Sausages with Apple Rings (and photo)

Last time I blogged this, I neglected to include a photo - so here you are :) This time I made a potato-and-sweet-potato mash, and served it all simply with peas. Yum!

Toad in the Hole

Here's an English classic I never got around to making while I lived there. Maybe because I wasn't doing enough exercise to justify the amount of dairy and animal fats in this. Not that I am now, but oh well! It tasted exactly as awesome as I hoped it would - soft, collapsing Yorkshire pud and crisp-skinned perfectly-cooked sausage. My only mistake was buying a slightly spicy sausage - this is very much a comfortingly bland sort of dish, so stick to classic mild flavourings. The inspiring recipe is pretty much straight from taste.com.au, except that their recipe serves four, whereas our exactly identical recipe serves two. What can I say, we were hungry! Also, our only accompaniment was a scoop of boiled broad beans and peas, dressed with lemon juice - the original was probably served with potatoes roasted in goose fat, or something equally... winter-warming.


Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 500g thick beef or pork sausages
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, chopped

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place sausages in a 5cm deep, 25cm x 35cm (base) roasting pan, or even better, a Le Creuset baking dish. Fork a few times, and add a very little oil, turning to coat. Roast for 10 minutes, or less if your sausages are small, or until lightly browned. Flip them over for the next stage.

Meanwhile, sift flour and salt into a bowl. Whisk the eggs, milk and rosemary together in a jug. Add gradually to the flour mixture, combining with a fork or whisk to remove the lumps. Don't worry if there are a few smallish lumps left - you don't want to overbeat the flour and strengthen the gluten. Carefully pour the batter over sausages. Bake for 35 minutes or until puffed up and golden.

Stuffed Courgettes

This was inspired by a dinner we prepared at Stickybeaks supper club a few months ago. Instead of bomb courgettes, I used normal long courgettes, and instead of exciting fennel-flavoured Italian sausage diluted with breadcrumbs, I used a pack of Taste the Difference Lemon and Herb sausages from Sainsbury's. It was a little faster and not quite as wonderful, but still lovely. We served it with some leftover BBQ rice from Wednesday's dinner of grilled butcher's beefsticks and corn on the cob, and some simply boiled broad beans, which are just coming into season.

Ingredients:

• 2 large courgettes
• pack of 4 or 6 plump, high-quality sausages
• a small slice of bread
• a thick slice of Parmesan or smoked cheese
• a small sprig of rosemary

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Wash the courgettes and slice them lengthwise, then scoop out the inside seedy wet flesh with a small spoon. (You can eat it raw for a kind of cook's bonus snack, but it's not very interesting so I tend to send it straight to compost.) Lie the courgettes skin-side up in a shallow baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 20 minutes, until slightly softened, then remove from the oven and turn skin-side down, preferably wedged against each other in the tray so they can't fall over.

Whiz the bread, cheese and rosemary together in a hand blender. Squeeze out the contents of the sausages into the courgette shells, discarding the sausage skins. Season with black pepper and top with the flavoured breadcrumbs, then drizzle with a little olive oil. Roast for a further 20-25 minutes, until the breadcrumbs are crisp and golden, the courgettes are soft and the sausage-meat is cooked through.

Gumbo

Ah, gumbo. The taste of Louisiana, so I'm told. This is a rich stew, perfect for cold evenings and a glass (or two) of full-bodied red wine. I like to use chicken, sweet chipolatas from the local butcher, and a very few fresh, raw tiger prawns from the fishmonger. But you could vary this depending on what you have to hand: pork fillet, turkey, even steak would be perfectly acceptable instead of chicken, and some fine smoked fish or scallops would be delicious instead of prawns.

I usually serve this with plain brown rice, but crusty bread or roasted sweet potatoes would also work. This is a good meal to cook for friends as it is fine reheated- just don't add the tiger prawns until you're about to serve. I tend to make it on a Sunday for just the two of us, then keep another two portions for later in the week.

