My Nan & My Uncle Ken
When I was in Hobart for my Uncle Ken’s funeral I kept myself busy cooking. Cooking for people is my way of coping with stress. Well. It’s one of the ways I cope with stress. The other way is to get under the blankets with a cup of tea and Pinterest. But this second way was not appropriate, so I turned to the cooking instead. MUCH more useful.
I made a simple sausages and mash meal one night. My Nanna was staying with us too, so I couldn’t do anything SUPER fancy. She does not go in for fancy food.
In light of this non-fancy requirement, this is my way of secretly fancying up sausages. You can feed this to your Nanna and she will never know it’s not old-fashioned cooking…
(Sorry I don’t have a photo of this! Next time I make it I will add one here!)
Secretly Fancy Sausages
Plain enough for the most discerning Nanna
8 nice quality sausages (I bought a mixture of plain beef chipolatas and some fancier full size sausages : that way I could pick out the plain little ones for Nan)
1 diced onion (FINELY diced!)
1 clove garlic (super finely diced!)
1 red pepper, sliced into big chunks (So I could pick it out of Nan’s serve because she would think that was fancy!)
2 tins of tomatoes
a good slug of olive oil
1/2 tsp of dried oregano
1 tsp of sweet paprika
a slosh of red wine vinegar
Slosh the oil in a large pot and fry the onion until it’s translucent. Add the red pepper and fry for a minute. Throw in the garlic and then fry for 30 seconds. Now add the tomatoes, oregano, paprika, vinegar and a good amount of salt and pepper.
NOW : You can either brown the sausages and put them in (this is best : you can do it in a low oven if you don’t want to create a crazy smoke haze) OR you can just plonk the sausages straight in to the sauce (I did this because I didn’t want the crazy smoke haze!) If you brown the sausages they will have a firmer texture and your sauce will be a bit richer. If you don’t brown the sausages it’s fine too, your sausages will be tender and your sauce will be a bit cleaner.
Cook over a low heat for 20 minutes, giving it the odd stir.
Serve with mashed potato and bottled tomato sauce or Lee and Perrins Worcestershire sauce.
Serves 4 – 6 people
Fancy variations: Omit the sausages if you are a vegetarian and use bintje potatoes instead (serve with bread!) : add capers : add chilli : add fresh herbs from the garden : use a red onion or baby leeks : add chipotle : try a slosh of balsamic