I love them fried, grilled, hot, cold, in a sandwich (oh, yeah! On shop-bought sliced bread, with lots of butter), in a casserole or stolen off Carrot-Girl's plate, when she's not looking (you snooze, you loose when it comes to sausages).
I think it is genetic. Apparently as a child and teenager my Dad (that would make him Carrot-Dad, I guess) lived off sausages and his mum (Carrot-Nanny) was a soft touch and indulged him.
Then he met my Mum, got married and found she wasn't willing to cook sausages seven days a week, so learnt to eat other food (and I will tell you about her speciality - Crispy Lasagna - another time).
Anyway, I often make a sausage and onion casserole, but felt the need to stretch my sausage-based repertoire, so here is a wonderful new* recipe: Sausage, Apple & Cranberry Casserole.
* Well, I say new, it's adapted from one I found online. You might call that plagiarism, I call it "Paying Homage".
Here's what I used:
- As many sausages as you need. I like three per person
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 apples, peeled and sliced - doesn't matter what sort, these are windfalls from a box outside a house I cycle past on the way to Carrot-Girl's school
- 2 tbsp. cranberry sauce
- 2 tbsp. mustard - I like wholegrain best for cooking, I love adding a bit of texture
- About 150-200ml chicken stock (use 1 cube)
And here's what to do:
- Put the slow cooker on to warm up (or cook the casserole in the oven for 1-1.5 hours)
- Brown the sausages - no need to add oil
- Remove sausages (leave the fat) then soften the onion
- Make the stock with boiling water, then add the cranberry sauce and mustard. Give it a good stir
- Put half the onions in the slow cooker, then half the apples, then the sausages, then the rest of the onions, then the rest of the apple
- Pour over the stock mix
- Leave to cook for 4-6 hours
Serve with Delia-Mash, which I blogged about a week or so ago and a glass of red wine
It tastes really good. Half way through eating it, I texted my Dad "I have invested a new sausage dish!!!". I swear the phone was ringing within 10 seconds of me hitting "send". You see, he might eat normal, grown-up food now, but inside, his genes are saying "Feed me Sausages!!"
