Shrimp Sausage

I’m just going to stop apologizing for the extended breaks between posts… I have no excuses (other than laziness). I do have something interesting for you today though: a shrimp sausage recipe. I became interested in the idea of a seafood sausage when I saw them being made frequently by the contestants from Top Chef Season 3. Though I found the general idea to be a little bizarre, I could see the potential for deliciousness and with a little help from the olde food processor, that potential was recently realized.

I was actually surprised by how easy it was to make sausage. The only challenge I faced was flavoring. Obviously, I couldn’t taste the raw shrimp batter for seasoning and had to make adjustments to the mix after cooking a few testers. I make the mistakes so you don’t have to!

I also didn’t have casings, so I formed the mix into simple patties, kind of like shrimp burgers, which worked just as well. Their spicy flavor was characteristic of artisan sausages I often buy from the butcher and though the texture was slightly spongy, and the confettiesque view of the insides was a little creepy, overall, I think I’d make this recipe again.

Shrimp Sausage Recipe
1 pound of raw, cleaned, shelled and deveined shrimp
1 jalapeño – seeded and chopped
1 clove of garlic
¼ cup of heavy cream
¼ cup of bread crumbs
1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cumin
½ teaspoon of black pepper
two teaspoons of lime juice

Method

Completing this recipe is made exceedingly easy by the use of a food processor. Begin by preheating your oven to 300 degrees. Then, simply combine all of the ingredients into the food processor and pulse until it reaches the consistency of ground turkey.

Form the mix into patties and brown each side in a skillet over medium high heat, about 5 minutes per side. After the sausage has been evenly browned, transfer the skillet (if it is oven safe up to 300 degrees) to the oven. Bake the patties for 20 minutes until cooked through.

Remove the sausages from the oven, allow to cool and enjoy! These sausages are great as patties or can be sliced or diced and used as pizza toppings. I would recommend this sausage as a topping for a pesto pizza.