Autumn’s Best Sausage Dinners: From Stovies to Cider‑Stewed Beans
Two chefs share their favourite slow‑cooked sausage recipes perfect for chilly evenings.
Slow‑cooked, sticky sausages sautéed with onion, soy and perhaps a bit of Marmite … our panel even has bangers with bangs for bonfire night
Ali Stoner’s comforting sausage stovies
“Sausages are one of the most adaptable ingredients – they go with almost anything,” says Ali Stoner, author of Scran. She starts by frying the sausages until “kind of browning”, then sets them aside.
In the same pan she caramelises “lots of onions in the fat left in the pan”, adds a little flour, returns the sausages, and pours in “a bit of stock, a splash of soy, maybe a squeeze of Marmite – that always freaks people out”. The mixture is then simmered until ready to serve with a “big mound of mash or rice”.
David Gingell’s cider‑steamed sausage and beans
David Gingell, co‑founder of Primeur, Westerns Laundry and Jolene in London, begins by colouring “a couple of rashers of streaky bacon and some fennel sausages in a heavy‑based pan”. He removes them, leaving “a good amount of fat” to sweat “an obscene amount of finely diced onions with some salt and a couple of crushed garlic cloves, until sticky and delicious”.
He may add chopped carrots, then “a good glug of cider, white wine (or sherry), followed by some bay leaves and a couple of jars of butter beans”. After pouring in chicken stock, the sausages return to the pot and go into a “medium‑hot oven for 30‑40 minutes, until caramelising on top”.
After a crucial 30‑minute rest, he chops up the fried bacon, chuck that in, too, and serve with cabbage cooked with olive oil and/or butter and onions, plus a pot of mustard.
Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com.
