Honey Glazed Sausages with Root Veg Mash and Onion Gravy

I’m not going to lie, I’m more of a Winter person then a Summer one, partly because I’m obsessed with Christmas, and partly because I love Winter-y comfort food. Bangers and mash is one of my favourite tasty and warming suppers and when Ben’s mum gave me some fantastic homegrown vegetables I really couldn’t resist making this hugely simple and always delicious dish.

There really is nothing better then eating food that came out of the ground just a few hours before, I think you’ll agree it tastes so much better then what you buy in the store and is such a treat. Plus, you might even get a parsnip that looks like a person – win!!

I baked my sausages in the oven according to instructions, adding a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard and one of runny honey for the final five minutes to create a sweet and sticky glaze. The root veg created an earthy mash, that made a nice change to the more familiar potato version, and the gravy kept everything from becoming too dry.

Serves 2

4 to 6 sausages

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

½ onion, chopped

200ml beef stock

knob of butter (plus more for the mash)

1 ½ tbsp plain flour

Various root vegetables, chopped (I used 1 swede and 2 parsnips)

1. Bake the sausages according to instructions, stirring in the honey and mustard for the final five minutes of cooking. Soften the onion in butter before stirring in the flour, a little at a time, and adding the beef stock. Leave to thicken on a low heat for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, boil the root vegetables for around 25 minutes, before mashing with a wedge of butter.
3. Serve with greens. 

Kedgeree

Aren’t food memories the best? I think probably most of my memories revolve in some way around food. Whether it be ‘Cosy Tea’ when I got home from school, eating turkey dinosaurs after Nursery, that duck we ate for my big 18^th Birthday dinner, or that first takeaway pizza on day one at University. This Kedgeree is no different, for it really reminds me of Mum and when she’s being extra lovely and treating me to one of my favourite suppers. Billed as a breakfast (and it does taste amazing the next day heated up) we always seem to have kedgeree as an early supper before an evening out, on this occasion to the theatre.

Kind of like a biryani I suppose, Kedgeree is an Indian dish brought back to England by the Victorians and enjoyed as a hearty breakfast ever since. Consisting of flaked white fish, onion, rice, peas, boiled egg, lemon juice, curry powder and turmeric, which gives it its slightly radioactive yellow colour, it really is very simple make. More importantly, it tastes amazing too, the tang of the lemon and punch of the curry powder complimenting rather then over powering the more delicate flavour of the fish. I always have seconds and I’m sure you will too!!

Adapted from The Breakfast Book

240g smoked haddock, cooked and flaked

240g cooked rice

2 small onions, finely chopped

2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp curry powder

Juice of 1 lemon

120g butter

2 hardboiled eggs

2 tbsp peas

1. Soften the onions in half the butter in a large casserole dish. Add the turmeric, curry powder and lemon juice.
2. Fry gently for a couple of minutes before adding fish, rice and rest of the butter.
3. Hard-boil the eggs. Keep the fish and rice mixture over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Heat the peas for a few moments.
4. Chop the hard-boil eggs and mix lightly, along with the peas, to the dish. Season and serve.