Bangers, Mash, and bike blogs

Note: I have been informed that "bangers" and "mash" do not exist as separate entities, but that the name of the dish is simply "bangers and mash."  However, I have the sense of humor of a 15-year-old boy and enjoy referring to sausages as "bangers."


Other note: Mid-way through this post, Comcast finally credited my account.  It took 41 minutes and 17 seconds for that to happen.

Since I am currently on hold with Comcast for the 22nd minute in a row (they decided to sign me up for Xfinity TV and charge me for it, although I specifically asked them not to), I figure now is as good a time as any to blog.  Apparently it takes a full half-hour for them to credit $27 back into my debit account.

My commute this morning will consist of getting up from my couch and walking to my desk, so not too much in the way of excitement there.  Working from home is a joy in the winter, though I do miss the insanity of the 15th Street bicycle track and the chance to run into the awesome bike-blogging crowd of DC.  Plus, it's going to be 60 degrees today.  My commute this afternoon to my other job (to clarify: I have 3 jobs) will be slightly more exciting, in that I get to go a full 3 miles to Friendship Heights....but maybe excellent things will happen.  You never know. 

Speaking of awesome bike-blogging crowd, my roommate (her name is Kate, if you haven't figured that out yet) was featured on TFTS yesterday!  It was a very exciting evening.  I was so excited that I took a picture of her with her blog post--that probably makes us excessively dorky, but we're not the sort of people who care about that sort of thing... 

  

Thanks, Brian!

I also got to use my newly seasoned cast iron pan last night!  My mom found it in my grandmother's old things a couple of years ago, so I packed it in my suitcase and brought it home.  Since I am a lazy slug, I only recently got around to seasoning it properly, since I figured it would be a proper vessel in which to cook sausages and apple/onion gravy.

As usual, I stole the recipe from elsewhere: here, to be precise.  Some of the measurements were in milliliters , so I got to feel very European while making this dish.  It is a quintessentially British dish, though I didn't have traditional "bangers," whatever those are, or any orange pippin apples, but this came out deliciously anyway.  I used:

• 4 kind of large pork, apple and gouda sausages (I cannot stress how good these were)
• Several Yukon Gold potatoes
• 3 Gala apples
• 1 red onion 
• 2 tsp flour
• a few glugs of red wine (actually, I may have measured this out to 150 ml)
• 120 ml hot water
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• unmeasured butter
• unmeasured milk
• shredded New Zealand cheddar (kind of salty/sweet/tangy...a good find at Whole Foods!  And it was on sale!)
• salt

Chop your potatoes, slice your apples into wedges, and slice your onion.  In that order, otherwise if you eat the apple scraps, they'll taste like onions.....which, as we discovered last night, is not as heinous as it sounds.

Put a pot of water on the stove and heat until it's boiling.  Add chopped and rinsed potatoes (I left the skins on).  Let boil for about 12-15 minutes, depending on how big your chunks are and what kind of potatoes you're using.

Heat up the skillet on medium, pour in some oil (like 2 tbsp?) and fry up the sausages.  Mine were precooked, so I only kept them in for about 8 minutes.  I imagine this dish would be better if they started off uncooked, in which case, you would need to fry them for about 15 minutes.  Shove the sausages off to the side (or remove them if you are using a 10" skillet that doesn't fit everything) and toss in the apples.  Fry up for a few minutes until they look cooked.  Remove from pan and place on a paper towel.  

Add the sliced onion (with more oil, if needed) to the skillet, put the sausages back in if you have removed them, and cook the onions until they start to look soft and slightly browned.  After about 10 minutes, add flour.  Mix wine, vinegar, and Worcestershire, and add them gradually.  Let the whole mess bubble on the stove for a few minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.  I had no concept of how thick this was supposed to be, but I like sauces a lot, and I felt it could have used more liquid.

Pre-liquid...

Post-liquid...

Once things are looking gravy-ish, add the apple slices back in and let them heat through.

At some point during this cooking process, drain your potatoes, put them back in the pot, and mash with butter, milk, and shredded cheese (this was a really nice touch).  Add salt to taste.  I think you're supposed to plate it all together, but since SOME (*ahem*) people are finicky about food being mushed together, I added them to the plate separately.

I failed to get a non-crappy picture of this dish, but hopefully you get the idea.

Anyway, this was ultimately pretty easy and super yummy.  Kate, although she does not eat meat, was a good sport and watched the gravy for me while I did dishes.  She is great.