Discussion
Garlick, if you have no concerns over your calorie intake then give this a go. It's delicious and very bad for you:
12 delicious pork sausages
Cabbage, half a large one
Potatoes, about 8 medium sized ones
Onions, 2 large ones
Cream, half a pint
Beef stock, a pint. Oxo is just fine.
Bacon, Several rashers.
Your first task is to cook the sausages. It is worth getting better sausages for this recipe but it does work best with basic pork ones rather than anything exotic from Lincolnshire. These sausages need to be fried for roughly ten minutes on a good medium heat so that they are reasonably cooked and nice and gooey and browned. Don’t overcook them, and remember that they will continue to cook in the oven. It may now be the moment to put the oven on at about 160 degrees.
Put the sausages to one side to cool. You will already have finely chopped the onions and now is the time to cook them. Just shove them in the pan you have just taken the s
ausages out of and fry them till translucent and yummy. This should take about ten minutes. You may need to add a wee bit of butter. Then put to one side.
Next fry the bacon, till nice and crispy and put to one side. The bacon should then be chopped up into bite size pieces. And finally, cook the cabbage just a little to soften it up bit. Add some water to the pan, maybe a quarter of a mugful and turn the heat up to the max until they wilt and maybe brown a little. This shouldn’t take five minutes.
Whilst you were cooking all these things, you should have been peeling and chopping the spuds and you should also have put the stock and cream into a saucepan together and heated them to almost boiling. The spuds should be sliced about half a centimetre thick. They don’t need to be cooked. At this stage you need to chop up the sausages, they should be sufficiently cooled. Chop each sausage into three chunks on the diagonal so you get a good mouthful.
Now, it’s construction time: you need to put everything in the dish in layers. There are two ways of doing this. Either use a gratin dish or a casserole, the effect is much the same. Start by putting in a layer of spuds to cover the bottom of the dish and then put half the cabbage in, and then half the onions and half the bacon. Then the sausages go in and you should cover them with more spuds and season. Then do the whole thing again so you get another tier. Cover the top with a final layer of spuds. You don’t need to be too precise and don’t pack it down as this makes it a little too dense. You will need an inch or so at the top of the dish so it doesn’t overflow.
Do you remember the stock and cream cocktail? Well, pour than into the dish gently so that it is level with but not covering the top layer of spuds. Season well and cover with the dish lid or a bit of foil.
Then just pop it in the oven, on a baking tray to prevent soiling the oven if
it does bubble over. It will take about an hour and three quarters to cook through. Then add a final 15 minutes with the cover off to let it brown on top, whack up the heat for this. As it cooks the house is filled with beautiful and enticing smells as you watch Time Team and the Antiques Roadshow. You don’t really need to attend to it all.
This dish is a real winter warmer. Rich and gooey with so many lovely surprise pieces of bacon and sausage. The pie is quite adequate on its own but is perfect with some broccoli or carrots. It will feed six people with ease but there are four of us and none ever goes to waste. I urge you to forget your diets and cares for one blissful Sunday and cook up this delicious pie. You deserve it.
12 delicious pork sausages
Cabbage, half a large one
Potatoes, about 8 medium sized ones
Onions, 2 large ones
Cream, half a pint
Beef stock, a pint. Oxo is just fine.
Bacon, Several rashers.
Your first task is to cook the sausages. It is worth getting better sausages for this recipe but it does work best with basic pork ones rather than anything exotic from Lincolnshire. These sausages need to be fried for roughly ten minutes on a good medium heat so that they are reasonably cooked and nice and gooey and browned. Don’t overcook them, and remember that they will continue to cook in the oven. It may now be the moment to put the oven on at about 160 degrees.
Put the sausages to one side to cool. You will already have finely chopped the onions and now is the time to cook them. Just shove them in the pan you have just taken the s
ausages out of and fry them till translucent and yummy. This should take about ten minutes. You may need to add a wee bit of butter. Then put to one side.
Next fry the bacon, till nice and crispy and put to one side. The bacon should then be chopped up into bite size pieces. And finally, cook the cabbage just a little to soften it up bit. Add some water to the pan, maybe a quarter of a mugful and turn the heat up to the max until they wilt and maybe brown a little. This shouldn’t take five minutes.
Whilst you were cooking all these things, you should have been peeling and chopping the spuds and you should also have put the stock and cream into a saucepan together and heated them to almost boiling. The spuds should be sliced about half a centimetre thick. They don’t need to be cooked. At this stage you need to chop up the sausages, they should be sufficiently cooled. Chop each sausage into three chunks on the diagonal so you get a good mouthful.
