Sausage-O-Rama!

I love sausages, I really do <insert your own joke here>

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:

1. Put the slow cooker on to warm up (or cook the casserole in the oven for 1-1.5 hours)
2. Brown the sausages - no need to add oil
3. Remove sausages (leave the fat) then soften the onion
4. Make the stock with boiling water, then add the cranberry sauce and mustard. Give it a good stir
5. 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
6. Pour over the stock mix
7. 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!!"