Bangers and Mash Recipe

Bangers and mash is as simple as mashed potatoes, sausages, and onion gravy

Sausage and mash or bangers and mash, whatever you know/ heard it by, is a British classic with different variations.

It’s a comfort meal if you ask me, it’s a perfect winter dish

It is comfort on a plate. I mean, look at glistening sausage and gravy, it is a winter comfort in the UK

Sausage, mashed potatoes, and peas have never looked so good. If you don’t want peas you can skip them. They are an optional add-on

1. Onion Gravy

To make onion gravy, we need to caramelize the onions first. We will use sugar and vinegar to speed up caramelization, as we don’t have an hour to spare for that process.

Once onions are caramelized, we stir in the finely chopped garlic or mince it

We add balsamic vinegar, cook it off, and optionally a little bit of white wine, then a little bit of stock(well reduced), you can use chicken or beef as long as it’s good stock, and we have our gravy

Ingredients

For onion gravy, we use red onions, which are much sweeter and less acidic than white onions, and caramelize more deeply.

But you can use whatever onions you have or even mix white and reds

Procedure

You can go the classic long caramelization route or speed it up

You are gonna need lots of onions here.

1. Add oil to the pan and sweat the onions with the lid covered on low heat for about 20 minutes, until the moisture is lost and a natural sweetness begins to develop.
2. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp sugar to help speed caramelization, and a touch of butter if too dry.
3. Set the heat to the highest setting, and now add balsamic vinegar to intensify caramelization and give a nice sweet acidity
4. A little bit of Worcestershire sauce goes in to glaze everything, flatten your onions so they are in maximum contact with your pan to caramelize quicker
5. Once the vinegar is reduced, add stock just enough to cover the surface of the onions, don’t flood, let it boil, and let reduce on lowest heat possible as you proceed to do sausages and potatoes on other burners
6. Optionally add grated garlic at this point, and your gravy is done. Cover it in a warm place like your oven

2. Bangers (Sausages)

To get sausages that plump, boil them so they get that buff shape before proceeding to fry.

This is an optional step, but necessary if you want your sausages to look that beautiful and full

Anyways;

1. Oil the oil pan with a touch of oil, and in go your sausages. If you had parboiled them, ensure they are dried on towels so the moisture doesn’t cause oil splashes and burns
2. Prick your sausages with a skewer or fork to prevent the skin from bursting
3. Add fresh rosemary and smashed garlic cloves roll them around, and after the sausages start getting color, go in with some butter.
4. Baste the garlic-rosemary butter sauce as you would a steak on your sausages
5. Once all browned, the sausages in the pan go to an oven at 160 °C (320 °F)for at least a minute before serving

3. Mash

Cut your potatoes into large chunks. Yes, they cook longer, but they will not become too soggy from the boiling water.

That is just a tip, if your potatoes tend to be too watery.

1. Boil Potatoes in salted water; optionally, add smashed garlic cloves for complexity. Use more water than you would want.
2. Cook covered. Once bubbling, drain the extra water, and now they will cook faster
3. Check on the doneness of potatoes by the fork test, which should pierce all through with no resistance. If the insides are still hard, especially the centers, continue cooking
4. Drain potatoes in a colander and using the same colander, give them a good shake till dry and edges roughened up
5. Put back in the pot, ensure it’s dry give a good shake mix well. This step is to expel extra moisture that did not drain as water. Your potatoes should be steaming but careful not to burn them. Take on and off heat while folding if necessary
6. We are using a masher, not a ricer, unless you want extra smooth mash then okay. With the heat on….. mash…add butter or olive oil while folding
7. Add salt, fresh chives, and mustard if using

Assembly

Smear a generous amount of mash on a plate, crown sausage on top of peas on the side, optionally, and onion gravy over everything

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