Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #29: Catherine Wheel Sausage
This is our 29th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. Sorry for missing the past two weeks! We were in Melbourne for one of them. We actually did cook a Jamie meal last weekend, but we had visitors and got too distracted to properly document the meal. (We decided we’d revisit that one again in the future.) The Snook was on cooking duty for this one, and he chose “Catherine Wheel Sausage, Horseradish Mash, Apple Salad, Sage & Leek Gravy, and Stuffed Apples.” This is actually the second meal to use a “Catherine Wheel sausage,” but I was the chef on the other one. We chose this one because it used a lot of ingredients we already had. Unfortunately the TV episode hasn’t aired yet, so we were working just from the book. The time, I’m afraid, was a blow-out: 42:27. Luckily it made up for it in taste!

Substitutions: We used Dutch Cream potatoes instead of the ones specified. We couldn’t find any watercress in season, so we substituted rocket instead. We had roasted almonds instead of blanched for the dessert, and we didn’t bother with the flaming Cointreau(!). Other than that, everything was as written in the recipe!

Quick verdict: This was another winner in terms of the overall flavour “theme.” Each component complemented the rest really well. (You can’t go wrong with pork and apples, basically.) The sausage is impressive-looking, but it’s not a large portion of protein. That’s okay because you fill up on horseradish mash, which is very tasty and awesome. The “gravy” isn’t really; it’s more of a weird leek white sauce. It tasted good though. Snook was dubious about the apple salad at first (mostly the Ryvita bits on the bottom), but I thought it was unusual and nicely crunchy. And stuffed apples always = YUM. We both rated this one a 9 out of 10.

Read on for a photo essay of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The oven grill was turned on full whack, the kettle was boiled, and the food processor was fitted with the standard blade attachment. We had a roasting pan for the sausage, a saucepan for the potatoes, a frying pan for the gravy, and a baking dish for the apples.

First up are the ingredients for the sausage: pork sausages, sage, and hot English mustard (to serve).

Next are the ingredients for the gravy: leeks, fresh sage, chicken stock powder, flour, and cider.

The bits for the horseradish mash: potatoes, butter, and creamed horseradish.

Here’s the ingredients for the apple salad: Ryvita, cream cheese, lemon, apple, and watercress (rocket).

Lastly, the bits for the dessert: apples, an egg, sugar, dried apricots, almonds, and cream (to serve).

Pots and pans, ready to go! The foil-lined sheet is for the sausage; the frying pan is for the gravy; and the saucepan is for the potatoes. The small cake pan is for the baked apples.

And he’s off! The first step was to make the Catherine Wheel sausage. He wetted and scrunched a piece of greaseproof paper as directed, then started untwisting the sausages and pushing the meat into continuous tubes.

Then he spiralled the links around to make the Wheel.

He inserted metal skewers to hold the thing together. He also tucked fresh sage leaves down in the gaps and rubbed the thing in olive oil. It went into the oven!

…where the greaseproof paper promptly caught fire. Yeah, really. He pulled out the pan and removed the paper, then put it back in the oven. (It was a stupid idea anyway, Jamie.)

The next step was to core the apples. Unfortunately we don’t have an apple corer, so the Snook had to do this with a knife. He did lose some time here.

To make the filling for the apples, he measured out sugar, dried apricots, almonds, and an egg in the food processor.

Whizz!

Then the filling got stuffed down into each apple, with the excess put in the bottom of the dish. The whole thing went into the microwave for 10 minutes.

Next he chopped up the potatoes for the mash.

Those went into a pot of boiling water on the stove with some salt. It was also time to flip the sausage, which was looking golden and tasty!

Now for the gravy. He chopped up both leeks…

…before adding them to the hot frying pan with olive oil, boiled water, and salt. He put the lid on so it could steam.

Next he had to prep the apple salad. First he had to break up the Ryvita biscuits into small pieces.

He smeared each piece with cream cheese before adding black pepper and lemon zest.

Then he cut up an apple into matchsticks.

The apple matchsticks were tossed with lemon juice to keep them from going brown.

Back to the gravy. He added sage leaves, chicken stock powder, and flour. Then he added cider and more water. (“Looks like gloop,” he said, stirring furiously.)

To finish the salad, he topped the Ryvita with rocket and the dressed apple. Then he drizzled it with extra virgin olive oil.

The baked apples were finished cooking in the microwave, so he transferred them to the cake pan to finish caramelising in the oven.

All that was left was to finish the mash. He drained the potatoes…

…before mashing them with butter, creamed horseradish, salt, and pepper.

The gravy was… still gloop. But tasty gloop!

The finished meal of Catherine Wheel sausage, horseradish mash, sage & leek gravy, and apple salad.

And the finished dessert of baked apples. (The filling got a little scorched, but it was still good.)

Tasting notes: The sausage worked well. The sauce was “interesting,” says the Snook, “but I wouldn’t call it a gravy.” The horseradish mash was very good. I thought the apple salad provided welcome crunch, but the Snook thought that smearing cream cheese on all the little pieces of Ryvita was a bit fiddly. He says that his #1 tip for cooking this meal would be to HAVE AN APPLE CORER, as otherwise you’re going to get frustrated as he did. Overall this was a great little meal with some nice flavour combinations. We both rated it a 9 out of 10 despite the extra time it took to prepare. Highly recommended!

Stay tuned for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!