Bangers & Mash

Photo: © childsdesign

Now that you've seen the amazing sausages made by our producers, you'll know what to buy next time you fancy some sausages and mash.

Okay, it's not exactly difficult to make mashed potatoes but we've included a recipe for the way we make them in The Artisan Food Trail kitchen. Nothing fancy or labour intensive, just good old fashioned mash. And so what if you end up with a couple of lumps in it – it's not a Masterchef competition – it's for you to enjoy.

The only tip is to make sure you use floury potatoes (Maris Piper, Desiree, King Edward, Estima, Nadine, Rooster, Saxon and Wilja are suitable varieties) as opposed to waxy ones, otherwise you won't achieve the smooth fluffy texture and could end up with something more like wallpaper paste!

How to make mashed potatoes (serves 4)
Ingredients

• 900g floury main crop potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 55g butter
• 2-3 tbsp milk
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and fill with enough cold water to just cover the potatoes, add some salt. Bring to the boil and cook the potatoes gently for 20 minutes until soft.
Drain the potatoes and allow to sit so that the steam evaporates off. Mash until smooth – you could use a potato ricer as this achieves a nice smooth consistency, but a regular masher or even a fork will do.
Beat in the butter with some seasoning and enough milk to make a smooth, creamy mash.

Variations
Mashed potato can be dressed up with all manner of things for an extra wow factor.

1. Try substituting half the quantity of potato with parsnip or celeriac.
2. Add a good grating of fresh nutmeg.
3. A handful of chopped spring onions for crunch and bite.
4. A dollop of wholegrain mustard for a tangy kick
5. Grate in some strong cheddar or Parmesan cheese – a smoked one would be good too
6. A swirl of pesto
7. Go mad and add a dash of chilli sauce

It's really up to you, but these are a few pointers to get you started. If anyone has other ideas for mashed potato additions, why not let us know and leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

Toad in the Hole

Photo: © childsdesign

Crispy puffed up Yorkshire Pudding encasing a few good plump, meaty sausages makes a great family meal.
The trick to getting the pudding batter to billow up is to make sure you heat the fat in the tray, in which it is to be cooked. The fat should be smoking when you pour in the batter, this way it starts to cook immediately enabling a good rise.
Part-cooking the sausages before adding them to the batter ensures that they don't look anaemic – you want shiny brown burnished 'toads' to make it look appetising.
Served with a rich gravy this is sure to be a winner.

View recipe

The Artisan Food Trail's Best Bangers for British Sausage Week

British Sausage Week give us a chance to showcase our producers who make some great British sausages.
These aren’t the cheap, sad insipid offerings you might find in the supermarket, but brilliant bangers with bags of taste, great texture made with meat from animals that have led happy and healthy lives.

More often than not the animals are rare breeds too which means that these sausages have an unsurpassable flavour and texture. The sausage mix is skillfully blended with a variety of herbs and spices from the mild to the spicy to suit everyone’s preferences.

So whether you are making a hearty casserole, a Toad-in-the-Hole or just good old Bangers & Mash make sure you choose the best.

Photos: © childsdesign

Samphire
Samphire is an award winning smallholding in Norfolk rearing rare breed pigs and sheep. Ethical farming is at the heart of Samphire and they have been recognised by the RSPCA for their commitment to animal welfare.

 It’s not just their regulars who love their rare breed meat, Gary Rhodes said their sausages were the best he'd ever tasted

You can buy sausages online from a selection as follows:

The Samphire Sausage
An excellent partner to mashed potatoes and onion gravy, this sausage is a great all rounder with subtle seasonings of traditional spices and herbs. Ginger, mace and nutmeg provide the base to the top notes of sage, onion and coriander.

Sausage Selection – Six of the Best!
Samphire will put together a selection of their most popular sausages, ringing the changes as they create new flavours.
All sausages are made from our rare breed, free range pork and do not contain any colourings or flavour enhancers – they aren't needed!
For more information visit Samphire on The Artisan Food Trail here


Annie’s Market Garden
All ingredients are locally produced and sourced and all products are made at Annie’s.
The fantastic meat they produce (their customers will tell you so) is a direct result of the way they look after their animals. They graze freely in the orchards around the farm amongst the buttercups, wildflowers and natural pastures. 
Annie’s offer a range of exceptional Rare Breed meat products – Highland beef and also pork and lamb.

Annie’s Market Garden Pork Sausages
Traditional British breeds of pork (Berkshire & Gloucester Old Spot) are reared naturally and slowly, as nature intended. Annie’s are hoping to continue breeding the Berkshire pigs to help keep the bloodlines going. Annie’s firmly believe that for a great taste, time is needed – the rewards, great tasting native & rare breed pork perfect for making the best sausages.

For more information visit Annie’s Market Garden 
on The Artisan Food Trail here

Photos: © Capsicana taken by childsdesign

Capsicana Chilli Co
Capsicana has teamed up with a whole host of independent butchers across the the UK to bring you an absolutely delicious chilli sausage! They use a variety of authentic Mexican chillies to make their special chilli & spice blend and their selected butchers combine this with their fabulous sausage-making expertise and hey presto...  the best chilli sausages in the UK!!
Perfect for the BBQ, spicing up favourites like bangers & mash or making a Mexican style sausages and bean casserole.

