Ingredients
beef sausages – 2 per person
Mashed potatoes
potatoes – 2 mid sized potatoes per person
4 tbs butter
1/2 c Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves, peeled (optional)
1/2 – 1 c milk
1 tsp salt
Gravy
3 onions, thinly sliced
2 c quality beef stock or consumé
50 ml malt vinegar
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp french mustard
1 tsp hot English mustard
salt and pepper to taste
Slurry
2 tbs cornflour and 4 tbs water to make a slurry
Method
Pre heat the oven to 180°C
Brown the sausages in a fry-pan or wok then place in a baking dish.
Drain off half of the fat from the sausages and cook the sliced onions in the remaining oil gently for about 10 mins
Add the rest of the ingredients, except the slurry and mix well. Cook for 2 mins.
Mix up the slurry and add this to the gravy. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously as it will thicken as it heats, then simmer for 2 mins.
Pour the gravy over the sausages and cook in the oven for 15-20 mins
While the sausages are in the oven peel and dice the potatoes, place them in a large saucepan along with the two peeled garlic cloves (if you are using them) and bring to boil in salted water. Cook for about 15mins or till tender.
Drain then place the cooked potatoes and garlic through a ricer or use a masher, add the butter and Parmesan, stir to combine. Slowly add the milk till it’s at your perfect consistency – don’t make it too soft though as it needs body to carry the gravy. Add the salt.
Remove the sausages and let rest for 5 mins
Place a nice big dollop of potato on a plate and lay over the sausages with a large spoonful of the onion gravy.
Posted 29th April 2014
Bangers and Mash w/ Onion Gravy (aka Sausages and Mashed Potato)…This is a classic English meal and one that sits close to my heart. Anything resembling a sausage casserole on top of a soft, cloud-like pillow of mashed potato is my ultimate comfort food. If it’s on the menu at a restaurant I will order it over anything else that is there – I have passed up (maybe foolishly) some amazing meals just to try that particular restaurant’s Bangers and Mash.
There are only three elements to this dish – three perfect elements, and if one fails it will pull the other two down leaving you with nothing more than an English Private School canteen lunch (right up there with their Mushy Pea’s… Blah! That taste will forever be etched on my taste buds!)
To start with, you need to get the best sausages you know of. Here I have chosen the thick beef sausages from Hudson Meats. They are a ‘paddock to plate’ butcher and pride themselves on using regional farms to source their produce.
The potatoes for the mash should be the floury kind, such as a Coliban or King Edward but there are some fantastic multi purpose ones like Sebago, Pontiac or Desiree. My favourite would be the Royal Blue. It has purple skin and a yellow flesh and is great for mashing and baking.
Lastly is the brown onion gravy. A high quality beef stock is all important. You can buy it but ideally make your own with high quality bones from animals that have lived a good life. Place the bones in a pot, top with cold water and leave to soak for about an hour with 1/4 cup of vinegar. This process is vital to drawing out the nutrients within the bones. Remove the bones, pat them dry and then brown them in a hot oven with some vegetables. Throw all the browned bones and vegetables into a large pot of water (you can use the soaking liquid if you choose) and leave to simmer away for as long as 24-30 hours if you can. The longer the bones are left to simmer the greater amount of nutrients you will draw out of them. You can add herbs to the stock but I like to keep my stocks quite ‘bare’ so I can alter them as I need to.
There are no hard or fast rules regarding bone and vegetable quantities, just gather what you can and you will have amazing stock.
To cook this dish I like to brown the sausages, then make the gravy. Place both in a baking dish and finish off the sausages cooking time in the oven, herein lies the ‘casserole’ style that I’m particularly fond of. I haven’t come across anyone else who does it this way, so let me know if it’s converted you?
Comfort food at it’s most sublime… Blondie
- beef sausages – 2 per person
- potatoes – 2 mid sized potatoes per person
- 4 tbs butter
- ½ c Parmesan cheese
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ½ – 1 c milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 onions, thinly sliced
- 400 ml beef stock or consumé
- 50 ml malt vinegar
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp french mustard
- 1 tsp hot English mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbs cornflour and 4 tbs water to make a slurry
- A high quality beef stock is all important. You can buy it but ideally make your own with high quality bones from animals that have lived a good life. Place the bones in a pot, top with cold water and leave to soak for about an hour with ¼ cup of vinegar. This process is vital to drawing out the nutrients within the bones. Remove the bones, pat them dry and then brown them in a hot oven with some vegetables. Throw all the browned bones and vegetables into a large pot of water (you can use the soaking liquid if you choose) and leave to simmer away for as long as 24-30 hours if you can. The longer the bones are left to simmer the greater amount of nutrients you will draw out of them. You can add herbs to the stock but I like to keep my stocks quite ‘bare’ so I can alter them as I need to.
- Pre heat the oven to 180°C
- Brown the sausages in a fry-pan or wok then place in a baking dish
- Drain off half of the fat from the sausages and cook the sliced onions in the remaining oil gently for about 10 mins
- Add the rest of the ingredients, except the slurry and mix well. Cook for 2 mins.
- Mix up the slurry and add this to the gravy. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously as it will thicken as it heats, then simmer for 2 mins.
- Pour the gravy over the sausages and cook in the oven for 15-20 mins
- While the sausages are in the oven, peel and dice the potatoes, place in a large saucepan and bring to boil in salted water. Cook for about 15mins or till tender.
- Put the cooked potatoes through a ricer or use a masher, add the butter and Parmesan, stir to combine. Slowly add the milk till it’s at your perfect consistency – don’t make it too soft though as it needs body to carry the gravy. Add the salt.
- Remove the sausages and let rest for 5 mins
- Place a nice big dollop of potato on a plate and lay over the sausages with a large spoonful of the onion gravy