Sausages with Mustard Mash and Sweet and Sour Peppers

I woke up on Saturday morning to face the worse hangover since, well, at least since the last big one. I  had spent the prior evening with the guys from work in one of the city’s oldest pubs, The Old Doctor Butler’s Head, drinking one or two too many pints of Bishop’s Finger – a fine, but (really quite) strong ale. Will I ever learn…?

Probably not. Anyway, at least my night of debauchery gave me the perfect excuse to try one of the recipes from the “Comfort Food” section of Gordon’s book. With that in mind, I went out to the local shops to find something suitably soothing to cook. A fairly recent (and welcome) addition to my neighbourhood’s food scene is the Blackfoot Butcher.

The shop was opened by the team behind the nearby Salt Yard tapas bar (which, if you ever get the chance to go to, I highly recommend) . They carry lots of great meat and game, all sourced from quality producers. I popped by to see what they had on hand that would fit the bill. The instant I saw these fantastic looking homemade pork and herb sausages hanging in the window, I knew what my hangover needed. Sausage and mash!!!

Sausage and mash has to be one of the most popular pub meals. It shows up on menus in just about every boozer in London that has anything close to resembling a kitchen. Unfortunately, the pub’s efforts are usually more ‘miss’ than ‘hit’, too often the dish is completed with the ping of a microwave as a frozen ready meal is reheated and plonked on a plate. I had higher hopes for mine! The key to a simple dish like sausage and mash is, not surprisingly, good quality sausages and really good mash. With my butcher’s bangers I had part one covered, the really good mash would take a bit more effort.

I was taught the secret to amazing mash potato during my time on a beginners course at Leiths, the famous London cookery school ( I will tell you some more about my (limited) cooking experience in another post). I’m pretty sure Mr. Ramsay never spent any time at Leiths, but I was pleased to see his recipe followed the Leiths’ formulae to the letter. To make mash the “Leiths’ way”, there are two golden rules.  First, you must always use a potato ricer (an everyday “masher” will not do). Second, you must always warm the butter/cream/milk mixture before mixing in the riced potato, a bit at a time. This will guarantee you world beating mash.

Before starting to cook the dish, I gathered together all the ingredients. Below you can see the sausages along with a few potatoes, a red pepper, some whole grain mustard, a pot of fresh thyme, some red wine vinegar, butter, cream and milk.

I started off by getting the sausages cooking in a pan with a touch of olive oil. These would take about 20 to 25 minutes on a fairly low heat. From time to time, I would turn them over, to get an even browning on all sides.

Now for the Leiths mash. I first cut the potatoes into even sized chunks and brought them to the boil in a pan of well salted water. They were simmered for around a quarter of an hour, until they felt soft all the way through when poked with a knife. The potatoes were drained and then added back to the pan on a low heat for a minute or so. This is an important step. By adding the potatoes back to a warm pan you drive off all the excess moisture from the cooked and fluffy starch, resulting in a less sloppy mash. The dry potato was then passed through the potato ricer, a little at a time, into a separate bowl. Once all the potato had been turned into a pile of fluffy rice, I set the bowl to one side to complete later.

Next, the red pepper was thinly sliced and added to a hot pan with some good olive oil, a few sprigs of thyme and seasoning. After about 5 minutes, once the peppers had softened and taken on some colour, I added a splash of red wine vinegar and a pinch of sugar. After cooking off the liquid, I gave the peppers a taste (yum!), corrected the seasoning and put the pan to one side to keep warm.

With the sausages now almost cooked, it was time to finish off the mash. First of all, I warmed some butter, cream and milk in a pan until completely melted and mixed together.

I then began adding the riced potato a spoonful at a time, stirring the mixture together as I went.

Once all the potato was combined, I added in a couple of tablespoons of whole grain mustard and seasoned liberally with lots of salt and pepper. I then beat the potatoes with a silicone spatula until I got a smooth but still firm consistency.

By now completely ravenous, I assembled the dish and quickly got stuck in. It looked and smelled fantastic.

So how did it taste? The sausages were great, meaty and packed with herby flavours, so a round of applause goes to the butcher. The mash was sublime, creamy and rich but with a good punch from the mustard. The peppers made a good accompaniment, the aroma of the thyme really coming through. Overall, just what the doctor (butler) ordered. Defiantly great comfort food – and almost worth the hangover for!