Fennel Bratwurst

1. Preparing the bratwurst and Swabian-Hall swine:

• Soak casing in lukewarm water for 30 minutes so it becomes pliable. Dice fennel bulb very finely. Peel garlic and chop garlic and chili pepper. Braise all these ingredients in olive oil for 3 minutes. Add fennel seeds, allspice and salt. Pour in Vin Santo and reduce fully. Remove from heat and let cool completely – preferably in the freezer for several minutes.
• Cut pork and bacon into strips about 1 cm thick, combine with the fennel mixture and put through the MaxxiMUM mincer attachment. Place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. In the MaxxiMUM Kitchen Machine’s mixing bowl, knead mince meat thoroughly for 10 minutes using the dough hook attachment.
• Attach the sausage stuffing for bratwurst (smallest diameter) to the MaxxiMUM Kitchen Machine. Slide about 2 m of sausage casing into the filing tube. Place the sausage mixture in the machine and stuffing into the sausage casing. It’s best if a second person holds onto the sausage casing so it doesn’t slide of the filing tube too quickly. Pinch the finished sausages between your thumb and index figer at intervals of about 12 cm.
• Twist the first sausage 5 rotations to the right and do the same to the third, fifth, and so on, to gradually produce a string of sausages. Refrigerate bratwursts until ready to use. The surface may dry out slightly (in any case, bratwursts must be used on the same day, or else frozen).
• Peel potatoes, parsley roots and beetroots and cut into thin strips using the Continuous Shredder and Asian vegetable disc. Pluck off sage leaves. Peel garlic cloves and slice thinly. Fill a deep fryer, wok or high-sided pot with neutral oil – fill the deep fryer according to directions, fill the wok or pot to a depth of about 5 cm. Heat to 175°C – the temperature at which a sage leaf dropped into the oil starts to sizzle.
• Fry garlic to a light golden colour, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Then fry sage leaves until crispy and drain on paper towels. Finally, fry vegetable strips until crispy. Don’t add too many strips to the oil at one time so that the temperature remains stable and the finished strips are nice and crisp.
• Fry bratwursts over medium heat for 5 minutes on each side. Season herb-vegetable haystacks with salt and serve with bratwurst and BBQ sauce .
• Tip: With homemade sausages, you not only know what’s inside but their taste is also far superior to that of sausages you could buy in a shop. You can of course vary the seasoning however you wish – try rosemary or other herbs, dried fruits such as apricot or mango, spices ranging from cardamom to curry. What matters is the ratio of meat to bacon, the salt content and the very cold processing. You can prepare larger quantities of bratwursts, freeze the raw sausages and slowly thaw them in the refrigerator when ready for use.

2. Preparing the BBQ sauce:

• Cut chili peppers in half, scrape out seeds, remove stems and cut Flesh into strips. Peel shallots and garlic cloves and chop coarsely. Peel celeriac and dice finely. Braise vegetables in Sunflower oil for 5 minutes, then add sugar and let it dissolve. Pour in rum and reduce fully.
• Add blood orange juice, Worcestershire sauce, strained tomatoes and soy sauce. Peel mango, cut flesh away from the stone, dice coarsely and add about 250 g to the sauce. Add plums and celery seed. Coarsely crush allspice and whole cloves in a mortar, place in a spice or tea ball and add to the pot. Reduce for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Rinse thyme, shake dry and strip leaves from stems. Remove spice ball from the sauce. Finely purée BBQ sauce in the MaxxiMUM mixer attachment. Rinse limes under hot water, grate of a fine layer of peel and squeeze out juice. Add lime peel, lime juice, smoked salt and thyme to the sauce.
• Bring to a boil, transfer immediately to sterilised screw-top jars and seal. (To sterilise, heat jars in the oven at around 120°C for about 10 minutes. You can also leave them in the oven longer – it’s best not to remove them from the oven until the sauce is ready. Boil the lids in a saucepan with a little water for 5 minutes, remove with clean tongs and drain on a wire rack.) Unopened and stored in a cool cellar, the sauce will keep for 1 year. Refrigerate jars after opening and consume within a few weeks.
• Tip: In the case of high-quality smoked salt, the salt is smoked for several days. It is often fancy sea salt with open pores that can easily absorb the smoky aroma. In the case of the standard quality smoked salt that is often used in commercial BBQ sauces, the smoke flavour is more or less artificially added.