Boudin

. . . technically cajun boudin blanc, but I'm going to stick with just "boudin" is a pork, pork liver, and rice sausage beloved by my husband.  It can can be eaten as a sausage, a stuffing, a dressing, or as "boudin balls" which are coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried.

I wanted to make some home-made sausage as a renal diet alternative to the sodium laced offerings from the store, and boudin stood out because it is only ~1/2 meat by weight, so a 4 ounce sausage is only 14g protein.  Plus it is yummy, and the other flavors involved compensate for low sodium.

I drew from two recipes to make my own, one of which was Emeril Lagasse's here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/boudin-sausage-recipe0.html

The other was from The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine by John D Folse.


Equipment
You need a sausage grinder and stuffer for this recipe.  I used the Kitchenaid attachment, which I found to work well.  Whatever you use, you want to grind on a coarse grind.


Ingredients
This is for 10lbs boudin.  I originally made 20, but it was too much to work with.

2lbs pork liver
4lbs boneless pork shoulder
3lbs cooked white rice (6 cups)
1/2 lb green onion
1/2 lb fresh parsley
2tbspn black pepper
2tbspn cayenne pepper
2tbspn chipotle pepper
1.5tbspn salt  (you could reduce to 1tbspn if you want to bring the sodium down farther)

1 bunch celery
1 white onion

20 - 30 feet hog casings

Instructions:
The night before start soaking your casings to remove salt.
You'll want to rinse them off, then leave them to soak over night, and then change the water 2-3 more times with an hour of soaking in between before you stuff them.  You can use warm water to soak the casings.  The more you soak, the less residual salt there will be.

Cube the pork shoulder and the pork liver and place in a pot with the celery and onion (you can also add a bell pepper, but my husband doesn't particularly like those).  Simmer together for 1 and 1/2 hours.

After that time is up, remove all the solids into a large bowl, but reserve the liquid.  Let it cool to room temperature, or even cooler.  Most grinders work optimally with very cold ingredients, though I did not have a problem grinding these warm.  You can go through and pick out the onion and celery, but I did not bother too.

Coarsely chop up the green onion and parsley and mix it together with the meat.

Grind everything up together.

Add the spices (salt and peppers) and mix thoroughly.  Then add the rice and mix thoroughly.
Lastly add reserved cooking  liquid until the mixture moistens and sticks together, but is not soppy.  I would say ~2 cups added 1/2 cup at a time with stirring in between.

Now taste the mix and make sure you like the flavor profile.
If you want to use the mix for boudin balls or stuffing you are done.

A messy business

Stuffing Links:
If you want to make sausage you will need to stuff them using a sausage stuffer.
One mistake I ran into was stuffing too tightly, which caused my links to burst upon later cooking due to the expansion of the rice.  Therefore I recommend that you avoid air bubbles and fill the casing, but not so much that it is turgid, or completely full.

The procedure I used was to load the casing onto the stuffer, then begin running sausage through to remove air bubbles.  Once sausage had begun to emerge, I tied off the casing with a simple slip not.  I then alternated pushing sausage through, and adjusting the casing to maximize fill (as noted above I was too enthusiastic about this).

Once the casing was stuffed, I twisted links alternating directions.

You can find good videos online that cover this procedure.

Both recipes I used recommend steaming or boiling the boudin before storage.  This caused mine to burst, but I think this was because of over stuffing.  Internet recipes are full of contradictions on this.
I think there are 3 viable options:

Steam for 10min in a single layer then cool and store
Boil for 5min then cool and store
Store as is and steam or boil right before use/grilling

When I make these again I will try one and update.

Delicious with mustard! (Brown mustard is better. . .)

Nutrition:
There is too much variability due to boiling, etc. for me to feel confident posting a nutrition profile, but here are the key facts:
In a 4oz link there are ~ 2oz protein, 300mg sodium, and 200mg potassium, 150mg phosphorous.
All of these are approximation, but I tried to err on the high side.
The sodium does not take into account any salt left in the casings after soaking.

