Bensoir! It's me, Benjamin. I like to eat and drink. And cook. And write.

You may have read stuff I've written elsewhere, but here on my own blog as Ben Viveur I'm liberated from the editorial shackles of others, so pretty much anything goes.

BV is about enjoying real food and drink in the real world. I showcase recipes that taste awesome, but which can be created by mere mortals without the need for tons of specialist equipment and a doctorate in food science. And as a critic I tend to review relaxed establishments that you might visit on a whim without having to sell your first-born, rather than hugely expensive restaurants and style bars in the middle of nowhere with a velvet rope barrier, a stringent dress code and a six-month waiting list!

There's plenty of robust opinion, commentary on the world of food and drink, and lots of swearing, so look away now if you're easily offended. Otherwise, tuck your bib in, fill your glass and turbo-charge your tastebuds. We're going for a ride... Ben Appetit!

Monday, November 10, 2014

When life gives you sausages...

'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade', goes the ancient proverb (which isn't actually all that ancient).

But what if you've just conducted a mammothian sausage taste test and your lemonless life has actually given you a fridge full of sausages?

You make a delicious sausage casserole, that's what. Here's the recipe. It's piss-easy.


Farmhouse sausage casserole


Ingredients - serves 3-4:

I didn't get bored of eating sausages every day
Pork sausages, good quality, 10-12
Onions, 2-3, coarsely chopped
Carrots, 4-5, chopped into bitesize chunks
Celery, 4-5 stalks, again, bitesize chunks
Tomatoes, 3-4, quartered/sixthed

Porter or similar dark beer, a pint
Worcestershire Sauce
English Mustard
Garlic Salt
Black Pepper
Sage
Chilli powder

Oil for cooking


Method:

The first thing to stress is that it's important to use good quality sausages with a high meat content. Usually cheap cuts of meat are good for slow cooking, but cheap sausages full of rusk will just absorb all the liquid and fall apart, so go for sausages with a 90% meat content or higher.

Fry your sausages and onions until they're about 70% cooked, then transfer them to a large casserole, along with the uncooked celery, carrots and tomatoes.

Deglaze the pan with about half the beer, and add the Worcestershire Sauce, Mustard and everything else, making sure any little mustardy clusters are dissolved in the liquid. I like to be gung-ho with pepper and chilli powder, but you can show restraint if you like your flavours a little more subdued.

Pour it all over the sausages and vegetables, and then add the other half of the beer - it doesn't matter if it's not completely covered with liquid at this stage because the vegetables will excrete fluids naturally.

Pop the lid on and whack in an oven at about 150 for at least two hours, ideally three or more.

I like to serve it with a nice creamy, buttery mash and a pint of porter, but the choice is entirely yours.

Enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. Yes you love eating sausage because you are gay aren't you

    Why don't you admit it and come out of the closest

    ReplyDelete

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