Wok-smoked turkey sausage

A few years ago I saw Jacques Pepin make turkey sausage on an episode of “Emeril Live”. I think my favorite thing about it is the pistachios. This was truly an experiment to smoke the sausage instead of simmer it. Couldn’t think of any reason in the world why it wouldn’t work. With the benefit of my electronic temp probe it was easy to monitor the cooking.

Wok-smoked turkey sausage
1 lb. ground turkey (mixed white and dark meat is essential)
¼ cup fresh sage leaves,.chopped fine
¼ cup shelled pistachios
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp smoked paprika

Put everything into a large bowl and mix it thoroughly with your hands. Put it in the fridge to let the ingredients blend their flavors together. This can be an hour or two or a day. Jacques advocated storing it in the fridge for 3 days before cooking. I don’t have that much patience. Roll up a 1” ball and microwave it for 20 seconds to check for seasonings.

Form the sausage into a log and wrap it tightly with plastic. Then refrigerate.

After a day or two or three, remove the plastic. Wrap the sausage it in one layer of cheesecloth so that it will hold its shape.

Soak a large handful of woods chips in water for 30 minutes. Line your wok with 2 pieces of foil. Turn the heat to medium high (6 on my 1-10 dial). Place the turkey on a small piece of foil in a steamer basket and insert a temperature probe. Smoke the sausage for about 45 minutes, then transfer it to the 350 oven and bake until the temp 170 is reached. My electronic temp probe makes monitoring this quite easy.

Now, for those who ain’t gonna smoke this stuff, put your sausage log in a 1 gallon freezer bag and squeeze out all the air you can. Bring a large pot of water to boil, reduce to a simmer and put the bag into it. You may need to weigh it down with something to keep it submerged. Keep at a very, very slow simmer for one hour. Take it out of the water bath. Leave it undisturbed in the freezer bag and it will re-absorb some of the exuded liquid.

Now, what are you going to do with it? Beats me! It’s good for sliders, with eggs, with most anything.