Chicken Pot Pies Renal / Kidney Diet

This is a recipe for 8 mini pies I made using our breville mini pie maker.
My husband loves pot-pie, so this is a great way for him to get a kidney friendly food that also seems like a treat.  Double this for 1 normal sized pie.

I am breaking the nutrition and directions up into two parts, crust and filling, to make nutrition calculations more modular in the future.

Crust

The crust recipe I used was from a cookbook I have and is pretty standard for 1 pie crust (bottom only):

• Cut 2 sticks / 0.5lb cold butter into 2.5 cups / 312g flour, until most butter is incorporated, but some pea=sized butter chunks remain
• Slowly add ice cold water until mixing produces a dry but coherent dough ball.  I do not measure this as it really varies day to day based on humidity.  It's around 1/4-1/2 cup water
• Let sit in the refrigerator 1 hour for the water to be absorbed fully
• At this point the dough can be frozen
• Using a liberally floured surface and pin roll out the dough to 1/8 in thickness.  I did 1/2 at a time

This recipe used a LOT of butter and I found about 1 tspn or so of butter per mini pie left behind in the maker after baking.  next time I do this i am going to work on a version with whole wheat and less butter.  It is a nice flakey rich crust.

Nutrient	Unit	0.5lb butter	0.5 tspn salt	2.5"cup flour	TOTAL	Per pie
Energy	kcal	1620	0	1138	2758	344.8
Protein	g	1.92	0	32.28	34.2	4.3
Total lipid (fat)	g	183.31	0	3.06	186.37	23.3
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0.14	0	238.47	238.61	29.8
Fiber, total dietary	g	0	0	8.4	8.4	1.1
Sugars, total	g	0.14	0	0.84	0.98	0.1
Minerals					0	0.0
Calcium, Ca	mg	54	1	47	102	12.8
Iron, Fe	mg	0.05	0.01	3.66	3.72	0.5
Magnesium, Mg	mg	5	0	69	74	9.3
Phosphorus, P	mg	54	0	338	392	49.0
Potassium, K	mg	54	0	334	388	48.5
Sodium, Na	mg	25	1163	6	1194	149.3
Zinc, Zn	mg	0.2	0	2.19	2.39	0.3
Lipids					0	0.0
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	116.092	0	0.484	116.576	14.6
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	47.507	0	0.272	47.779	6.0
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	6.877	0	1.291	8.168	1.0
Fatty acids, total trans	g	7.408	0	0	7.408	0.9
Cholesterol	mg	486			486	60.8

Filling

For our mini pie maker the filling needs to be cold, but precooked to some extent.

This was easy to make and came out very tasty:

• I made 3 cups of filling because each pie in our pie maker uses 1/3 cup
• I was able to buy frozen peas and chopped leeks, which made this very quick
• My husband dialyzed the potatoes, which cuts their potassium approximately in 1/2.  I estimated the potassium in my table because there is no USDA entry for dialyzed potatoes.

Nutrient	Unit	8oz chicken breast	0.5cup peas	0.5 cup potatoes	0.5cup leeks	½ med onion	1cup low sodium broth	0.25 tspn salt	TOTAL	1 pie
Energy	kcal	272	52	68	27	22	38	0	479	59.9
Protein	g	51	3.5	1.46	0.67	0.61	4.8	0	62.04	7.8
Total lipid (fat)	g	5.94	0.27	0.08	0.13	0.06	1.44	0	7.92	1.0
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0	9.13	15.7	6.3	5.14	2.88	0	39.15	4.9
Fiber, total dietary	g	0	3	1.4	0.8	0.9	0	0	6.1	0.8
Sugars, total	g	0	3.35	0.68	1.74	2.33	0.31	0	8.41	1.1
Minerals				0					0	0.0
Calcium, Ca	mg	11	15	4	26	13	10	0	79	9.9
Iron, Fe	mg	0.84	1.03	0.24	0.93	0.12	0.5	0	3.66	0.5
Magnesium, Mg	mg	63	17	17	12	6	2	0	117	14.6
Phosphorus, P	mg	483	55	34	16	16	72	0	676	84.5
Potassium, K	mg	757	103	148	80	80	206	0	1374	171.8
Sodium, Na	mg	102	72	3	9	2	72	581	841	105.1
Zinc, Zn	mg	1.54	0.55	0.23	0.05	0.09	0.24	0	2.7	0.3
Lipids				0					0	0.0
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	1.276	0.044	0.02	0.018	0.023	0.43	0	1.811	0.2
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	1.562	0.022	0.002	0.002	0.007	0.658	0	2.253	0.3
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	0.961	0.117	0.034	0.074	0.009	0.302	0	1.497	0.2
Fatty acids, total trans	g	0.016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.016	0.0
Cholesterol	mg	165		0					165	20.6