Ingredients:

• 4 (or more if your budget stretches) raw, shell-on, tiger prawns
• 2 large or 4 small chicken thighs
• 6 long, high-quality chipolatas
• 1 red onion
• 1 white onion
• 1-2 green peppers
• 4 fat cloves of garlic
• 1 sweet red chilli (or 2-3 if you like it HOT)
• 3 stems celery
• 4 tbsp plain flour
• half a small glass of red wine
• 2 tins good-quality chopped tomatoes
• 250g okra
• 2 tsp cumin seeds, lightly pounded in a mortar and pestle
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 2 bay leaves

Shell the tiger prawns, and make a quick stock out of their heads and shells, the onion heads and tails, one of the stems of celery and 100ml of water. You can leave this bubbling while cooking the rest of the ingredients.

Add a tbsp of vegetable oil to the bottom of a deep cast-iron pot (Le Creuset is perfect here!), set it over a low heat and finely chop the red and white onions. Gently fry these for ten minutes until translucent. Meanwhile, chop the green pepper and celery into small pieces, and very finely chop the red chilli. Add these and crush the garlic into the onions. Stir and cook for three minutes, until the chilli and garlic have softened. Remove the vegetables from the pan.

Cut the chipolatas into thirds. If there is no oil left in the pan, add a mere drop, and then add in the chicken thighs and the chipolata pieces. Sear them on each side for a few minutes, until the skins are sealed and golden. Add the flour to the oil that will have accumulated from the sausage fat - if there is not at least 1 tbsp in the pan, add a little more. Cook the flour until it has changed to the colour of peanut butter: this is the roux, and it will thicken the stew and add a smoky flavour. Meanwhile, slice the okra diagonally, to make pretty parallelogram pieces.

Splash in the red wine to deglaze (one for you, one for the pan), then return the vegetables and add the two tins of tomatoes, okra, cumin, paprika and bay leaves. Strain your prawn shell stock into the pan. Combine gently, then cook covered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom. Taste and season, then add the raw tiger prawns to the surface, pushing them just under the liquid. Cover and cook for four more minutes: the prawns should curl up and go pink. Serve with brown rice, or sweet potatoes, or just a dollop of creme fraiche. Top with fresh chives or coriander if desired. Must be eaten with the rest of the red wine, or an ice-cold (lager) beer.

Sausages with Apple Rings

This is my auto-pilot way of cooking sausages. I often leave them til later in the week, and I like to make sure they're cooked completely through if they've been in the fridge for a few days. Braising ensures they're piping hot throughout, and gives a delicious gravy, which is perfect with fluffy mashed potato & parsnip, and some greens like brocolli, cabbage or peas. With accompaniments, this serves two people who love apple rings!

Ingredients:

• 4-6 high-quality sausages
• 2 small onions
• 2 small eating apples
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 250ml nice cider
• 1 tbsp or capful of cider vinegar

Fry the sausages over a medium heat in a deep frying pan. Don't worry if they explode a bit, or stick to the pan: those nubbly sticky bits will be delicious later. Brown the sausages on all sides, making sure the skin goes from stretchy pink to golden brown. Meanwhile, peel and slice the onions into fine rings (about 1-2mm across). Remove the sausages from the pan, and add the onions, and a little oil if needed. Scrape the nice sticky bits off the bottom as you go. Fry the onions until well-cooked, about 10 minutes, turning occasionally so they don't stick to the pan. Meanwhile, core the apples and slice into thick rings (about six rings per apple, then they tesselate nicely in the pan!). Remove the onions and replace with the apples, frying for two minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove when done.

Now return the onions and sausages to then pan, and add the flour on top, stirring it in to coat the onions. Then pour in the cider and cider vinegar, deglazing any last caramelisation from the bottom of the pan. Cover and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes. (Now is a good time to set your potatoes and greens going.) Then add the apples back to the pan, cover and cook for another five minutes. Season with black pepper and enjoy!