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Diablo Dan’s Chorizo
It’s the new name I gave to my share of gourmet sausage links that I co-created after attending one of THE HEALTHY BUTCHER’S sausage making classes. It’s one of several culinary classes they offer in the evenings when the store is closed.
The Healthy Butcher is a four-year old venture specializing in fresh organic meat and gourmet prepared foods. They have 3 locations in Toronto (GTA): Downtown on Queen, Midtown on Eglinton and in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
If Whole Foods sets the bar for gourmet goodness then The Healthy Butcher is above it. In addition to the vast variety of sausages, they have an exotic selection of local organic meats and fowl and a generous selection of gourmet grocery products to tantalize your taste buds. It’s among the finest food stores in North America that I have been fortunate to sample goods from.
The sausage making class was informative and fun and you get to take home an ample sample of the sausages that you just made. Mario, one of the owners, was our trusted “sausage sommelier.” He did a great job teaching us the art of sausage making. After a demonstration and Q & A session we were paired off in teams and asked to write down what type of meat/blend we desired and how thick we wanted it. Our team opted for the 100% pleasurable pork (and later found out it was Berkshire) and we wanted it coarse. The larger the size of the meat the juicer the sausage will be.
Then the game started. We were given some “fun money” to use to bid on fresh ingredients that could go in our sausages. Competition wasn’t too fierce and our money was spent well. We ended up with roasted garlic, raw onions, mozzarella cheese and a nice piquante pesto. No other team could use this combination. Another team had some left over white wine that they offered up. We gladly accepted some and poured it into our mix. Next we went to the spice station and created a blend of salt, black pepper, cumin, paprika, turmeric, garlic powder, dry oregano, cloves and cinnamon and added it to complete the sausage flavor. The teams took turns cranking out their own sausage concoctions. Mario cooked up a few links from each team and we sampled them. They were all delicious. However, I think ours may have edged out the competition.
The sausage making class is a lot of fun and you should definitely consider this as cool date night destination. It’s a risky first date, but go a few months into your relationship. This of course depends on the type of gal. Next on the agenda, a class on how to butcher a pig!
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