Steps:

1. Saute the diced chicken breast (8oz), chopped onion (1/2 cup) and leeks (1/2 cup) together with garlic and sage to taste (I used 2 tbspn each) as well as black pepper and herbs de provence to taste.
2. Add the 1/2 cup frozen peas and the 1/2 cup cooked potatoes
3. Dissolve 2tbspn corn starch and 1/4 tspn salt in 8oz low sodium chicken broth and pour over the mixture
4. Heat everything to a simmer to thicken, then remove from the heat.

I assembled the pies as per my makers instructions.  '

I ate one right away

the rest cooling

These are very delicious and kept well in the fridge, so they are a great food to make on the weekend for quick mid-week meals.  My only gripe is that the crust is so unhealthy, so i am going to work on an improved version.

Pesto pasta salad Renal/Kidney Diet

This is a basic pasta salad I made for a superbowl party and forgot to post up.

The creation is relatively simple.

1. I cooked 1lb bowtie/fafarelle pasta in unsalted water until al-dente
2. I thinly sliced 5 zucchini and 2 onions, sauteing them together in 1 tbspn olive oil
3. I placed 6oz. basil leaves, 1/2 cup minced garlic and 1/2 cup olive oil in a food processor to make the "pesto" (no pine nuts as they are high in potassium)
4. I then tossed all this together with 1/2 tspn salt, pepper to taste, and 3 ounces shaved romano (which is more than you think)

Overall it was pretty yummy, especially when warm, though I definitely felt it needed a bit more salt and maybe more pepper.  Maybe next time I'll add lemon juice or another 1/2 tspn salt.

Here are some leftovers:

This makes a very large amount of pasta so I listed it as 10 servings.