Now, it’s construction time: you need to put everything in the dish in layers. There are two ways of doing this. Either use a gratin dish or a casserole, the effect is much the same. Start by putting in a layer of spuds to cover the bottom of the dish and then put half the cabbage in, and then half the onions and half the bacon. Then the sausages go in and you should cover them with more spuds and season. Then do the whole thing again so you get another tier. Cover the top with a final layer of spuds. You don’t need to be too precise and don’t pack it down as this makes it a little too dense. You will need an inch or so at the top of the dish so it doesn’t overflow.
Do you remember the stock and cream cocktail? Well, pour than into the dish gently so that it is level with but not covering the top layer of spuds. Season well and cover with the dish lid or a bit of foil.
Then just pop it in the oven, on a baking tray to prevent soiling the oven if
it does bubble over. It will take about an hour and three quarters to cook through. Then add a final 15 minutes with the cover off to let it brown on top, whack up the heat for this. As it cooks the house is filled with beautiful and enticing smells as you watch Time Team and the Antiques Roadshow. You don’t really need to attend to it all.
This dish is a real winter warmer. Rich and gooey with so many lovely surprise pieces of bacon and sausage. The pie is quite adequate on its own but is perfect with some broccoli or carrots. It will feed six people with ease but there are four of us and none ever goes to waste. I urge you to forget your diets and cares for one blissful Sunday and cook up this delicious pie. You deserve it.
Garlick said:
Thanks, these sound lovely 
Oh, and dmitsi, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed instructions. I'll print them out so that I can attempt this at home, hopefully next weekend.
Well I'd take the thanks, but I found it a while a go and have it saved. Someone else put the love in, but I'm sharing it haha.Oh, and dmitsi, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed instructions. I'll print them out so that I can attempt this at home, hopefully next weekend.
For me the trick would be to go 1950's school food lo-fi.
-Pastry must be very short. Shop bought fine.
-Decent sausages.
-I think the filling should be really simple -nice rich, (dare I say it: Bisto-y) gravy with lots of onions, maybe a hint of red wine. Fairly sloppy, so as not to let the whole dish dry up with the pastry.
That's it.
Cabbage/peas and outstandingly good creamy mustard mash.
-Pastry must be very short. Shop bought fine.
-Decent sausages.
-I think the filling should be really simple -nice rich, (dare I say it: Bisto-y) gravy with lots of onions, maybe a hint of red wine. Fairly sloppy, so as not to let the whole dish dry up with the pastry.
That's it.
Cabbage/peas and outstandingly good creamy mustard mash.
dmitsi said:
Garlick said:
Thanks, these sound lovely
Oh, and dmitsi, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed instructions. I'll print them out so that I can attempt this at home, hopefully next weekend.
Well I'd take the thanks, but I found it a while a go and have it saved. Someone else put the love in, but I'm sharing it haha.Oh, and dmitsi, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed instructions. I'll print them out so that I can attempt this at home, hopefully next weekend.
Pixel-Snapper said:
dmitsi said:
Garlick said:
Thanks, these sound lovely
Oh, and dmitsi, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed instructions. I'll print them out so that I can attempt this at home, hopefully next weekend.
Well I'd take the thanks, but I found it a while a go and have it saved. Someone else put the love in, but I'm sharing it haha.Oh, and dmitsi, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed instructions. I'll print them out so that I can attempt this at home, hopefully next weekend.
dmitsi said:
Pixel-Snapper said:
dmitsi said:
Garlick said:
Thanks, these sound lovely
Oh, and dmitsi, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed instructions. I'll print them out so that I can attempt this at home, hopefully next weekend.
Well I'd take the thanks, but I found it a while a go and have it saved. Someone else put the love in, but I'm sharing it haha.Oh, and dmitsi, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed instructions. I'll print them out so that I can attempt this at home, hopefully next weekend.
dmitsi said:
Excellent, I didn't get time to do this last night. It's happening tonight though, sausages have been bought. I like the look of pastry, makes it more pie like. May have to add that too. Photos to follow 
Little hint dmitsiCook the pasty seperate to the pie and add it later, should of done this last night as the juices where sucked up by the pasty and it became abit soggy....will know for next time though.
Pixel-Snapper said:
dmitsi said:
Excellent, I didn't get time to do this last night. It's happening tonight though, sausages have been bought. I like the look of pastry, makes it more pie like. May have to add that too. Photos to follow
Little hint dmitsiCook the pasty seperate to the pie and add it later, should of done this last night as the juices where sucked up by the pasty and it became abit soggy....will know for next time though.
Who ate all the pies? Errrm. ME!
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