Roasted Sausages with Goat's Cheese Stuffed Baby Potatoes

 

I am not a person who eats red meat very often. I tend to eat mostly chicken or fish. I do occasionally enjoy a good steak, and of course would never turn down a roast dinner.  I also happen to like sausages.

Good sausages.  Quality sausages. I am not a fan in the least of cheap and nasty sausages.  I like meaty sausages without a lot of fillers and fat in them. I know they need a bit of fat, but I hate sausages that have the texture of wall paper paste.

A nasty paste textures sausage usually means two things.  They contain a lot of fillers, and they are overly fatty. Do. Not. Like.

 

  

I especially enjoy roasted sausages. There is something magical which happens when you roast a sausage in the oven.

A good sausage, roasted in the oven, takes on a beautiful caramelized coating, sticky and gold all over.  Roasting sausages is probably one of the easiest ways to cook them as well.

 

There is no need to stand over a hot skillet, turning and turning them so that they brown evenly.  Just pop them onto a baking sheet, and roast, turning them over half way through the cook time.

You are guaranteed a perfectly cooked sausage, with a lovely crisp, sticky golden skin. A finger licking caramelized skin that is to die for.

 

This recipe which I am sharing today was inspired by a recipe I found in a cookbook by Annie Bell,  entitled The Country Cook.

I became a huge fan of Annie Bell's cooking when I was in the UK. I can't remember how I stumbled onto her books as she didn't have a television series or anything. I just remember picking up one of her books and falling in love with her style of cooking.

Basically it was simple and unpretentious. I hate pretentious cooking. I am a simple person with simple tastes, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy my food or don't serve delicious food.

Food doesn't need to be complicated to taste good.  Simple foods, simple methods, cooked well . . .  make for incredibly delicious eating.  There is no need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to cooking, or at least no need to overcomplicate things. Know what I mean?

 

A good basic recipe can be adapted to use a wide variety of ingredients, in a variety of combinations, each coming out delicious in the end.  This was one of those types of recipes.

Annie used British bangers of course, but they looked to be chipolata type of sausage, or what we might call breakfast sausages here in North America.  I chose to use the PC Free From Breakfast Sausage.  I don't think they were quite as large as hers, so if you are a heartier eater, adjust the amounts accordingly.

 

Annie used a waxy new type of potato, a salad type of potato. I could not get those here, so I chose to use some smaller sized red potatoes.  I knew they would hold their shape and I was right.

The potatoes are boiled for a short time before roasting them (skins on) in a hot oven, drizzled with a bit of olive oil, sea salt and black pepper.  She specified roasting them in a dish which held them snugly. Not sure why, but I followed her instructions.

 

I hazard to guess that it makes sure the potatoes cook beautifully through without them drying out or becoming too crisp on the outsides.  My potatoes ended up perfect.

They had crisp skins, and were golden brown, but still yielded slightly when gently squeezed.

 

Annie used Portabello mushrooms.  She said you could use any flat cap mushroom. I had no flat cap mushrooms, but I did have some rather large white mushrooms.

I chose to remove the stems and use them in place of the other shrooms.  In this case I decided three of these mushrooms roasted were the perfect amount for each person.

 

She also used stilton cheese to stuff the potatoes with.  I love adore stilton cheese. It was not something I would have ever eaten prior to my move over to the UK.  Heck I didn't eat any kind of strong cheese before moving over there.

It was when I worked at the Manor as their Chef that I developed an appreciation for real cheese at all. I had to prepare cheese trays for the cheese course of their dinner parties, and you pretty much had to know what you were putting on the tray.  This required tasting.

 

I found myself wondering why I had ever avoided tasting these cheeses before.  I had been missing out on loads of deliciousness!  In short, I fell in love with cheese.

I had no Stilton to use, except for a small piece of white stilton with ginger and apricots. I did not think that would work. Well . . . it might have done, but I decided to use something else.

 

I had some lovely soft goat's cheese flavored with garlic left over from my lunch with Jacquie the other day and decided to use that up.  I really love goat's cheese.  Especially soft goat's cheese.

I think I first had it in a salad served with roasted beetroot and I can tell you, I fell so in love with it at that moment.  Tart, soft and intense, it goes wonderfully with a host of other flavors.

 

And it worked beautifully in this instance.  You had those sticky, crisp skinned sausages, along with the buttery roasted mushroom caps and then those crisp skinned baked potatoes, with soft garlicky melting goats cheese centers. 

This was heavenly bliss.  Add to that the touch of herbed flavors from the sprigs of thyme and the bay leaves, and this was one really delicious meal indeed!

I did cut the quantities back to serve only two people, but that was not a problem with a recipe such as this, anymore than it will be a problem for someone to amp the recipe up to feed more than two people. 

I served some fresh French style fine green beans on the side, or haricots verts as they are also known to complete the meal   It was as good as any fine dining . . .  but it was pure and simple, unpretentious and delicious. I highly recommend.
 

Roasted Sausages with Goat's Cheese Stuffed Baby Potatoes

Yield: 2

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 1 H & 35 MTotal time: 1 H & 45 M

I love a tray bake supper and this is one of the best with sticky sausages, buttery mushroom caps and crispy baked baby potatoes, stuffed with garlic goats cheese. What's not to love?

Ingredients

• 6 smallish red potatoes, scrubbed and unpeeled
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• light olive oil
• 3 rounds of soft garlic goats cheese (each about 1/3 inch thick and cut in half to make semi-circles)
• 6 - 8 well flavored chipolata style sausages ( breakfast sausage size)
• 3 dried bay leaves
• several sprigs of fresh thyme
• 6 large white mushrooms, wiped clean and stems removed
• 2 TBS butter

Instructions

1. Add the potatoes to a medium sized pan of boiling salted water and bring back to the boil.  Cook for about 8 minutes, then drain well.
2. Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C/ gas mark 6. Put the potatoes into a dish that holds them snugly. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper, turning them to coat them completely.
3. Roast the potatoes in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes until knife tender, and lightly golden. Remove and set aside.
4. Clean and remove the stems from your mushrooms.
5. Line a medium baking tray with a double sheet of aluminum foil. Place the sausages onto the baking sheet. Roast them in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.  Remove the sheet pan from the oven and flip them over.
6. Place the bay leaves (broken), sprigs of thyme and mushrooms on the baking tray with the sausages.  Drizzle with a little olive oil. Pop a bit of butter into the center hollow of each mushroom and then season with salt and pepper.
7. Return the sheet pan to the oven and roast for a further 15 minutes.
8. While they are roasting prep your potatoes for roasting. Cut a slit into each to within 1/3 of an inch from the ends.  Squeeze open and top each with a half round of goats cheese, pushing it into the potato a bit.
9. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, turn your sausages again. Add the potatoes to the baking sheet, and return to the oven for a further 10 - 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and serve immediately with an additional vegetable on the side.

All nutritional data is calculated by the recipe card program and may not be entirely accurate.

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