Mar 19, 2011

FNF - bubble and squeak with sausages and onion gravy

Not to scare anyone that time has suddenly sped up and it is again a Food Network Friday, hosted by the lovely author of American Vegan Kitchen, Ms. Tami Noyes, this is due for April 1st. (So it is not too late to join in the fun! Redo Jamie's recipe vegan and send your creation to Tami.)

When I chose this one, I had St. Pat's Day in mind, so I made it on that day. Bubble and Squeak is a traditional English dish made of leftover vegetables and potatoes mashed and fried together until crisp. What is the connection to Ireland? The Irish claim it as well. Good enough for me!

We have traditionally enjoyed Corned Seitan and Cabbage on this holiday, but, truthfully, I wanted something else - not to mention that David requests Corned Cabbage throughout the year and does not feel restricted to the wearing of the green.

As written, this Jamie Oliver dish is not - not! - low fat in any way. This is obviously not a Food Revolution meal. A bit of recipe translation: A knob is a tablespoon and a glug is a couple of tablespoons. He asks you to use a glug of olive oil to fry your potatoes. No need, folks. The potatoes absorb the oil anyway and then you need to add more. Skip most of the oil, use a well seasoned cast iron pan or nonstick and your potatoes and root vegetables will brown just fine.

Since the sausage was the bit of creative element for this FNF, I made my Corned Seitan but rolled it into links. This maintained my tradition of having Corned Seitan on St. Patty's and tasted really good to boot.

The onion gravy calls for 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar. This would not be a big deal, except Jamie does not reduce it any. This had me raise a Vulcan eyebrow.

Ultimately, the gravy was a little too thick, so I added another half cup of broth. The acidity would have been a bit much alone, but with the rest of the dish, it worked beautifully. This must be why he has a TV show and I have a blog.

I used baby arugula, dressed with a bit of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper for the greens.

Delicious meal.


Cost Breakdown

corned sausage: $4
potatoes, leek, turnip, carrot: $4
onion, arugula: $3
chestnuts: $4 (and on sale!)
flour, herbs, vinegar, stock: $2
Total to make 6 servings:
$17.00




4 comments:

  1. So very creative.
    Question, in the picture it looks more like cutlets than links to me. Am I just seeing things? (It's been known to happen...)

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  2. Whew! When I saw this post, I thought I had my dates mixed up. I'm glad to see that you are just ahead of the curve. Looks delicious and I'm looking forward to doing my version this week.

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  3. I thought the same thing looking at the picture, but there are two links next to each other so it does indeed look like a cutlet.

    Since the seitan I used was the same as for the roast, this isn't technically a 'sausage' (I guess sausage is a bunch of flesh ground up, flavored and stuck back together. The beauty of gluten is that you don't have to grind up the seitan to add flavorings to it. Honestly, I'm still working on a good sausage recipe.) It was very tasty, though!

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  4. Tami, I'm looking forward to yours, as always.

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