below the neck. Place the casing over the lip of the bottle and use a rubber band or string to secure it.

Now start stuffing. Do it in a fluid motion. It will be harder to fill after you've added more of the filling because the inside of the casing will begin to stick. Don't fill it too tight because you want to make sure you have room to twist the casing to separate each sausage.

When you are done stuffing and twisting each separate sausage, freeze for a day or two. Once frozen you can chop the sausages to separate them without losing the filling.

My mom used to leave the sausage to dry out but now that she is not around to guide me, I don't trust myself to do that. That's why I freeze it.

 

The story behind this recipe
I was born in Vientiane, Laos. We (my mom, two brothers and sister) moved to the US in 1980. I was five at the time. My first true memory begins on the plane to JFK. I remember the dark plane ride and what seemed to be my uncontrollable bowel movements. Several hours later, with some fresh oversized clothes, I emerged in the light carried by a caucasian male who resembled Albert Einstein. I watched my family walked down the stairs as Albert and I brought up the rear. From what I can remember, that is when my life really began.

I have visions and dreams of living in laos but I could never tell if these visions and dreams are something I made up or if I had actually lived them. One thing I am sure of are the aromas. My mom was the best laotian cook I've ever known. We grew up poor in the states but the kitchen was always rich with potent scents of lemon grass, kaffir leaves, star anise and whatever magic she had.

Lao sausage and Lao beef jerky were major staples. We made a ton and froze it. I was a good helper. I'm a Capricorn so everything was a contest to me. I wanted to fill the casings the fastest and I wanted to make the prettiest/cutest and most consistently sized sausages in the world. I was always keen to help, watch and eat.

We always had a small supply. My mom would always make me run around the apartment to kill all the flies before we started. This was to make sure there weren't any flies around to lay maggots on our bounty. I remembered the old window screen we used to dry the jerky and the sausages. It had bits of dried meat on it from the hundreds of times we had used it. The thought of it makes me a little squeamish now but I could definitely move it to the back of my mind for a chance to once again taste and smell my mom's cooking. Each bite was filled with chunky pieces of lemongrass and shallots. This recipe is close but it doesn't compare with what I remember.