Sophie's Foodie

Grilled Kielbasa sausage is a blast! Regardless whether I use it in a soup or other dishes, or eat it by itself, I still try to grill it on the barbecue.
Putting it on the grill seems to bring out a particular flavor that I can't get cooking it on the kitchen stovetop or oven. I sometimes have to broil it in the oven, but it still isn't the same as grilling it.
Some recommend that you boil it before placing on a grill. Don't ask me why. Unless the sausage is raw I see no reason to do this. Most prepackaged kielbasa is precooked.
Many things compliment it. It goes very well with potatoes, vegetables, pasta, stir fry, sauerkraut, salads. Try slicing it length-wise and put it on a sandwich along with a quality mustard.
Eat it all by itself and dip into a mustard.
In this day and age, there is low fat kielbasa sausage to be had. Read the labels and make sure you are getting the right one for your dietary needs. Turkey Kielbasa is a favorite.
Our family use it a soup more than anything, especially the turkey variety. It's a great addition and substitute for other meats in a soup.

Labels: Grilled Kielbasa, Kielbasa Sausage, Turkey Kielbasa

If you had the gall to simply say, "Let's go ahead and cook up a soup on the BBQ grill", old Billy Bob (the "Q" Dude) would probably go ballistic.
But, hey, actually even old Billy Bob might come around and chow down on a really cool soup that is entirely done on the barbie. In fact, you can bet he would because everything is cooked and grilled outdoors. No, it ain't goin' be slow-cooked BBQ pulled pork to him, but it's going to be super delicious and it's going to be something that your family and friends....and good old Billy Bob are just going to love! Plus, it's very economical to make.
Personally, whether it is a soup or a casserole I like to cook things in stages, meaning: For example, you will want to make sure a onion and some garlic are caramelized first and then start adding other ingredients along the way as they are grilled separately. You are going to get very distinctive tastes and colorful looks in your soup because you bothered to take the time to do this.
So, like Clint E. the Movie Director would say, "Action!" Ok, he wouldn't say that, he would say, "Let's get started now!" Actually, if Clint said "Action" Rachael would have had this soup recipe all cooked before he got the "ion" out.
Let's get started now:
1) On a gas grill: Turn one burner to medium high. On a charcoal grill probably a two zone medium fire.
2) In a medium to large stock pot add lots of EVOO and cook one whole chopped onion and 3 to 4 finely chopped gloves of garlic until just about golden brown. You want to have enough oil in the pot that the onion and garlic seem to float. Remove from fire.
3) Rub three whole stalks of celery, three whole peeled carrots, one Anaheim pepper, one skinny yellow squash or zucchini with EVOO and grill them on medium high. Don't go berserk, just get the veggies to the point that you have nice grill marks, remove them from the fire and cut em'up. Dummies can look at the picture above to see how veggies look when they are cut up! Grill a nice Kielbasa sausage and cut that Dude all up, too.
For The Brain Dead: This is what a Kielbasa Sausage looks like....veggies don't really look like this!
4) Add all of Number 3 (For the Rednecks: that's a number that comes before four (4) ) �.add them to the pot and return the pot back to the fire.
5) Everybody likes to sauté veggies until they look like mush. Don't do this! Think crisp! Don't cook all the nutrients out of them. So, cool it! You want "Crunch and Munch"!
6) Start adding 32 to 64 ounces of chicken broth to the pot. If you want more of a "Stoup" stick with the 32 ounces to start with. I tend to make my own or buy the best that I can buy (Chef Paul Prudhomme makes broth to perfection). Hey, I also added 16 ounces of a nice beef broth to the pot. It adds a real different dimension to the soup.
7) In a separate pot cook Buitoni Tortelloni, or something that looks like it, per directions, and add to the pot.

8) You're done, Dude! No need to simmer until all the cool nutrients are cooked out and have gone away.
I'll make no bones: I have two chefs that I think are way above all others�Chef Paul and Chef George Hirsch. I don't know Chef Paul personally, but I do Chef Hirsch. Both are down-to-earth and super nice folks. You can tell! And, they were cookin', grillin' fantastic chow before most of the FN stars were born.
My very favorite is Chef Hirsch! He might, he just might communicate directly with you (if you are nice) and he'll give you more ideas about living, traveling, cooking, grilling than Carter has pills...

Labels: Bauman Farms, BBQ Soup Recipe, BBQ Soup Recipes, Chef George Hirsch, Chef Paul Prudhomme, Kielbasa Sausage

My family and I love Jambalaya. We also love Gumbo. In fact, we love a lot of Cajun-style food. Here is a simple recipe for Jambalaya, and since it is BBQ season why not just go ahead and use the barbie?
This isn't a made from scratch recipe. I often wondered exactly what that meant. Do you grow your own rice, or what?
I don't want to shock anyone, but I used a Zatarain's pre-packaged product, along with Kielbasa, chicken and a red pepper to make my Jambalaya. Not to mention shrimp.
If I thought I could make a Jambalaya better. and more economical than Zatarain's, I would do it. They seem to have just the right blend of spices and is very tasty to say the least.
The first thing I do is prepare two packages of Zatarain's Jambalaya mix in a large stock pot. It calls for two and a half cups of water brought to a boil for each package.
You can prepare this on a side burner on the BBQ, or on one of the main burners. I did not. I used my kitchen stove top.
I don't use water as instructed. I substitute low sodium chicken broth and at least one can of beef broth.
After you are done cooking the rice mix, using their exact instructions you will find that you need to add more broth so that it doesn't dry out. Play it by ear!
Zatarains makes suggestions on what meats or seafood to add to Jambalaya mix and you can do that in a number of ways.
They recommend adding smoked sausage, ham, chicken and shrimp. You can add one of these ingredients, one at a time, each time you serve it, or all at once.
By smoked sausage I think they mean Andouille sausage. It is not readily available in my neck of the woods, so I substitute Kielbasa sausage.
I grilled it on a gas barbecue, along with three chicken breasts and a red pepper. Real simple!
After grilling, everything is cut up into bite size chunks and added to the pot. As recipes go this is an easy way to make a Jambalaya recipe that everybody will enjoy, and won't require you to stand over a hot grill, or stove all day long. Below is Zatarain's case of 12.

Labels: Jambalaya Recipe, Jambalaya Recipes, Kielbasa Sausage, Zatarains, Zatarains Jambalaya Mix