Nutrient	Unit	1lb pasta	6ounces basil	½ cup garlic	½ tspn salt	½ cup olive oil	3 oz romano	5 med. Zucchini	2 small onion	TOTAL	Serving (10)
Energy	kcal	1692	39	101	0	955	329	167	56	3339	333.9
Protein	g	59.46	5.35	4.32	0	0	27.05	11.86	1.54	109.58	10.958
Total lipid (fat)	g	6.89	1.09	0.34	0	108	22.91	3.14	0.14	142.51	14.251
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	340.5	4.5	22.48	0	0	3.09	30.48	13.08	414.13	41.413
Fiber, total dietary	g	14.6	2.7	1.4	0	0	0	9.8	2.4	30.9	3.09
Sugars, total	g	12.18	0.51	0.68	0	0	0.62	24.5	5.94	44.43	4.443
Minerals										0	0
Calcium, Ca	mg	96	301	123	1	1	905	157	32	1616	161.6
Iron, Fe	mg	5.93	5.39	1.16	0.01	0.6	0.65	3.63	0.29	17.66	1.766
Magnesium, Mg	mg	242	109	17	0	0	35	176	14	593	59.3
Phosphorus, P	mg	862	95	104	0	0	646	372	41	2120	212
Potassium, K	mg	1017	502	273	0	1	73	2558	204	4628	462.8
Sodium, Na	mg	27	7	12	1163	2	1219	78	6	2514	251.4
Zinc, Zn	mg	6.43	1.38	0.79	0	0	2.19	3.14	0.24	14.17	1.417
Vitamins										0	0
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	0	30.6	21.2	0	0	0	175.4	10.4	237.6	23.76
Thiamin	mg	0.41	0.058	0.136	0	0	0.031	0.441	0.064	1.14	0.114
Riboflavin	mg	0.274	0.129	0.075	0	0	0.315	0.921	0.038	1.752	0.1752
Niacin	mg	7.752	1.533	0.476	0	0	0.065	4.42	0.162	14.408	1.4408
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.648	0.264	0.84	0	0	0.072	1.597	0.168	3.589	0.3589
Folate, DFE	µg	82	116	2	0	0	6	235	27	468	46.8
Vitamin B-12	µg	0	0	0	0	0	0.95	0	0	0.95	0.095
Vitamin A, RAE	µg	0	449	0	0	0	82	98	0	629	62.9
Vitamin A, IU	IU	0	8968	6	0	0	353	1960	3	11290	1129
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	0.5	1.36	0.05	0	15.5	0.2	1.18	0.03	18.82	1.882
Vitamin D (D2 + D3)	µg	0	0	0	0	0	0.4	0	0	0.4	0.04
Vitamin D	IU	0	0	0	0	0	17	0	0	17	1.7
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	µg	0.5	705.2	1.2	0	65	1.9	42.1	0.6	816.5	81.65
Lipids										0	0
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	1.263	0.07	0.061	0	14.913	14.556	0.823	0.059	31.745	3.1745
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	0.78	0.15	0.007	0	78.798	6.666	0.108	0.018	86.527	8.6527
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	2.572	0.661	0.169	0	11.365	0.504	0.892	0.024	16.187	1.6187

Cabbage Rolls-- Kidney Diet / Renal Diet

This recipe is in a series of indeterminate length on kidney-healthy foods.
The goal is to cook food that takes good, and meets the following nutritional guidelines:

<2000mg / day potassium
<1500mg / day sodium
Low to moderate protein content

Along with each recipe, I'll post the nutrition breakdown based on the USDA nutrient database.

Cabbage Rolls

The idea here is to incorporate starch, in the form of rice, into our meat and also to introduce kidney friendly vegetables.

I mixed 1 cup of cooked brown rice with the 1.2lb ground beef (that's what was in the pack).  I then sauteed the 1 onion, 3 celery, 1/16th tspn salt, some garlic and dill to taste.

Once the filling was done I blanched the leaves for 1-2min to soften them.  At that point I just had to assemble them as seen below:

I baked it all at 350 for 1hr, covered with foil.

They were super nummy, and made for lots of easily portioned leftovers.  The cooked beef looks a bit odd because we are using grass fed beefalo.  I really liked the dill, which is an herb I underutilize.

Nutrient	Unit	1.2lb ground beef	1 medium onion	3 large celery stalks	14.0"leaf, large"462.0g	1 cup brown rice cooked	1/16th tspn salt	1 tbspn olive oil	TOTAL	Serving
Water	g	342	98	183	426	143	0	0	1192	170
Energy	kcal	979	44	31	116	216	0	119	1505	215
Protein	g	99	1	1	6	5	0	0	113	16
Total lipid (fat)	g	65	0	0	0	2	0	14	81	12
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0	10	6	27	45	0	0	88	13
Fiber, total dietary	g	0	2	3	12	4	0	0	20	3
Sugars, total	g	0	5	4	15	1	0	0	24	3
Calcium, Ca	mg	61	25	77	185	20	0	0	368	53
Iron, Fe	mg	10	0	0	2	1	0	0	14	2
Magnesium, Mg	mg	97	11	21	55	84	0	0	268	38
Phosphorus, P	mg	892	32	46	120	162	0	0	1252	179
Potassium, K	mg	1474	161	499	785	84	0	0	3003	429
Sodium, Na	mg	347	4	154	83	10	155	0	753	108
Zinc, Zn	mg	23	0	0	1	1	0	0	26	4
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	0	8	6	169	0	0	0	183	26
Thiamin	mg	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Riboflavin	mg	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Niacin	mg	25	0	1	1	3	0	0	29	4
Vitamin B-6	mg	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	0
Folate, DFE	µg	31	21	69	199	8	0	0	328	47
Vitamin B-12	µg	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	1
Vitamin A, RAE	µg	0	0	42	23	0	0	0	65	9
Vitamin A, IU	IU	0	2	862	453	0	0	0	1317	188
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	2	0	1	1	0	0	2	5	1
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	µg	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	1
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	27	0	56	351	1	0	8	444	63
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	24							24	3
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	3	0	0	0	0	0	2	5	1
Fatty acids, total trans	g	4	0	0	0	1	0	10	14	2
Cholesterol	mg	316	0	0	0	1	0	1	318	45

