I had a difficult time deciding what to post up this week, mostly because this week has been crazy and I really didn't make anything interesting.... until last night. I had stopped by the hump day farmer's market that occurs here on the Health Sciences campus. Unfortunately, Morgantown (excluding surrounding areas) only has one day of farmer's market... on Saturday morning. Recently, the hospital campus decided to host a smaller Wednesday farmer's market to increase health awareness and all that jazz. Luckily for me, I work in that area, and it's super convenient for me to pop over during lunch, grab some things, and take them home after work. There usually isn't a very good selection, and there tends to be more crafts than food, but it's still nice to go have a look around.
Yesterday, I was able to snag 3 beautiful cucumbers, 2 heirloom tomatoes for slicing, and 3 inferno peppers for $5 total. I would have taken a picture, but unfortunately, I tore into my stocks before the photo opp. What happened next was a meal of convenience.
I had some smoked turkey sausage I had purchased a couple weeks back. If you know anything about me, you know that I don't eat much meat, but I can never turn down a good kielbasa-like product. I have excellent childhood memories of my mom grilling up some kielbasa to go with homemade biscuits and creamed tomatoes from the garden.
Given the rest of my meal was from a sustainable source and benefited a couple local farmers along the way, I felt justified in posting this recipe up. If you like a zesty hot pepper, the inferno is for you. It is banana pepper-like, but has a pleasant warmth that can be deceiving after a few bites of fresh pepper. After a while, the fresh pepper could easily set most peoples' mouths on fire. Disappointingly, I am not equipped with the normal "hot" taste buds and can only feel my lips burn when encountered with capsaicin. Therefore, I added 2 hot peppers in this recipe and purposely let some seeds cling just to get more of the hot flavor for my tastes. If hot peppers aren't your style, feel free to substitute a milder pepper, such as a sweet banana variety. Even with run-of-the-mill bell peppers, this recipe is still delicious.
Smoked Sausage Saute with Crunchy Peppers
1 package smoked sausage, sliced into medallions
~8 red potatoes, sliced into ~1/4" thickness
2 small onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green peppers, sliced
1-2 inferno peppers, sliced, seeds removed (mostly... :) )
1 tbsp basil-infused olive oil
Salt and pepper to season
Heat oil in large saute pan on medium-high heat. Season potatoes and saute until golden, then ad onions and garlic and saute until onions and garlic are lightly browned and onion is translucent. Add smoked sausage medallions and saute until sausage is fully heated and browned. Add pepper slices and cook until peppers are desired done-ness. (I like a Crunchy pepper!)
Serve it all up with a fresh salad to combat the sausage. Given the sausage is a little on the fatty side, you may chose to reduce the oil or cook the sausage separately and then add it to the mix to reduce the fat content. How much you cook the inferno peppers will determine how much heat you have. Heating a pepper more tends to spread the flavor throughout the dish and usually produces a calming effect on the heat of the pepper.
Anyway you choose to go about this recipe is fine. You really can't mess it up! You may even want to add some different vegetables or leave out the meat completely. Some sliced grape tomatoes would probably be excellent, as well as some fresh corn cut off the cob in place of the potatoes. You can also leave the starchy vegetables completely out of the recipe and serve this stir-fry up with some brown rice. If you try this recipe and mix it up a little, let me know how it turned out! Green Appetit!
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