Sausage casserole

I made this a couple of evenings ago when it was a bit chilly. I used four giant sausages from Jack O’Shea’s, and they worked brilliantly. This is based on a BBC Good Food Hairy Bikers recipe.

Sausage and beans

For four people, you’ll need:

A little oil

4 of Jack O’Shea’s large sausages, or two or three normal sized ones per person (depending on how hungry or greedy you are)

1 medium sized onion, sliced into eighths.

A few garlic cloves, crushed

Some chilli or smoked paprika

A tin of tomatoes

A small tin of tomato puree

200ml of chicken stock

1 tablespoon of Worchester sauce

a little thyme

salt and pepper

A teaspoon of brown sugar

a tin of beans like cannellini or white beans, or if you’ve none of these, a tin of lentils

To serve: crusty bread or some mashed potatoes

In a heavy casserole dish, heat enough oil to coat the base. Your sausages will release some fat as they cook, so you only need enough to prevent them from sticking in the initial cooking. Cook your sausages for a few minutes on each side to colour them.

Take the sausages out and add a little more oil to the dish. Cook the onions over a medium heat for about 4-5 minutes until they soften slightly.  Add the crushed garlic and cook that off too.

Pop the sausages back in, along with a sprinkle of chilli or paprika, the tomatoes and the chicken stock.

Add in all the herbs and seasoning, stir well and cover. Leave it to simmer gently for 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of your sausages. Add the drained beans in about 10 minutes before the end of the cooking. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning, adding a stock cube, some chopped anchovies or more salt and pepper if you need to. If it is very thick, add a little more water.

Serve it with some mashed potatoes or bread.

If you’re uber hungry, you could also add a packet of lardons with the tomatoes.

Finding, getting and delivering Irish food in Belgium

Here at 365things, I sometimes get a big goo on me for a bit of Irish food. I’ve done a quick search for mail order companies that deliver Irish goodies here to Belgium and the rest of Europe. Most of these are English companies, but they have some Irish products, or at least familiar ones, in their range. If you’re planning a St Patrick’s Day shindig, order early to make sure you get it in time. One big thing to remember: I have not ordered from all of these companies, so I cannot comment on how reliable they are, so caveat emptor.

You can find some Irish and British products in some of the larger supermarkets in Brussels and in the areas where a lot of us live, like Waterloo and Tervuren. You can also go to Stone Manor, who have shops in Waterloo and Everberg. They have some St Patrick’s Day dressing up goodies for the kids (or yourself).

If you’re not able to get to these shops or if there is something you particularly want but cannot find, check out www.justlikehome.ie, who deliver all over the world. They provide hampers, usually with Tayto crisps, Cadbury chocolates, Barry’s tea, Jacob’s biscuits or Ballymaloe relish. There are special hampers for St Patrick’s Day and Easter. Another site, www.youririshshop.com, only delivers to the UK.

These websites are more for British products: www.britsuperstore.com and www.britishcornershop.co.uk but they also deliver direct to your door.

If you want one specific product and not a week’s grocery shopping, you can buy directly from your favourite brands.

Starting off with savoury stuff, naturally, fresh products are not available on-line. If you happen to be reading this from the UK, or if you have friends or family living there and who are coming over to Belgium soon, you can get Clonakilty pudding, sausages and bacon delivered to them. I checked out Kerry foods (Denny’s, Galtee, Low Low…) and, as have a lot of fresh products, they don’t have an on-line shop. Try Jack O'Shea's butchers on Rue Franklin in Brussels for a great selection of fresh and preserved Irish food, from sausages to cheese to brown bread to sauces and chutneys, including Ballymaloe relish. 

For chocolate lovers, Cadbury’s also have an on-line shop that delivers, but only to the UK. However, Lily O’Brien’s (www.lilyobriens.ie) deliver their goodies to the rest of the world, for a price. Those purveyors of happiness (their words, not mine), Butlers, also deliver, also for a price (www.butlerschocolates.com). Tayto sell on-line and deliver to your door (www.taytocrisps.ie).

Barry’s tea have an on-line shop and they post the tea to you: www.barrysteashop.ie. I had a look at the Lyons (www.lyonstea.ie) but there is no on-line shop. I also searched for TK’s red lemonade on-line, and there is one place that sells this outside Ireland, but delivery is only to the UK: www.theirishshop.co.uk.

You could always try making your own brown bread – the recipe I use is here. I know opinion is divided, but I love coddle, so if you fancy giving this easy dish a go, you could try this recipe.

Is there any particular Irish food that you miss? Have you found it easier to find Irish products in the last few years, especially compared say with 10 years ago? What do you ask visitors to bring over to you when they come? Is there anything that you have to sample when you go to Ireland? For me, it’s a simple sandwich… there is something about how sandwiches are made in Ireland that nowhere else is able to replicate. I think it has something to do with the bread. Hubs always gets a proper triple-decker club sandwich with chips or crisps when we go to Ireland. Mmmm – I’m hungry now for a white bread sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce… with turkey, and maybe a bit of melted brie… and a little salad… with crisps on the side... 

For St Patrick's Day... Coddle

This is a dish that divides people; you either love it or hate it. Thankfully, everyone chez nous loves it, so in honour of St. Patrick’s day today I made it this during the week.

It is a very cheap and satisfying, warming dish. It’s also very simple to make.

You will need:

3-4 sausages per person (I only ever have used the ordinary, plain pork ones, no fancy ‘flavoured’ sausages for this dinner)

one smallish onion per person

A large potato per person

After experimenting with several types of spud, I find the more solid ‘frites’ style potatoes are wrong for this dish. I can't remember the best type, but once I do I'll post it here. I've tried lots of sorts of sausages from various places in Belgium - supermarkets, local butchers etc, but the best I've found are the breakfast sausages from Jack O'Sheas butchers. Husband encourages me to experiment with the ingredients, but no. Coddle is a traditional Dublin dish, from the poorest parts of the city, so none of your fancy garlic or parsley. 

You will need a pot or casserole dish with a lid.

Put the whole sausages into the casserole and cover with water. Over a medium heat, bring them to the boil. While your sausages are cooking, peel and chop the onions, and peel and slice the potatoes to about half a centimetre thick. Once at boiling point, take the sausages off the heat and discard up any foam.

The boiled sausages with a first layer of onions

Sprinkle a layer of the onions onto the sausages, followed by a layer of potatoes. Keep doing this till you use all the onions and potatoes. Add enough water to just cover the last layer of potatoes and finish with a generous layer of salt and pepper.

Put the lid on and pop the pot back onto the heat, turning it right down to low. Cook for about an hour or an hour and a half, until the potatoes are tender. Coddle is a very 'pale' dish - it has little colour - so don't worry if it looks anemic. 

Serve in bowls, with pints of milk (if you can get any decent tasting milk in Belgium!) or pints of Guinness.

A steaming bowl of coddle. And yes, I know what the sausage looks like...