astrobaja - 8-20-2008 at 03:58 PM
Hi all,
The list of things I miss from back home is pretty short,
decent beer,Indian curries, Montreals jazz festival, the spring maple syrup festival! But some ethnic foods I really miss, I'd like to make a nice
Italian sausage spaghetti sauce!
I have yet to see italian foods in any of the big markets like Commercial Mexicana, or Gigantes.
Anybody know where to get these sausages (and aged parmigiano reggiano)? I know Henrys in SD has pretty good ones, but its a pain to drive to SD.
Worse comes to worse I'll try to make em myself!
bajamigo - 8-20-2008 at 08:26 PM
Try La Canasta or San Nicolas Carniceria in Ensenada; the latter is on the Reforma. Both specialize in American-style meats. Don't know about the
quality, though, since we haven't bought the sausages in either place.
Udo - 8-20-2008 at 09:11 PM
What's wrong with making tomato meat sauce with a mild chorizo sausage, add a little piloncillo, fresh garlic, and try to hunt down some thyme,
(tomillo), dried oregano (spelled the same), dried romero, probably could find some fresh, and I know there is tons of mint in town.
There are numerous carnicerias that have their own variety of chorizo, either in sausage form, or sold in mounds by the kilo. In a few carnicerias
they will have some smoked sausage, that closely resembles the italian flavors. Since the carniceros are very accomodating people, if you show up a
few days ahead of time, and provide them the italian spices you wish, they will be happy to mix the spice mixture for you. They may even custom order
the meats you request.
Let me know if you need further substitution lists, I'm fairly close to an expert in food (wait for my gig at the golf tournament).
bajabound2005 - 8-21-2008 at 06:47 AM
Chorizo and Italian sausage have completely different flavors and one couldn't possibly substitute for the other! We've had no luck in finding
Italian sausage here and will probably embark on making our own. In the meantime, we stock up when in San Diego and fill up the freezer.
You can get a decent Parmasan cheese at Costco.
[Edited on 8-21-2008 by bajabound2005]
David K - 8-21-2008 at 06:55 AM
Astro, before we Nomads leave home to come to visit your astronomy bed & breakfast, do let us know what to bring you from up north! There's a
Henry's a mile from my home... so it will be no problema!
[Edited on 8-21-2008 by David K]
astrobaja - 8-21-2008 at 09:28 AM
David: that would be very cool if you could bring a goodie or 2 for us!
Udo: I think the idea of bringing one of the smaller family run carnicerias a recipe is a good one! The key ingredient to my mind is fennel seeds, a
lot of spices can be mail ordered, as can good parmigianno.
http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/358/italian-sausage.html
Looks like a good mail order spot for Italian food:
http://www.ditalia.com/category/Italian_Imported_Cheese_Cow
Udo - 8-21-2008 at 05:15 PM
The recipe on epicurean.com is a good start. Fennel seeds are easily available in the larger Baja cities, and is easily found @ Smart
& Finals. It needs some fresh or dried thyme. One item I use in my recipe is fennel polen..talk about intense flavor!
I would personally stand near the carniceria's butcher and explain to him how you want the pork trimmed and ground.
He'll probably start making the italian sausage on his own (if he is smart) and watch the locals overrun his store because he has something
different.