A sausage supper with spiced apple relish

Warming winter sausages in spiced apple relish

Winter and sausages – there is nothing so perfect in all the cold winter months as a good sausage supper. After being told that ‘no we can’t have another sausage sandwich for tea, that’s not a meal’ we settled on this recipe from Johnnie Mountain’s PIG book which has never disappointed.

Good quality sausages are a must. Ideally they should have a slightly coarse texture and contain at least 80% pork meat.

To start off the relish soak 55g raisins in very hot water for 30mins and then drain them. Heat a tbsp of vegetable oil over a medium heat in a large frying pan and fry 8 sausages (though we used 12 chipolatas as they go further…) for about 15 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Once you’ve popped the sausages onto a plate and put them somewhere warm it’s time to make the relish.

The relish is really quite easy – a useful midweek recipe. Add another tbsp.of vegetable oil to the same frying pan and soften a finely chopped onion (this will make use of all the lovely sausage flavours left in the pan), this will take about 10 mins on a medium heat, then stir in 1/4tsp ground cinnamon (or an inch or so stick of cinnamon), ¼ tsp ground allspice, cook for a brief 30 seconds. Then throw in 2 diced eating apples (we used braeburns), the soaked raisins, a tbsp of cider vinegar and 4 tbsp of water. Bring this all to the boil and then turn down to a simmer for 15 minutes until the liquid has evaporated and the apples have softened.

Once the relish has softened, stir in a couple of teaspoons of soft brown sugar and 3 finely shredded sage leaves. Check the seasoning and if necessary and a little salt and some pepper to give a nice balance of sweet form the apples and tart form the vinegar.

Pop the sausages back into the relish to warm them up for a couple of minutes and scatter another couple of shredded sage leaves on top.

You could have this with some mash or eat it like we did with some homemade crusty bread.