Trial Run of the Turkey Sausage App

Dealing with the menu is the easy part.  The second I got offered this catering adventure I started dreaming up all of my recent favorite food combinations.  My dear friend and professional caterer, Heidi, shared with me one of her favorite books "The Flavor Bible" and it has been my friend in the kitchen ever since. If I have ground pork on hand, or an organic chicken with some wild rice in the cupboard and let's say... a can of tomatoes and a can of garbanzo's, I can look up those food items and see what they pair with.  That helps me make absolutely sensational food and spice pairings that I have never thought of before.  Who knew anchovies was a secret ingredient to the best beef stew ever? (put your hands down you culinary geniuses) A sprinkle of this and a pinch of that and all of a sudden I have a knock out dish!  There is a big flaw in this kind of intuitive cooking which is that nothing is really measured.  "They" say that a good intuition in the kitchen makes for some of the best cooks but that doesn't help me when I want to repeat a dish or write it up for a cooking client.  I usually take the avant-garde approach to a recipe anyway.  If my client has asked for a beef stew I research 4 different recipes, write my own and then make modifications as I am actually cooking the dish.  There is creativity in cooking, my friends, and you have got to let the food speak to you as you cook it!  Okay, I let my weird out.  Let's move on.

My turkey sausage patties are outstanding.  The combination of spices sends your taste buds to another dimension.  I have never made them for app's before so I have decided to add a sweet onion sauce, julienne roasted red peppers topped with a cilantro leaf.

I had a trial run of making sausages out of 3.5 lbs of meat to see how many patties that made. (50 if anyone is curious)  I'm cooking for 200 so I need to make at least 400.  "400" you ask?  "Are you crazy?"  Yes.  And it will probably turn into 500, but I digress.  My plan is that they will be made days ahead of time and then frozen.  I learned that little trick for my wedding.  I made 400 turkey and 400 beef meatballs ahead of time, froze them, and they defrosted overnight in the fridge, ready to be reheated in their sauces the next day.  So that's my plan with the sausages.  By the way I'll be reprising the beef meatballs for this wedding as well.

So here is my pitch for the appetizer. "A warm turkey sausage patty topped with a caramelized onion, white wine and date chutney, graced with julienne roasted bell peppers and finished with a fresh cilantro leaf." Okay so maybe I can't get away with "graced".  Is there a food editor in the house?