Sausage Hotpot With Sweet Potato Mash...

It has been cold, dark and drizzly here in the UK (no surprises there really!). This type of weather always makes me crave good old fashioned comfort food. Mashed potatoes had been on my mind for sometime and there was a pack of sausages in the fridge. Bangers and Mash – classic comfort food! Somehow though, it just didn’t seem right. I was in the mood for something a little bit different.

Not being sure what to make I decided to visit one of my favourite recipe websites. The BBC GoodFood website is full of great recipes and ideas. It never fails to inspire my cooking and give me direction in the kitchen.

Their recipe for Frying-Pan Sausage Hot Pot is on my favourites list. It really is an easy recipe to make and it tastes delicious. I decided to use this recipe as a base for my own sausage hotpot which would help use up some of the vegetables beginning to languish in my fridge. It also gave me an excuse to make sweet potato mash which is always a treat.

This is a great recipe to play around with so get in the kitchen and have some fun!

Luna Raye’s Sausage Hotpot with Sweet Potato Mash

Ingredients

• Drizzle of Olive Oil

• Drizzle of maple syrup OR a teaspoon of soft brown sugar to help caramelize the onions

• 2 small red onions thinly sliced

• 6 plump good-quality sausages (I used English pork and caramelized onion sausages) You can keep the sausages whole but I prefer to cut them into thirds.

• 1/3 of a glass of good red wine

• 175ml vegetable stock (My favourite is Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder)

• 4-6 broccoli spears chopped into halves

• 1 large carrot chopped

• 1 can of cannellini beans

For the sweet potato mash

(I like to use a mixture of sweet potatoes and white potatoes for this mash – I find it has a nicer texture)

• 4 small russet potatoes

• 3 large sweet potatoes

• 2 cloves of garlic minced

• Knob of butter (approx ½ Tablespoon)

• Freshly chopped parsley (about 4 Tablespoons)

• Season with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in the pan and add the sliced red onions. Add a pinch of salt and either a drizzle of maple syrup OR a teaspoon of soft brown sugar

2. Cook over a medium heat until the onions are nice and soft. Once soft remove them from the pan and set aside

3. Get your sweet potatoes and russet potatoes on the boil so they will be ready when the hotpot is under the grill

4. Place the pan back on the heat and start cooking the sausages. It’s up to you if you want to keep them whole or cut them into pieces. Just make sure they are thoroughly cooked. Usually 8 – 10 minutes is enough

5. Prepare your grill and turn it to medium / high

6. Add the following to the pan with the cooked sausages:

• red wine

• vegetable stock

• caramelized red onions

• chopped carrot

• broccoli

• drained and rinsed cannellini beans

7. Gently stir and allow the mixture to bubble away for about 5 minutes or until the sauce begins to thicken

8. Remove from the hob and place under the grill

9. Check to make sure your potatoes are done. Drain and place back to the pot with a knob of butter and the minced garlic

10. Mash until smooth. Add salt, lots of freshly ground black pepper and the freshly chopped parsley. Stir everything in well to make sure the mash is seasoned throughout

11. Remove the frying pan from under the grill. The carrots and broccoli should be softened and not overdone

12. Spoon the sweet potato mash onto plates and serve up the bubbling hotpot!

Enjoy!

Traditional English Parsley Sauce...

Feeling confident after my triumph with a basic beurre blanc sauce, I decided to try my hand at a traditional English parsley sauce. This is a tasty sauce to have with white fish or salmon cakes and we enjoyed it very much with some smoked gammon. Essentially it’s a basic white sauce with the addition of freshly chopped parsley. When researching recipes I found that many didn’t include a squeeze of fresh lemon juice but it really gives the sauce added zing. I wouldn’t make the sauce without it now!

There is nothing quite like going out to the garden to gather fresh herbs to cook with. Parsley grows quite easily and makes a lovely addition to any garden. If you don’t already grow your own herbs then it’s definitely worth giving it a go! Check out this site for some amazing gardening tips.

Parsley, one of my all time favourite herbs is full of taste and great health benefits. Among other things it has Vitamin C, Iron and is also an excellent source of Vitamin K, Vitamin A and Folate. Try adding it to salads, burgers, omelettes, fresh juices and soups. You can even sprinkle it on pasta and rice dishes as well as over pretty much anything!

So if you want something special to accompany your fish dish or gammon then look no further! This parsley sauce from the Good To Know Recipes website is a real winner!

Here is the recipe from their brilliant site:

Parsley Sauce

Ingredients

• 425ml full fat milk

• Bunch of flat leaf parsley finely chopped (but keep the stalks)

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/4 onion, thickly sliced

• 5 peppercorns

• Pinch of nutmeg

• 20g plain flour

• 40g butter

• Squeeze of lemon juice

• Salt and pepper to season

Directions

1. Put the milk, parsley stalks, bay leaf, onion, peppercorns and nutmeg in a heavy-bottomed pan.

2. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then remove from the heat and allow to go cold. This will help to infuse the milk before making the sauce.

3. Slowly melt the butter in another saucepan. Add the flour and stir continuously for a minute so that you cook out the raw flour flavour. Remove from the heat.

4. Strain the milk through a sieve to remove the infusing ingredients and slowly add the milk to the butter and flour mixture. Keep combining a little more milk every few seconds until you’ve added it all. You should now have a thin, lump-free sauce.

5. Return the pan to the heat and stir the sauce until it starts to thicken. This will take about 5 minutes.

6. Once it’s thick, remove from the heat. Add the chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

7. Serve your parsley sauce with salty roast gammon and new potatoes, crispy fishcakes or grilled white fish.

Enjoy!

Parsley Sauce