Daring Cooks February 2013

For the January-February 2013 Daring Cooks’ Challenge, Carol, one of our talented non-blogging members and Jenni, one of our talented bloggers who writes The Gingered Whisk, have challenged us to make homemade sausage and/or cured, dried meats in celebration of the release of the book Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn! We were given two months for this challenge and the opportunity to make delicious Salumi in our own kitchens!

So I didn't make meat sausages, a) I don't have a meat grinder and b) I couldn't get hold of any sausage casings, so I went vegetarian and came up with a vegetarian sausage. It's not hugely ingenious, it is mashed potato, leeks and cheese basically but it was very tasty! I served it for brunch with a poached egg, balsamic cherry tomatoes, watercress and a chicken frankfurter that needed eating! The egg with the veggie sausage was delicious.

 

Vegetarian Sausages

(Serves 2)

 

150g baking potato, peeled and cut up

10g butter
60g leeks, trimmed, finely sliced (prepared weight)
small handful white breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
75g mature cheddar, finely grated
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp mustard
½ tsp flaked sea salt
5 tbsp sunflower oil
freshly ground black pepper

Put the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water, bring to the boil and boil for about 15-20 mins until tender. When cooked, drain and mash.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large frying pan and fry the leek gently for 8-10 minutes, or until very soft but not coloured.

Put the mash potato, breadcrumbs, leeks, parsley, thyme and cheese in a large mixing bowl and mix until well combined. Add the egg with the mustard, salt and pepper and mix together until well combined.

Divide the leek mixture into four portions and roll into sausage shapes. Place the sausages onto a tray lined with baking parchment. Chill the sausages in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200C. Bake the sausages for 25-30 mins. Serve.