Minced horse sausage stew with shallot and dark beer.
This is a culinary tradition in the Belgian city of Dendermonde. The refined taste of the horse sausages is expressed by using shallot in this recipe. The brown beer and gingerbread provide a full-bodied and slightly sweet experience.
This recipe in Dutch: paardenworsten.be
Ingredients for 4 people.
Peel the shallots and chop them into slices. Peel and crush the cloves of garlic.
Separate the sausages from each other and season the horse meat with ground pepper and a pinch of salt. If necessary, pierce the sausages with a kitchen skewer to prevent them from bursting.
Heat a skillet over medium heat and melt a knob of butter in it. Also put a large casserole with a knob of butter over medium heat.
Roast (some of) the horse sausages on both sides in the skillet and let them brown nicely. Then add the roasted meat to the casserole. Keep the deposits in the skillet.
Braise (some of) the shallots and garlic in the skillet. While doing so, stir to loosen the meat deposits. Add the stewed shallots to the casserole.
Repeat this step until all the horse sausages, shallots and garlic are in the large casserole.
Sprinkle flour over the horse sausages in the casserole, stir everything together and let it simmer for a moment.
Lower the heat of the casserole. Deglaze the remaining deposits in the skillet with a little water, then pour in the table beer. This will prevent the sugars in the beer from burning and creating a bitter taste. Then turn the heat of skillet back up to heat up the beer. Once the beer is almost boiling, pour it into the casserole until everything is submerged. At this point we don't need the skillet any more.
Tie the bay leaves, parsley stems and sprigs of thyme together with kitchen twine. Let the spice husk cook along in the casserole.
Spread the slices of gingerbread with mustard and place them in the casserole as well.
Let the horse sausages from Dendermonde simmer for one and a half upto two hours on a low heat under boiling lid. Taste and season to taste with pepper from the mill and possibly a pinch of salt.
Then let cool in a cool place and remove the spice husk.
The next day, remove any excess and solidified fat and heat the horse sausages thoroughly over low heat.
Serve with Belgian fries, mayonnaise, fresh salad and a beer from Dendermonde.