Feb 06 2009
Heaven is a Place on Earth
Proper tea for a proper cold night in February- and courtesy of Nigella, would you believe!
- Sausages with Onion & Cider Gravy
- Heaven and Earth Mash
A recipe from Feast that I’ve cooked in the past and fancied coming back to. The sausages weren’t anything fancy, just decent ones from the supermarket. Pork and apple, I think.
This is a great meal if the house is icy cold and needing warmed up, as Nigella advocates cooking the sausages in the oven. Having the oven on for 45 mins made out kitchen habitable on Friday! Whilst this might seem like a long wait for the bangers, the 45 mins is taken up nicely with prepping the potatoes and boiling them, and then adding apples to the boiling tatties- hence ‘Heaven and Earth’ mash. Standing at the cooker softening the onions and then stirring the gravy gave me a rock solid excuse to stay close to the oven too, brill.
The warming effect doesn’t stop there. There’s nothing like a mash-containing-meal to really warm you to your core. All the more so if there is gravy involved. Nigella suggests this combo as part of a Christmas Eve lunch, easy-going with all the family around (the recipe is for ten eating!) but I reckon it goes just fine on any cold day.
Strangely, seeing as it is baltic here, mashed potatoes don’t feature in tonight’s tea. Silly really, as you are correct in stating the thermal effect of a plate of mash (equivalent to two and a half bowls of hearty soup, according to the conversion table)