Details of butchers using Capsicana’s chilli sausage blend 
available here 
For more information visit Capsicana Chilli Co 
on The Artisan Food Trail here



Paganum Produce
Yorkshire producer, Paganum’s selection of Premium Pork Sausages made in their traditional butchery to age old family recipes.

Classic Pork Sausage
Handmade special recipe Classic Pork Sausage in real skins and hand linked in the traditional way.

Gluten Free Sausage
Handmade special recipe Gluten Free Pork Sausage. A very high meat content gluten free sausage suitable for Coeliacs.

Pork & Honey Sausages
Handmade special recipe Pork & Honey Sausage in real skins and hand linked in the traditional way. A mild sausage, kids love 'em!

Cumberland Sausage
Handmade Cumberland Recipe Sausage in real skins. Great cooked in the oven in the traditional ring.


Chipolata Pork Sausage
A thin, short pork breakfast sausage, traditional at Christmas.

Gourmet Venison, Pork, Cranberry & Apple Sausage
Venison, Pork, Cranberry & Apple Sausage, real skins & hand linked in the traditional way.

Elite Sausage Box
Contains: Pork Leek & Chive, Ploughman’s Sausage, Prime Yorkshire Champion Pork Sausage thick, Prime Yorkshire Champion Pork Sausage thin, Pork & Caramelised Onion Sausage 
All pork is free range, outdoor reared in woods in Yorkshire.

Paganum Sausage Selection
Box of Paganum Sausages, real skins and hand linked in the traditional way, includes Classic Thin Link Breakfast Pork Sausage, Thick Pork & Honey Sausages and the Traditional Cumberland ring.

Visit Paganum Produce on The Artisan Food Trail here

Get to know your regional sausage

Photo: © childsdesign

A good sausage should be made with at least 70% high quality meat, usually beef or pork or a mixture of both. The remaining content is seasoning and breadcrumbs.

Across the UK there are many regional varieties of sausages and here are a few of the most easily found.

Cumberland Sausage
This is considered to be the meatiest British sausage. It is a chunky, coarse cut sausage spiced with black pepper and made in a continuous spiral. It is traditionally sold by length rather than weight. Looks very impressive when coiled in a spiral and cooked whole.

Gloucester Sausage
Traditionally made with Gloucester Old Spot (a rare breed) and flavoured with sage. Increasingly available from local specialists.

Lincolnshire Sausage
Old fashioned herby regional sausage traditionally made with pork, bread and sage (although thyme seems to be creeping in).

Lorne
Bit of an oddity, this is Scottish square slicing sausage. It is made with beef and pork, has a smooth texture and is probably destined for either the breakfast table or eaten in a sandwich with white sliced bread and brown sauce.

Manchester Sausage
A pork sausage, flavoured with white pepper, mace, nutmeg, ginger, sage and cloves.

Marylebone Sausage
A traditional London butchers sausage made with mace, ginger and sage.

Oxford Sausage
A regional sausage made with pork, veal and lemon. Herbs are usually sage, savory and marjoram

Pork and Apple (West Country)
Pork with apple and often cider or scrumpy, generally makes a moist sausage. Sage is often used, they are available nationally but very popular in the West Country. Traditionally made with Gloucester Old Spot which where reared in orchards and would have eaten the windfall apples.

Suffolk Sausage
A course chopped sausage with herbs, similar to Lincolnshire

Tomato Sausage
Pork and tomato, typical 10% tomato gives a distinctive red colour, they are popular in the Midlands. Can be combined with basil and sun dried tomatoes for the ‘Mediterranean’ taste

Yorkshire Sausage
White pepper, mace, nutmeg and cayenne are the predominant flavours in the Yorkshire sausage.

Get Your Bangers Out! It's British Sausage Week – 31st October – 6th November 2011

Slade frontman, Noddy Holder has been let out of his box slightly prematurely this year, and instead of shouting out a gravelly "It's Chriiiiiiiiistmaaaaaas!" he's proudly vociferating the brilliance of British bangers as ambassador and King of the Sizzle for LovePork's British Sausage Week.

Running from 31st October – 6th November 2011, this week is dedicated to all things sausage. Sausage, that's a word that has us Brits collapsing into a fit of giggles – nothing like a spot of innuendo to get the festivities going.

On a more serious note, British Sausage Week's aim is to make us all aware of how British pork is the best and encourages us to support our own farmers and producers by buying quality sausages.

There are many regional sausages throughout the British Isles that use traditional recipes that go back many generations.
There's the long coiled Cumberland sausage which is meaty with a coarse, chunky texture and black pepper giving a spicy bite; The Lincolnshire sausage, an old fashioned favourite scented with sage; West Country ones with pork and apple and maybe a touch of cider and Oxford sausages that contain veal, as well as pork. These are just a few of the many varieties made and the list continues to grow as producers experiment with different flavour combinations.

We can't resist a nicely cooked sausage. They should be cooked carefully over a medium heat so they cook slowly allowing the outside to gently caramelise so it becomes slightly sticky and the inside should be juicy. Don't have the heat too high or the sausage will burst and definitely do not prick them, this will make all the tasty juices escape.

The Artisan Food Trail is lucky enough to have a good number of food producers that make the finest sausages using meat from animals that have a led a healthy and happy life, so when you buy sausages make sure you choose British, local and bangers made with passion.

Over the coming week look out for more information about our sausage making friends, recipes, mouth-watering pictures and much more.