A braise of sausages, vegetables, lemon and bay leaves – And variations
(Updated July 2021)
With a forced layoff from posting of a few months due to surgery, we return to Olive’s Kitchen with another post in the series “What’s in the Fridge?”.
Not only is one of us largely incapacitated but we are also currently having a significant amount of work done to our house in Hampton, with new curtains and blinds and new flooring being the main tasks.
So cooking has been somewhat disrupted, causing us to search for quick and easy solutions.
In the fridge at the weekend we had some excellent frozen Italian style sausages from one of our local butchers, and some potatoes, carrots, parsnips and Brussels sprouts that needed using up. That prompted us to recall this recipe by Rick Stein: Fennel sausages braised with lemony potatoes and bay leaves.
Hobart friends had cooked this dish for us a couple of years ago and we recalled what a lovely result it gave. Following are two photos of what we put into the oven. After that are photos of several variations we have tried, using the basic method for the Rick Stein recipe. Here is a link to our base recipe – Braise of sausages and vegetables.
We followed the original recipe closely, with variations as follows:
- In addition to the potato we added chunks of carrots and parsnips and Brussels sprouts with a cross cut into the bottom.
- We used four sausages, a sliced red onion and added a small green chilli, finely chopped.
- We cooked it in a wide baking dish.
We served it as a “one-pot” dish, spooning over the juices. For best results, make sure you use high quality sausages; and there is no need to prick them at any stage.
Serves: Two to four, depending on how hungry people are.
Difficulty: Not difficult (2/5).
Variations
In all cases brown the sausages first, before adding them to the other ingredients. Some ingredients, such as potato, might need to be par-cooked first.
A braise of sausages with ratatouille: Make your favourite ratatouille recipe and place the browned sausages on top.
A braise of sausages with baby onions: No need to cook the onions beforehand.
A braise of baby sausages with red capsicum and sprouts: Prepare the sprouts as per normal, with a cross in the stalk and/or cut in half.
Another braise of sausages with potatoes: Add chilies or other flavourings.
Contributions welcomed!
If you have any inspirational moments based on what’s in the fridge or on the shelves, we are happy to hear about them, including the ingredients, (good quality photos if you have any) and why it turned out so well.