Serves 4 generously

Ingredients

• 12 Cumberland or Lincolnshire sausages
• vegetable oil for frying
• 12 Desiree potatoes, peeled and evenly sliced
• 1/4 weight of butter to potatoes, diced
• 200 ml (7 fl. oz) milk
• salt and pepper
• 6–7 brown onions, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 litre (35 fl. oz) of beef granules gravy

Method

Mash

1. Wash the slices of potato under cold running water to rinse off any free starch.
2. Place the potato pieces in a saucepan of warm water at 75ºC/150ºF. It’s important to maintain this temperature, adding cold water if necessary. Allow the potatoes to cook for 20–30 minutes.
3. Drain the potatoes, and immediately run them under cold water until they feel cool. Leave them for half an hour.
4. Drop them into boiling water and then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook until you can easily stick a knife in them. If they begin to fall apart you have over-cooked them.
5. Drain the potatoes and gently push them through a ricer. (A ricer is a type of potato masher but far more delicate. It looks like a giant garlic press.)
6. Heat the milk in a pan until just boiling and remove from the heat. Add the potato mash and with a spatula mix the two together gradually adding the diced butter.
7. Season to taste.

Onion gravy

1. Heat a dry pan and add the onions. Use a pan which has some height to the sides and ideally non-stick.
2. After about 10–15 minutes the pan will be awash with liquid. Let this evaporate. Then the onions will start to brown and caramelise. Be brave and cook them until they are well caramelised. Every so often scrape the pan to remove the caramelisation.
3. Prepare the gravy of beef granules according to taste. Add it to the pan of onions and simmer for a minute.

Sausages

1. Gently fry the sausages in a pan with a tiny bit of oil until they are evenly brown, firm to touch and cooked through.
2. Serve them with the gravy and mash.

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Content last updated: 24/04/2005

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