BEER BRAISED SAUSAGES WITH ONION AND APPLE

serves 4

With the summer we’ve been having, my thoughts have been turning to comfort food. This is a chunky dish, simply packed with flavour, very economical and dead easy to cook. I like to serve it with creamy mashed potato. It’s even better with a good dollop of grainy mustard stirred into the mash. You can drink beer with it, of course, but I prefer it with a relatively soft red wine, such as a Côtes du Rhone.

INGREDIENTS

A splash of olive oil

740g premium Irish pork sausages, at least 80% meat

2 onions, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

35g plain flour

A knob of butter (about 15g)

500ml bottle of ale (ideally not an IPA)

1 tsp dried sage or 1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped

1 bay leaf

350ml stock (you may not need it all)

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and diced

Heat the oil in a pan and brown the sausages. Put the sausages aside.

Turn down the heat and cook the onions gently for about 10 minutes or until softening and turning a little golden. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add the butter and let it melt. Now stir in the flour, turn up the heat and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add the beer, stirring all the time as the mixture thickens.

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. If it’s too thick at this stage, just add some more stock.