Ali Ray’s Fat Butchers Sausages Braised in Cider and Mustard
A moreish one-pot using the best our farm shops have to offer, including big fat juicy sausages, a good local dry cider, a quirky pot of mustard, apples and potatoes − all cooked together in one heavenly pot. Get yourselves a top quality loaf of bread as you'll need it to sop up the wonderfully creamy, cidery sauce.
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 fat, great quality pork sausages
400ml dry cider
2 large leeks, sliced (you can use red onions cut into wedges instead)
2 cloves of garlic, skinned and crushed.
450g of new potatoes, cut into halves
2 apples, cored and sliced. Keep the skin on.
2 heaped tablespoons of whole grain mustard
Salt and coarse black pepper
1 large handful of chopped fresh parsley
2 large knobs of butter − I use a heaped teaspoon scoop for each knob
50 ml of double cream
Splash of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Get cooking…
Put the oil in a heavy saucepan and heat. Then brown the sausages all over.
Once they are nicely browned on the outside, remove them from the pan and put them to one side on a plate.
Melt the butter in the pan and add the leeks and let them 'sweat' or cook gently for about eight minutes until really soft.
Now return the sausages to the pan, adding the slices of one apple, the potatoes and cider.
Bring it to the boil and then turn it down immediately, put the lid on and cook it on a gentle bubble for about ten minutes.
Take the lid off and season it well with salt and pepper, then let the dish cook until the potatoes are tender − 15 minutes should do it.
Melt the rest of the butter in a small pan and add the other apple slices along with a sprinkle of sugar. Gently fry them for about three minutes until they start to soften and the edges begin to caramelize.
Add the cream to the sausage pan and mix through the spoonfuls of mustard and let it heat up a little. Take it off the heat and put the caramelized apples and fresh parsley across the top.
Give everyone a bowl and a hunk of good bread and let them dig in.