Honoring and giving gratitude to all the mothers in our lives is a daily consideration. Mother’s Day is an opportunity to take time out of our daily routines to show love and appreciation to our mothers and mother earth.
When visiting Montreal, recently I shared a lovely breakfast with my partner Nicole at Boulangerie Hof Kelsten. It was refreshing to enjoy a meal cooked that I didn’t prepare myself that closely resembled the kind of breakfast I would cook at home. It was simple and mindfully prepared using quality ingredients. You could taste the love put into the food from start to finish.
A component of the breakfast that stood out aside from the awesome breads, were the little turkey sausage patties. I’ve become quite fond of making these at home much to my housemates delight. A sausage doesn’t need to be in a casing for all the wonderful flavours that we associate with them to be enjoyed. I encourage you to break the “casing mold” and prepare sausage patties for the unique and special moms in your lives.
When making pork sausage, I prefer to freshly grind the shoulder meat of the pig. Pork shoulder has the ideal ratio of fat to meat for making delicious sausage. Recognizing that not everyone has a meat grinder at home and that availability of certain choice cuts of meat is not always possible to attain, substituting pre-ground pork or meat of your preference will yield similar results. I often request the help of friends’ children at the Edge of the Woods Farm to help me in meat grinding and sausage making. What family fun could be had when multiple generations come together to make a special meal for the wonderful mothers and grandmothers who we care so deeply for.
To bind the meat all you have to do is knead the meat as you would bread. Kneading helps develop the protein in the meat the same way kneading develops protein in bread dough. If you’re using pre-ground meat you may need to add filler in the form of oats or breadcrumb to help absorb some of the excess moisture.
If I were to be cooking for my mom this coming Sunday it would look something like this: A frittata, roasted potatoes, sausage patties, a simple salad and some fruit.
Breakfast Sausage Patties
Ingredients:
- Ground pork shoulder or ground meat of your preference
- Honey
- Rolled oats
- Garlic ground into a paste
- Salt
- Pepper
Directions
- Mix ingredients well, the more you knead the meat, the stickier it will become.
- Add just enough rolled oats to the mixture so that it is tacky to the touch.
- Cook a test patty to check the seasoning and adjust as necessary.
- Be mindful of how sweet you make them as you progressively add more honey or sugar, the likelihood of over-caramelizing and burning your sausage increases as well.
- Form into patties in a size of your choice.
- If you are not going to cook them all right away place them on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and store in your fridge or freezer.
- You can cook them stovetop on medium heat or bake in at 350F in the oven until done.
Enjoy and Happy Mother’s Day!
