Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals

SAUCISSE ET HARICOT COCO-ROUGE RAGOUT

One of the packs of meat I add to my meat trolley every month in Germany is a 1kilogram pack of Bratwurst Sausages.  Like back home, sausages here are popular on the braai (although unlike SA, they are just about the ONLY meat that gets braai’d, as steak is not something you share with just anyone).

France’s version of Boerewors is a Merguez, and it is spiced up to make it fire-y red, although somewhat lacking in that expected ‘kick’ you would imagine from something so red.

And much like the shelves of Food Lovers Market with dozens of Boerewors recipes, there are dozens of garden variety sausages on offer here aside from the Merguez.  Last year I once had the pleasure of a Toulouse Sausage on a braai, and it was very yummy, because it turns out that its’ main ingrediants are pork, red wine, and garlic.  Unfortunately, every time I have bought them since, they weren’t the same, and you can’t buy them in Germany anyway.

The German Bratwurst is a fairly general classification of sausages- unlike the specific Merguez or Toulouse sausages. A quick Wikipedia search indicates that different regions of Germany have a slightly different array of ingrediants in their fillings, and this is what makes them a little bit like Boerewors.

The second similarity to Boerewors is that they are slightly more rustic than your average Cumberland or Toulouse sausage.  When I talk of rustic-ness here, I’m referring to the less refined, mousse like texture of the British variety, (or Escourt Porkers from the frozen aisle at Spar). 

Granted, I do not have the luxury of a niche-market butcher with his secret recipe, and the Bratwurst I buy is not exactly tres special, and perhaps this saves me from hungering after braaivleis and boerewors parties.

So, just like every other household, sausages are bought for family dinners, and not necessarily braai time. 

It turns out that after one attempt at LCHF dieting, and dropping starch in my meals, the girls rejected the idea of ‘Bangers and Cauliflower Mash’ (despite the mound of expensive cheddar I threw in), so we are back to Toad-in-a-Hole, ‘Bangers and parsley-crushed baby potatoes’, or just plain old Bratwurst, mustard and fried onions with baguettes and salad.

However, I have a teeny little issue with the packaging of the sausages.  I can either buy 500g packs, containing 5 x 100g sausages, which means sharing the last one into 2, or possibly 4 depending on hunger levels, or the bigger package with 10 sausages- 1kilogram.  So, when I defrost this, (and have HSE & Risk Compliance at the back of my mind still), I inevitably have sausages on the menu for 2 days.

Okay, so hubby and I may be a little big piggy if we each have bigger portions on day 1, which leaves us with less for day 2, which is when creative budget cooking comes into effect. 

How to feed a family of 4 on 4 sausages: (and I count my blessings right here, for what I have.)

100g dried beans, soaking in water for 6 hours (I used Borlotti beans, which seem go by the beautiful name coco-rouge here, and could very well be the common Red Speckled Sugar Bean in Africa)

4 x 100g sausages (or 400g of a wors coil)

50ml Oil

1 medium sized onion, peeled and diced

250g carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm cubic dice

150g leeks, cut lengthwise, wash the sand out, and slice cross-wise neatly

1 long stick celery, removed of its fibrous bits, and sliced cross-wise neatly

1 x 10cm stick of rosemary

1 clove garlic, crushed or chopped

25g tomato paste

(150ml red wine-optional)

1 x 400g tin diced tomatoes

500ml chicken stock

Salt and pepper

A handful fresh basil

Method:

Once your beans have soaked for 5-6 hours, drain the water, place them into a pot and cover them with fresh water.  Bring them to the boil on a medium heat, and let them simmer for the time it takes to make the sauce separate.

In a separate saucepan, gently sauté your sausages in the oil over a medium-high heat.  Once they are browned off, remove and set them aside.

Add the onions, carrots, leeks, celery, garlic and rosemary stick to the pan, and sauté these for 3-5 minutes over medium heat.

Once you have aromatic flavours emanating from the sauce pan, add the tomato paste, and carry on sautéing for a further 2 minutes.

If you are using red wine, you can now add it, to deglaze a little of the juices that might have stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Allow it to reduce slightly, or else you could be left with a slightly bitter product.

After about 2 minutes, you can add the tin of diced tomatoes, stir it through, and then add the chicken stock.

Bring the sauce to the boil, and then turn the heat down to allow the sauce to simmer for 20 minutes.

Don’t let the sauce boil rapidly- if it does, all the liquid will boil off, so keep it simmering, and if you find it has reduced too much, top it up with a little chicken stock (or water).

While the sauce is simmering, slice the sausages up- I cut mine into pieces of 8, but if you cut them into pieces of around 3 or 4cm, you should be good. (The sausages are probably not going to be cooked all the way through, so make sure your knife is harp when you cut them, or else you could be left with a mash of sausage meat on your chopping board)

Check on your beans that the water has not evaporated, top it up if necessary.  If you have soaked them for a lengthy period of time, they should not take ages to cook.  They are ready if they are soft, not necessarily al dente, but not mushy.

After 20 minutes, you can add the cut up sausages to the sauce.  Make sure the sausages are all covered with sauce, and allow them to cook through for about 10 minutes.

By now the beans should be cooked (if they aren’t, let them cook for longer, but take the sausages and sauce off the heat until the beans are ready.)

Once the beans are soft, drain the liquid off, and add the cooked beans to the sausages in their sauce.

Reheat the sauce if necessary, and add salt and pepper to your taste.

Lastly, since tomato pairs with basil like beer does to German sausages, you can add in a bunch of fresh chopped basil just before you serve it

This could be a meal on its’ own, although I serve it with baguettes or brown rice. 

Also, Alex and Beth are prone to adding Parmesan cheese to theirs, but this is just their avoidance technique when they are being difficult.

Bon Appetite!

xxx