Sausage and mash with ale and onion gravy (extra easy day)

MrsBabyCakes

Naughty Fridge Picker
This is a recipe I tried in this months magazine. Have included photos for you.

Sausage and mash with ale and onion gravy - Hearty home-made sausages smothered in rich onion gravy

Jan/Feb 2010 Slimming World magazine issue

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1Ib 12 oz/794g extra lean pork (I got organic on special offer)
2 tbsp Fennel seeds
A handful of fresh parsley chopped
A pinch of nutmeg
1 Egg white lightly beaten
2 Garlic cloves crushed
Salt and pepper to taste
4 red onions finely sliced
14fl oz/397ml Beef stock
2fl oz/ 57ml Pale Ale
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
A small handful of fresh Thyme chopped
1 tsp Artificial sweetner
Fry light (1 calorie spray oil)
1Ib 12 oz/794g potatoes peeled and chopped, put them in the pan ready.
3fl oz / 85ml vegetable stock
Steamed savoy cabbage sliced (steam for about 5 mins - I do it in the microwave)

Firstly prepare your ingredients as instructed above.

Oven 200C or Gas mark 6 (my fan oven I put on 180C)

Step one: Put pork into a bowl, and add the Fennel seeds, Parsley, Nutmeg, Egg white, and Garlic. Season to your own taste with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. This mix is for 8 sausages but I had no problems making 10 sausages for 5 people instead of 4. If your serving 4, them make it into 8 sausages. Chill until you need them.

Step two: Place the Onions, Beef stock, ale, Balsamic vinegar, Thyme, salt and pepper and Sweetener and cook on a medium heat (between a simmer and a boil) for 15 - 20 mins or until thickened and reduced, keep it warm, until you need it. For it to thicken I found it took a lot longer than 20 minutes, but to be honest, it doesn't matter how thick it is, its yummy all the same!

Cookers tip: For a yummy variation on this gravy, use mushrooms and leeks instead of onions and add 4 syned (or point/calorie) tbsps of Krafts low fat garlic and herb salad dressing. Sounds weird but it is seriously nice!

For the sausages place them on a non stick baking tray, spray with frylite and cook in the oven for approx 20-25 mins, turning them mid way, my fan oven cooked them in 20, but gas might take 25 mins.

When mashing your potatoes add pepper and the vegetable stock, this mash is scrummy!


Personal comments:

The sausages themselves were AWESOME!! They tasted amazing, you don't have to be on a diet to eat these! They certainly are worth the time it takes to make them. You could make this mixture into a meatloaf of pattys for burgers as well, its very versatile. But what I liked was that I was getting 100% meat sausages, not filled with tons of rubbish, that you can get with normal sausages.

The gravy tasted amazing! and very simple to make, with all fresh ingredients. It takes time to prepare things from scratch, but to be honest the flavour and satisfaction in this instance is very much worth it.

This dish took slightly longer than the 55 mins to prepare and cook than it suggests it takes in the magazine, my tip would be to prepare the sausages in the morning if you need to save time later on. I will be mush faster next time because I am more familiar with the recipe. Make sure you mix the herbs and seasoning thoroughly into the pork, and work the meat well, so that they dont fall apart when you make the sausage shapes.

Next time I will prepare more veg, to make it more filling, as savoy cabbage was not enough really.

Cookers tip: I recently bought these special mesh cooking tools available in the 99p store that are non stick and also encourage the food to cook more evenly (see image, you can also buy for chips). I was recommended them buy a friend who uses them to cook her chips. I have to say it made my life easier as the sausages didn't stick and was able to turn them very easily, and they cooked wonderfully.

Syns per serving: Extra easy 1/2 sin

Given a score of 5 thumbs up (5 being the highest)

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I agree my whole family really enjoyed this. Its definately going to turn into a family favourite which is recreated time and time again.
 
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