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce -- Kidney Diet / Renal Diet

This recipe is in a series of indeterminate length on kidney-healthy foods.
The goal is to cook food that takes good, and meets the following nutritional guidelines:
<2000mg / day potassium
<1500mg / day sodium
Low to moderate protein content


Along with each recipe, I'll post the nutrition breakdown based on the USDA nutrient database.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce

Tomatoes are on the verboten list in terms of low-potassium foods, and any sort of concentrated sauce doubly so, but spaghetti is a pretty common mid-week dinner in our house, so I tried making a sauce with a different base.

Ingredients:

• 450g roasted red pepper (5 anaheim chillies turned red, and 5 sweet Italian peppers)
• 2 large white onions
• 0.8lb grass fed beef ('cause that was how much we had)
• A lot of basil.  I estimated 1 cup of leaves
• 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• We used garlic, lemon juice, balsalmic vinegar, black pepper, and red pepper flakes to season.  I included the lemon and garlic in the nutrition table because they're the ones with potassium and sodium.

Directions:

1. Fire roast the chilies. I saw an Alton Brown comment about using a metal in-pot basket steamer placed directly over a flame, and it worked great.  Basically you want them over a flame until they looked blackened in spots, then you place them in a pot with a lid and let them steam for 15min.
2. De-seed and chop up the chillies.  Also chop up the basil and dice the onions
3. Brown the beef in 1tbspn olive oil.  Set aside.
4. Brown the garlic and onions in 1 tbspn olive oil.  Add to beef
5. Degalze the pan with the chicken broth, add the peppers and basil, then use a stick blender to puree it all.  I was not patient enough to get a fine puree.  Next time I might use a blender or food processor instead
6. Place everything in the pot back together, along with 1 tspn salt.  Simmer over low heat, and add black pepper, lemon juice, red pepper, and vinegar to taste.

This was the best thing I have made so far, but also the highest in potassium and sodium.  Definitely a sometimes food.  The salt could easily be reduced to 1/2 tspn once we're more acclimated to a low salt diet.  The balsalmic vinegar really added something.

Nutrition:
6 servings
Served over pasta (not included in nutrition totals)

Nutrient	Unit	450g  red peppers	2 large onions	1 cup basil leaves	Juice of 1 lemon	2 tblspn minced garlic	3tblspn olive oil	1tspn salt	Grass Fed Beef 0.8lb	1cp low sodium chicken broth	Total	Per Serving
Energy	kcal	598	120	6	11	9	358	0	695	38	1835	306
Protein	g	4.68	3.3	0.76	0.17	0.38	0	0	70.3	4.8	84.39	14
Total lipid (fat)	g	57.38	0.3	0.15	0.12	0.03	40.5	0	46.08	1.44	146	24
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	29.56	28.02	0.64	3.31	1.98	0	0	0	2.88	66.39	11
Fiber, total dietary	g	8.1	5.1	0.4	0.1	0.1	0	0	0	0	13.8	2
Sugars, total	g	19.26	12.72	0.07	1.21	0.06	0	0	0	0.31	33.63	6
Potassium, K	mg	868	438	71	49	24	0	0	1046	206	2702	450
Sodium, Na	mg	94	12	1	0	1	1	2325	246	72	2752	459