Chili-Fried Sausage with Red Cabbage and Clementine
Pickled red cabbage, citrus, and browned sausage bites. A Norwegian holiday plate that packs for the trailhead.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 60
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Cooked sausages or holiday sausage | 8 links | cut thicker sausage into bite pieces |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh chili | 1 | |
| Butter | 1 tbsp | ghee if the cooler is warm |
| Pickled red cabbage | 1 1/2 cups | jarred, drained |
| Clementines | 2 |
Method
- Drain the pickled cabbage into a cup and set the jar aside. You want it wet, not swimming.
- Peel the clementines and tear them into rough segments. Fold them through the cabbage in a bowl or the empty jar.
- Chop the chili fine. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat and cook the chili for under a minute.
- Add the sausage pieces and turn them until browned on all sides and hot through. Eight to ten minutes.
- Spoon the cabbage and citrus onto plates and pile the sausage on top. Pour the pan butter over it.
This is a Norwegian Christmas plate, and it survives the move outdoors mostly intact because three of the five ingredients are already preserved. Pickled cabbage keeps in a jar. Sausage is cured or precooked. The only real cooler dependency is the butter, and ghee solves that.
The structure is heat against acid. Browned sausage in chili butter is fat and salt, and the cabbage with citrus cuts straight through it — that is the whole point of the dish, so do not skip the clementine and do not rinse the cabbage. Assemble the salad first and let it sit while the sausage browns; the citrus loosens up and the cabbage stops tasting sharp.
Packing
Sausage and the cabbage jar ride in the cooler. Chili and clementines go in the food bin. Decant the cabbage into a screw-top container at home if you do not want glass in the pack.
Variations
- Walnuts or pomegranate seeds over the top add crunch.
- Shelf-stable version: swap the sausage for a summer sausage or vacuum-packed kielbasa, use a foil pouch of sauerkraut with a spoon of sugar in place of pickled cabbage, and dried orange or mandarin segments for the clementine. Then it holds for a week in the pack.
- No skillet: thread the sausage on sticks and blister it over coals, then toss it in the chili butter.
https://meny.no/oppskrifter/polser/chilistekte-sosisser-i-rodkal-og-klementinsalat