Potatoes and Spicy Sausage

Mandi and I are experiencing a hectic March – we were both relocating and Dennis and I marshalled at the Cape Argus Cycle Race (which, to those who don’t know, is the world’s largest timed cycle race).  Almost every weekend has been busy with something or other, so we have been cooking whenever we can.  The dish this week is Potatoes and Spicy Sausage.  The ingredients for this dish are quite strange and I can’t seem to get my head around banana and potatoes…… 

Mandi: In mom’s cookbook it says she took this recipe out of a Home & Garden magazine in October 1982…mmmm… this could pose a problem because when you have ingredients advertised by a Brand in 1982, it may not exist anymore in 2016!!  As per the All Gold New Potatoes in a tin…. Well at least not in my tiny town with one supermarket.  Fortunately we are moving next week to a larger town/evolving city and perhaps I will be able to get the ingredients there.

Due to my religious convictions, I also did not use Pork (Russians) and opted for a vegetarian option which was not too shabby for a replacement I must say.  I think the pork russians would add colour to the dish though which was missing in mine – looked a bit bland and I think Deidré’s son Dylan would probably echo his comment of a few week’s back to his mother, on my attempt at a salad that it lacks imagination. LOL.  But I was trying for colour.  In my defence though, we are moving house as I said and all the best crockery and kitchen ingredients are kept to a minimum at this stage. So forgive the utensils for the next few weeks while I unpack my life of seven years in this home and downsize from a luxurious kitchen to one that may have fit into my current kitchen 3 times.  Well if Deidré could have done it, so can I :P

This is not a formal lunch recipe at all.  I would make it either for a brunch or a casual lunch.  I arranged the dish on top of two slices of toast, crusts removed.  It is very filling and perhaps the two complex carbs together is an overkill. However, I must say that both James and I enjoyed every last bite of this variation of the original.

Recipe:  Potatoes and Spicy Sausage

1 can All Gold New Potatoes (drained) – I bought baby potatoes, kept the skin on and cooked till almost ready. I quartered them.

3 Onions finely sliced

5ml Butter or Margarine

6 Russian Sausages (or Polish) – I used a Vegetarian/Vegan option that was GMO free.  Cut into thick slices.

6 Bananas

250 ml Chicken Stock

Method:

Fry onions in hot butter till golden brown.  Add potatoes to onions and gently heat through.

Fry sausage pieces, remove and keep warm with onions and potatoes.

Peel Bananas and fry in remaining fat left in the pan.

If the pan seems dry, add a small amount of extra butter.  Return onions, potatoes and sausages to pan. 

Add the chicken stock and simmer for 10 mins.

Arrange fried bananas on top and serve straight from the pan.

Deidre suggested Mutton sausages, however we will try that one again once we are in the city.

Deidrè:  Like I said – potatoes and banana’s together in one dish?  I don’t think so.  But that’s what the recipe calls for and that’s what I did – kind of.

In between rearranging the grocery cupboard – because I couldn’t pack half my groceries that I’d bought in it – and doings the odds and ends that I haven’t had time to do since moving into my new home, I meditated on this recipe.  What flavour combinations would work?  I eventually decided that although potatoes didn’t seem to fit with bananas, sweet potatoes would.  So here is my version of Mom’s 1982 dish:

Potatoes And Spicy Sausage

3 large sweet potatoes (cut into blocks and pre-cooked in the chicken stock)

1 x Knorr stock pot chicken stock

6 Pork sausages (remove meat from the casings)

1 onion finely chopped

5 ml Fresh parsley finely chopped

Flour

Olive oil for frying

Mash the sweet potatoes.  Add salt & pepper to taste.

Add the onion and parsley to the sausage meat.  I added a little bit of flour to the meat to give it a firmer texture. Fry a small piece and taste.  Add salt and pepper if necessary (sausage meat normally has its own seasoning already mixed into it).

Form patties from the meat and fry until cooked.

Onion and Banana Relish

8 Bananas

2 onions sliced

1 tspTurmeric

½ cupVinegar

90 g Brown Sugar

Pinch of salt

Mash the banana.  Add all the ingredients to taste in a saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes.  Be careful as it tends to burn easily.

To serve:

Spread the sweet potato mash on the plate.

Place the sausage meat patty on top

Add the banana and onion relish.

Hints and tips:

1.     Cut your sweet potatoes up into same sized squares – this will ensure that they cook evenly.

2.     The relish is very much a taste as you go along exercise.  This recipe makes enough to fill a Jacobs coffee jar (750 g).