Put a little Alsace in your Lorraine!

Okay, so maybe this isn’t quite a post about Alsacian foods. However I did make a pretty awesome combination of French and German last night. I went to The Butcher and Larder on Saturday http://thebutcherandlarder.com (seriously, a must go!) to purchase some pork lard, for a pie crust I’m making tonight, (posts to follow) and I saw some delicious fresh made sausage. I ended up purchasing two of the Atomic Hot Links and four SaucisseToulouse. For those of you who haven’t frequented butcher shops or Hot Doug’s, Saucisse Toulouse is a French style pork sausage traditionally featured in cassoulet. It’s a mild sausage, but pairs really well with strong flavors.

Anyway, I picked up the four Toulouse’s, but not having the time or materials to make a cassoulet, I thought I would just grill them up and put them on some crispy French bread. I made a quick moutarde violette and German Potato salad from a recipe I found in Ferran Adria’s new cookbook (a must buy!) The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria http://www.amazon.com/Family-Meal-Cooking-Ferran-Adria/dp/0714862533

So I should say here that per my previous post "All Hail the Mustard King" I saidhow I used to dislike mustard, and I placed it slightly above Mayonnaise in world of condiments. I think it's important to note (more for my husband than anyone else) that this recipe involves not only copious amounts of mustard, but also... MAYONNAISE (gasp!).

To be honest, I wasn't totally sold on the potato salad, but my husband seemed a little enamored by it, so I thought I would just do it. To my surprise, it was delicious and something I would make and eat again. I know I should have already learned the lesson that recipes from certain chef's are always going to be delicious...but like a child who's told not to touch the hot stove and does, I have to learn for myself. Every.Single.Time.

So here you are. Mayo, Mustard and Sausage. A meal that is quick, easy to make, delicious and gourmet!

Ingredients:

Crispy French bread, cut into pieces slightly smaller than the sausage excess center bread removed (in order to get the full sausage taste)

SaucisseToulouse

¼ cup of stone ground Dijon Mustard

2 tbs grape jam

4 large yellow potatoes

4 tbs low fat mayonnaise

3 tbs Dijon mustard

3tbs heavy cream

5 medium size gherkin pickles

2 tsp minced chives

2 scallions (bulbs only) minced

4 tsp pickled capers (juice removed)

For the Sausage:

Heat grill on high, cook until thorough about 10 minutes

For the quick moutarde violette:

Combine Stone Ground Dijon and Grape Jam together, blend until there are no remnants of jam and the mixture is a violet color. Should taste on the sweetish side, but still have the kick of the Dijon

For the German Potato Salad:

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add potatoes whole, cook until soft. Remove potatoes from water and cover with tin foil until you complete the rest of the recipe. In a separate bowl combine mustard, cream and mayo, wisk until fully blended.

Chop pickles and combine with scallions, capers and chives in a bow.

Remove potatoes from foil, take off skin and cut the potatoes into chunks.

Add potatoes and pickle mixture together.

Finally, fold in mustard mixture until everything is covered.

Season with salt and pepper to taste

When serving the sausage, we found it best to cut the bread and then butterfly the sausage. Add the moutarde violette to the inside of the butterflied sausage and then again to the bread.

And enjoy!!