Sausages braised in Guinness, in a Yorkshire pudding.

My hubby absolutely loves sausages, in any way, shape or form!  I always feel that sausages are at their best made into a gravy dinner, with what we in Wales call ‘potch’ (swede (rutabaga) and potato mashed together) and lots of fried caramelised onions.   

One of my favourite way of serving them is braised in red wine as you have a delicious gravy to go with them, and I often serve them in a Yorkshire pudding as one of my ‘dinners in a Yorkshire Pudding’.  You do need mashed potato with such delicious gravy so we usually either have ‘potch’ or colcannon (mashed potato with cabbage and leeks). 

For today though I decided to experiment with cooking them in Guinness.  Hubby loved it, as an experiment it was a resounding success! 

For two people : 

6 good meaty sausages (I like Cumberland)

1tb olive oil

1 good knob of butter

2 onions

½ tsp sugar

1tb flour

1 (440ml/half pint) can of Guinness

¼ pint of beef stock (½ a cup)

1tsp mushroom ketchup (optional, leave it out if you can’t find it/don’t have it)

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

1tsp tomato puree (or ketchup if you don’t keep puree in the house)

1 or 2 sprigs thyme

1 bayleaf

Salt and pepper to taste 

Firstly brown the sausages all over and then set aside. 

Melt the butter and olive oil together in a large pan.  Peel and cut the onions into thin half-moon slices and add to the oil and butter mixture, add the sugar and some ground black pepper and brown gently for 10 – 15 minutes.  As this is quite a simple recipe in terms of ingredients, you do want the onions to brown to get the best flavour into the dish. 

Add the flour and stir into the onions.  Gradually add the Guinness, stirring and scraping up any bits from around the pan.  Add the Worcestershire sauce, mushroom ketchup, beef stock and tomato puree/ketchup and stir.  Add a seasoning of salt and pepper, the herbs and the sausages and bring to a gentle simmer. 

Cover the pan and pop in a low oven (150^oC/275^o F/gas mark 1) for 3 ½ hours.  You want to have a nice gravy with this so if it seems to dry out at all just add a little more boiling water (half a cup or so). 

To make the Yorkshire Pudding I used : 

1 x 8” sandwich tin 

3oz plain flour

1 egg

3 fl oz milk

2 fl oz water

Salt and pepper to taste 

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and season, make a well in the centre and add the egg, milk and water.  Beat well so that there are no lumps whatsoever in the mixture.  Traditionally it’s made the night before and left to sit, the longer you can leave the batter mixture the better. 

When you are ready, grease the sandwich tin well and heat in the oven (it needs to be very hot), pour the batter mixture into the tin and cook for 25 to 30 minutes at 220^oC (425^oF/gas mark 7). 

I made the Yorkshire first and just re-heated in the microwave when we were ready to eat. We had one between us as we had potatoes as well.

This was a very substantial meal, so don’t plan on doing anything more than resting your stomach afterwards!