Thai Herbal Sausage from Pok Pok Cookbook

Northern Style Herbal Sausage
Sai Ua Samun Phrai
From Pok Pok Cookbook

We've made this a few times and really enjoy it. It's redolent of galangal, turmeric, lemon grass, and cilantro -- very appealing. The flecks of color under the skin give it visual appeal.

I first made this "by the book", including all the pounding (pok pok) with a mortar and pestle. As he says, it "is a royal pain". I'm now using a food processor, putting in the most woody items first (galangal, turmeric) then adding the others from most dense to most fragile; it turns out quite well. I've recently started using frozen chopped lemon grass instead of peeling my own, and find it quite acceptable; it's available in the Korean and Chinese supermarkets near me. I'm also dry-frying the aromatics rather than trying to grill over open flame, which I found fidgety.

The process of grinding and stuffing the sausage is standard, I tend to mix in the paste and aromatics with the meat as it goes through the grinder so I don't have to mush them into the ground meat afterwards. Our KitchenAid mixer's grinder attachment doesn't have the 1/2-inch holes the book requests, so we used the largest we had, and the resulting texture's fine.

Paste

60 g unpeeled Garlic
45 g unpeeled Asian Shallots (I used regular shallots)
30 g Galangal, cut across grain into 0.5 cm slices
15 g Turmeric, cut across grain into 0.5 cm slices
15 g stemmed dried Mexican Puya Chiles, slit open and seeded
40 g thinly sliced lemon grass, tender parts only (or same weight frozen chopped)
18 g Cilantro roots (I used the stems)
2 g finely grated zest of Kafir Lime (I zested a regular Persian Lime)

Sausage

500 g boneless Pork Shoulder, cut into 4 cm chunks
500 g skinless Pork Belly, cut into 4 cm chunks
25 g coarsely chopped Cilantro (leaves and stems)
1/4 cup Thai Fish Sauce
4 g very thinly sliced fresh or frozen Kaffir Lime Leaves (thick stems removed)
1.5 g mild Indian Curry Powder
2 g ground Black Pepper
2 m natural Sausage Casing, about 2.5 cm diameter, defrosted, washed well

Make the Paste

Dry-fry the Garlic, Shallots, Galangal and Turmeric, turning until Galangal and Turmeric are cooked through and look dry on both sides (don't let them char), about 5 minutes, and until the Garlic and Shallots' skin is charred in spots and they are fully soft but retain their shape, 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool.

Grind the Chilis in a spice grinder.  In a food processor, process ingredients, starting with the most woody to the most delicate: Galangal, Turmeric, then add Lemon Grass, Garlic, Shallots, Cilantro, then Chili powder and Lime Zest. Process until it's a paste, but it will be a little fibrous and shaggy.  You should have a bit more than 1/2 cup.

Make the Sausage

Rinse casings well.

Chill the meats in the freezer for 30 minutes or so until it's firm so it'll grind cleanly rather then smearing. Grind the meats with a 1/2-inch plate or your largest one, alternating Shoulder with fatty Belly. I push in the paste and aromatics (Cilantro, Kaffir Lime Leaves, Curry Powder, Pepper) as I feed the meat, but you could combine once the meat's ground. Add the Fish Sauce and any remaining aromatics to the ground mixture and combine gently to mix without smearing.

Chill the meat mixture again while you load the casing onto the sausage grinder stuffer horn. Stuff the casings, letting the filled sausage curl into an attractive spiral.  Poke holes in the casing every few inches or where there are air bubbles. Let sausage sit in fridge a few hours or over night. We freeze it in vacuum bags at this point so we can cook it whenever we like.

Defrost the sausage and steam 6-10 minutes or sous vide at 60C/140F for 20 minutes until firm and springy but not fully cooked. Grill over charcoal, carefully turning over once, until cooked through, with light brown and dark brown patches. Let it cool to room temperature for serving.