Bangers and Mash

Pub Week, Day 7! Pub week rolls to a close with perhaps the most quintessential pub grub of them all: Bangers and Mash. Most of the time, I tell people that most complicated-seeming dishes are actually pretty easy to make. This one, however, is the opposite. Bangers and Mash seems very simple, but it actually takes a fair amount of dedication to produce, since it has 3 separate elements that need to come together at once.

Ingredients

Mashed Potatoes

• 2 gold potatoes
• 1 1/2 tablespoons half and half
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Sausage and Gravy

• 2 links pork sausage
• 1/2 onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 cup beef stock
• Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Mashed Potatoes

Boil water in a pot. Peel the potatoes and cut into halves. Boil the potatoes until soft (pokeable with a fork), 20-30 minutes. Once soft, drain the potatoes and mash with a potato masher. Add butter and half and half, and mix thoroughly. Season to taste.

Sausage and Gravy

Heat sauté pan to medium-high and brown sausages on both sides. Fill the pan up with water, about 1/3 up the sides of the sausages. Cover the pan and poach for 20 minutes. While the sausages cook, dice the onion.

Drain the water and set the sausages aside. Melt the butter in the pan and sauté onion pieces until soft, about 5 minutes. Add flour and stir together to integrate. Pour in the beef stock and a splash of Worcestershire. Mix together and reduce for a few minutes to thicken the sauce, and season to taste.

Once all three components are ready, place a mound of potatoes on the plate, top with sausages, and pour the gravy over the plate. Serve with a strong English pale ale for a full alehouse meal. I went with Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale.