Summery Sausage Salad

We heard from Sainsbury's that their Taste the Difference sausages are now all gluten free and were asked if we'd like to try some.  Of course, we said YES, please!  

Having gone into store, it was easy to see the great new packaging for the TTD sausages and made a selection of the ones Sous Chef J will eat (thin ones... aka chipolatas or cocktail sausages).

As it was a sunny weekend, we decided an 'all-in-one' sausage salad dish would be a good meal to create. Pairing the sausages with some freshly cooked charlotte potatoes, a few salad onions and a homemade dressing/sauce, we thought we'd have a simple and tasty meal for eating outdoors.

The dressing was made using store cupboard standbys -

2 Tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon grainy mustard
1 Tablespoon honey

All this was mixed together and half of the sliced salad onions were added.

The sausages were separated and added to a hot frying pan to cook through.

Adding half of the sauce to the sausages and cooking to make it sticky...

.... whilst the sausages were cooking, the charlotte potatoes were boiled.  Once cooked and drained, the potatoes were put in a bowl and the remainder of the sauce was poured over and stirred through.

Finally, the sausage and sauce mix was added to the potatoes, stirred and the remaining onions were sprinkled over.

The sausage salad was delicious!

We'll definitely be adding TTD Sausages to our shopping list... and particularly liked the "snap and keep" packaging - allowing half the sausages to be saved for another day/frozen.

DISCLOSURE - we were sent a gift card by Sainsbury's to be used for buying sausages and ingredients for this recipe.  The recipe and opinions in this post are our own.

Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes

 One of Sous Chef J's favourite meals is jacket potatoes and we wondered whether we could use our slow cooker to make them... so we gave it a try.

First of all, we placed a little scrunched up tin foil in the base of the cooker then arranged six mid sized potatoes around the slow cooker.  The lid was placed on (it needs to be a snug fit to stop water/heat escaping.)

The cooker was set to high... and, as we needed the potatoes for lunchtime, we left them on high for about four hours and they were done.

This is what the cooker looked like at during cooking... you can see that there is quite a lot of moisture inside the cooker. Some has also escaped out.



Here is what the potatoes looked like after cooking.  They are moist and soft.  The points where the potatoes touched the ceramic pot were crisp.

The pot was switched off at this stage and care was taken removing the potatoes as they are hot and very soft.  We found some tongs worked well.

A good amount of butter and some freshly ground black pepper were added and our meal was ready.

We have tried this when going out for the afternoon - starting the cooking off on high for about an hour and then reducing to low for the remainder of the cooking time.  We find 4-5 hours will cook the potatoes through but, obviously, that depends on their size and also the power of the cooker.  Ours is a very basic, 3 litre cooker with settings labelled as High, Low and Warm.

Chilli Potato Mix

This is a simple and fairly quick way to make a tasty potato dish.  It has just four ingredients and is great to fill the oven when making cookies or cakes.

The ingredients were gathered - potatoes, sweet potato, sunflower oil and sweet chilli sauce.  We just used what we had to hand... and, this time, the ratio was about 3 parts potato to one part sweet potato but this is very variable.

First of all, the potatoes (we used new potatoes so didn't peel them) and peeled sweet potatoes were diced into similar sized pieces (about 1cm cubes) and placed in a bowl.  Then some sunflower oil was drizzled over and mixed thoroughly to ensure the cubes were coated.

This was then placed on a non-stick baking tray and put in the pre-heated oven (about 170ºC for our fan oven).

After about twenty minutes, the potatoes were turned and a good helping of chilli sauce was added...
obviously the amount used depends on how spicy you want the result... and check the sauce is Gluten Free.

Then, the well mixed concoction was returned to the oven for another five minutes or so until the potatoes had a golden sheen.

And there you have it... simple, quick and tasty Chilli Potato Mix.

Spicy Potato Wedges

When we are baking, we like to use the whole oven capacity, so we make a few dishes at the same time. This recipe is a great one to do as it's so easy. All that's needed are a few ingredients plus a non-stick baking tray and an already hot oven!

As is customary with our recipes... ingredients are kept to a minimum. Quantities are made up depending on how many we are feeding and the amount of potatoes that we have to use. This batch was made for three, to accompany the pastryless quiche we have blogged about before. So, sous chef J gathered the potatoes, oil, ground cumin, paprika and salt and pepper together. (Chilli flakes can also be added). The potatoes were cut into wedges, placed in a large bowl and had oil drizzled over them (liberally). They were then mixed well. Next, plenty of ground cumin, paprika and seasoning were added. Again, the potatoes were mixed to ensure an even coating of spices. This is the point where we sometimes add chilli flakes - great if you like a little extra zing!

After placing on a preheated non-stick baking tray, they were cooked in the oven at about 180ºC for 10-15 minutes when they were turned over quickly before being returned to the oven for another 10-15 minutes (or until cooked to your liking). This is what we ended up with.... ...delicious, crisp, spicy potato wedges.

We serve with tomato ketchup, salsa or avocado dip... they don't last long here.

This recipe is entered into our first online competition - please vote for us here Recipe Competition  MANY THANKS x