Sausage Pie (Serves 4-6)

with a crisp potato topping & spice – sausage pie still gets ‘pulled out the bag’ whenever we’re looking for a little comfort factor and nurturing from our meal. Indeed, during a power cut on one of Mum and Dad’s visits to Ireland, storm raging outside, we returned from a day’s trading at the Market like drowned rats, to a twinkling candlelit, sausage pie supper. Fantastic! I’ve added and twisted a few things up here…

What you need

Ingredients:

6 to 8 best pork sausages

3 brown onions, halved, then sliced thinly

75g butter, room temperature, diced

2 tsp sea salt

250ml sweet cider

1 sprig thyme, leaves only

1 x 460g  jar Green Saffron Jalfrezi Sauce

1.25 kg potatoes, peeled, then all but 250g of them cooked to soft in lots of salty boiling water

75ml full-fat milk

3 spring onions

1 tsp English mustard

1 tsp black peppercorns, coarse ground

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

30g parmesan, fine grated

Small handful curly parsley, chopped finely

How to make it

  1. Preheat your oven to 180°C, gas mark 4
  2. Pop the sausages onto a baking tray, place on a middle shelf in the oven, bake for 35 to 40 minutes, turning over after 20 minutes, so they’re cooked and lightly browned all over. Allow to cool slightly, then cut in half length-wise and set aside. Leave the oven on.
  3. In a large, heavy-bottomed fry pan, put 25g of butter, place on medium heat, allow to melt then add all the onion and fry very gently until they’re meltingly soft and have taken on a little colour, about 15 minutes, then add 1 teaspoon of salt
  4. Stir to combine, then add the cider, thyme leaves, turn the heat up slightly and cook until all the cider has reduced, the onion remains glossy and nicely moist. Set aside
  5. Heat the milk in a saucepan, add the remaining 50g of butter, bring up to a bubble, add the mustard, 1 teaspoon of salt, the spring onions, give a good stir, pour a little over the boiled potatoes and mash to form a creamy, set texture, adding more of the milky mixture as required. Scoop all the onions out of the milk and be sure to use all of them at least!
  6. Take the raw potato(es) and carefully slice them very thinly with a sharp knife or even better, a mandolin, about 2 to 3mm
  7. Place in a colander, rinse them well under a running cold tap, then turn out into a clean tea towel and pat well to completely dry them. In a small bowl, mix them with the pepper, oil, parmesan, parsley and set aside.
  8. Take a large roasting or ovenproof dish, spread the melted onions on the base, followed by the jar of Jalfrezi sauce, the sausages, the mashed potato, then arrange the potato slices so they stick up from the mash at odd, interesting angles and pop in the oven to bake for 20 minutes or until the sliced potato colours slightly, crisps up and the dish is piping hot throughout.
  9. Serve immediately with cooked garden or frozen peas. Goes well with a good glass of mulled cider or wine too actually!

Products in this recipe