I always recommend Lincolnshire because it has a sage and thyme flavour but it is not too strong. We always double-mince sausage meat orders because it makes it just that much finer and this means that it will also bind well without the need for anything such as breadcrumbs or egg yolk for something like Scotch Eggs.
The way we make Scotch Eggs is to hard boil the hens' eggs and then cool them down in cold water. Take the shells off, and roll the eggs in flour. Then, as a chef would say, en-robe in about 110g of sausage meat, dip in beaten egg, roll in breadcrumbs and then deep fry at about 180 degrees for about 8 minutes. Allow to cool....but they are great hot! You can order sausage meat by clicking here to email me.
The Times, not the one of London, the Sunday Times sibling, had such nice things to say about PJS Sausages last week. See below!
Not one sausage
Heritage sausages and veggies smothered in freshly made cheese sauce
Squinting into the harsh, taut shimmer of Highveld winter light, the Bandit sets out on a late-morning quest for a decent boerie roll.
Maybe one of the roadside operations proliferating in Johannesburg's most northern suburbs. Maybe not.
Life's too short and the wind too icy - especially when the chances of even the faintest of brushes with drool-worthy excellence are so slim.
Instead, a plot hatching as he drives, the Bandit heads south and sort of central. More specifically, to Cheese Gourmet in Linden. Which stocks veteran food and wine journalist Peter James Smith's fine range of sausages - and equally fine cheeses, of course.
By the time the Bandit hits the corner of Seventh Street and Third Avenue, the plot has, as they invariably do, thickened.
And as a tribute to menlish - the language of menus, which is not dissimilar to Chinglish, the language of user guides for anything electronic - how about a "trio" (just a short French segue from "melange") of sausage.
Top of the list is saucisse de Toulouse, humbly billed by PJS ("sausages you can trust") as "the basic French garlic sausage" that is "a standard component of cassoulet", the standard ingredients of which are haricot beans and forms of pork and sausage.
In the cassoulet of Castelnaudary, pork and pork products account for all of the meats. Cassoulet from Carcassonne may include mutton and partridge, while in Toulouse, the dish that takes its name from the glazed earthenware dish in which it was traditionally cooked, will feature Toulouse sausage and, possibly, duck, mutton or goose. All, according to Alan Davidson's indispensable The Penguin Companion to Food, are most frequently cooked in goose fat.
The second sausage in the Bandit's thickened plot is the medium-ground PJS Lincolnshire, a thick, pale pork sausage distinctively flavoured with sage and thyme.
Third spot in the "trio" goes to the peppery, "with a hint of marjoram" coarse-cut Cumberland sausage, which, the PJS website informs, "works wonderfully on a braai as long as it is cooked slowly over coals that are not too hot . the same as boerewors".
The authoritative cheesemonger suggests a "mild but with a slight Emmenthaler tang gouda from Belgium" for the mustard and cheese sauce. A taste of the gouda confirms that she's got the picture in one.
Most of the veg comes from Woolworths, where the Bandit learns a lesson in the relative meaning of organic while shopping for underwear. Under signage emblazoned with the words "organic cotton", the Bandit finds scants that contain, wait for it, five, yes five whole percent of organic cotton. That's fewer than five potatoes in a pocket. Free range - for five days in every 100?
Roast sweet potato, parsnip, butternut, beetroot, onion. Winter earth tones. A pinch of Maldon. Et voila! Salt of the earth. Red and yellow pepper for colour and sparkle.
Roast sweet potato, parsnip, butternut, beetroot, onion. Winter earth tones. A pinch of Maldon. Et voila! Salt of the earth. Red and yellow pepper for colour and sparkle.
Under a seasonal blanket of cheese and mustard sauce. None of that "draped", "drizzled" or "on a pool of" nonsense. We're talking smothered. No hints of anything.
Cut the vegetables into chunky angular pieces. Toss in a little olive oil and into an oven preheated to 220C, for 25 minutes. Add sausage and peppers and bake for a further 15 minutes, during which time bring 125ml of cream to the boil. Add a generous teaspoonful of English mustard and about 80g of grated gouda to the cream. Whisk over low heat until smooth.
On a rack low under the grill, slowly grill the veg and sausage for about 10 minutes.
Smother vegetables and sausages with the cheese and mustard sauce. Sprinkle liberally with chopped chives.
THE SCORE:
PJS Saucisse de Toulouse: *****
PJS Lincolnshire: ****
PJS Cumberland: ****
Belgian gouda: ****
Woolworths' notion of organic: *
I'll put the Bandit's Recipe on the website next time we update.
Newstime
I bumped into Dave Bullard at the Brandy Festival and as a result I'm writing a weekly column for Newstime. It really is an excellent on-line newspaper with a surfeit of columnists. My column is loosely about food and the first one appeared last Friday. A sausage is never mentioned. You can find it by clicking here. This Friday I'll be writing about Pizza.
Chorizo Fresco
Fino Restaurant in Parktown North is no more. It was for Fino that I originally designed the Chorizo and named it after the restaurant, Chorizo Fino. With the demise of Fino I'm changing the name to Chorizo Fresco because that is what my chorizo is, a Spanish-style fresh chorizo that needs to be cooked before eating as it is not cured. It is more smoky than hot as I use Spanish smoked paprika. Any heat, that is really discernible in the after-taste, comes from Cayenne Pepper and it is the only sausage to which I add a liquid...White Wine! To order Chorizo Fresco or any other sausages or bacon just click here.
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