Autumn Sausage Surprise

Autumn is Apples. So, with a little inspiration from the River Cottage Everyday series I created this. The surprise is the slightly wacky ingredient.

Ingredients

• 4 free-range Pork Sausages
• 1 Onion
• 2 large Carrots
• 1 Apple
• 1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
• 100 mL Ginger Beer

Method

1. Peel or scrub the carrots, slice into batons, drizzle with oil and a generous grinding of black pepper. Put in an oven at 180 °C to cook for 1 hour.
2. Lightly fry the sausages, just to add colour, for 1-2 minutes. Allow a little of the pork fat to colllect in the frying pan. Add to the carrots when there is 30 minutes of cooking time remaining.
3. Peel, core and cut the apple into 8 pieces. Gently fry these in the residual pork fat until the sides have coloured. This will give them some protection against turning to pulp in the oven and also give them a meaty flavour. Add to the carrots and sausages 10-15 minutes before serving.
4. Finally, fry the sliced onion in any residual pork fat, on a medium heat. Allow the onion to colour and begin to soften. Add the balsamic vinegar and allow it to boil off. Add a knob of butter (for flavour) and once this has melted a generous pinch of plain flour. Stir to combine and add the ginger beer. Allow the liquid to reduce to produce a delicious onion gravy.

I served this with jacket potato and kale. The onion gravy poured over the sausage/carrot/apple mix.

The ginger beer works well, but you need to use good fiery ginger beer like Fentimans not the sugary kids drink. My original idea, had we not run out, was to use cider.