Turkey Sausage Pilaf
By Ming Tsai

Believe it or not, my first rice dish flavored with alcohol was not a risotto, but a fermented white rice my folks bought when I was a kid, at Kim’s Mart, the only Asian grocer in Dayton, Ohio in the early 1970s. This fermented rice was a sweet Chinese porridge called Jo Nyang and it’s the inspiration for today’s recipe: my Turkey Sausage Pilaf, an all-in-one dish that is sure to be a hit… so let’s get cooking.

Ingredients
5 large turkey sausages
1 large onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 stalks celery, 1/4-inch dice
1 large red bell pepper, 1/4-inch dice
2 cups sushi rice
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock
Canola oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a straight-sided saute pan coated very lightly with oil over medium-high heat, brown the sausages and set aside. (Sausage will not be fully cooked.)

In the same pan, add onion, ginger, celery and bell pepper and saute until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Add rice and stir to coat with aromatics.

Deglaze with white wine and reduce by half. Add stock and browned sausages. Stir to combine, cover and bake in oven for 45-50 minutes. Enjoy!

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Chef Ming Tsai is a local restaurateur and host of Simply Ming.