Bangers and Mash in a Tasty Onion Gravy

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

It is surprising when you steam snags for the first time.  They often don't look overly appealing, but can easily be covered with some gravy. I'm glad you enjoyed the meal. 

[sue_h]

DS9 made this one for us last night. The sausages were the best ever according to DD7. The mashed potatoes were great because they had a nice stock/onion flavour. We didn't end up adding any butter or milk as they still had a bit of moisture from the stock. Unfortunately the gravy was much to salty and thick. I wasn't around when the salt was added and we used vege stock concentrate. It didn't matter though. We enjoyed it with a creative salad and found we had sufficient after 1 sausage. Normally my family would have 2 or 3 sausages each.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I'm glad you enjoyed it Sue. Steamed snags are yummy. 

[judydawn]

Finally tried my suggestion of cooking this with the sausages in the steaming basket, diced potatoes, pumpkin and slices of carrot in the varoma dish and finely sliced cabbage on the varoma tray.  I used beef chipolatas (10 of them).  I followed the recipe but left the steaming basket with the sausages out, cooked the first stage (Gravy & vegies) for 15 minutes then added the basket with the sausages and cooked a further 15 minutes. The mashed potatoes were therefore nice and white and not grey from the mushroom gravy.  DH has not been eating much lately but he cleared everything on his plate today - it was delicious.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Great work JD!  I hope your DH is going along ok.

[judydawn]

Thanks Chelsea, he is not as good as we would like but we are coping.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

You are an amazing lady JD!!! 

[judydawn]

Thanks Chelsea, sometimes I need a bit of support & encouragement 

I took a plate of this meal around for Mum today and she rang me tonight in raptures over it.  Who would have thought the humble sausage could get so many rave reviews cooked this way.  All those steamed sausage sceptics out there, please give it a go.

[thermoheaven]

I've seen this recipe for a while now on the forum, but have never opened the thread until today. There are two things i probably have to overcome (the reasons why I didn't think I'd want to try this)

i. the sausages are steamed; how does this look, and does it look much different to boiled sausages.  I can probably get over this by frying them in a pan to colour them up a bit.

ii. the sausage fat going into the basket and bowl downstairs. I've always discarded sausage fat and find the thought of it coating the potatoes and dripping into my gravy a bit overwhelming. i know probably full of flavour, but sausage fat is super solid at room temperature. i'd probably have to place my sausages on some baking paper to catch the fat; I'm prepared to sacrifice a bit of flavour for that.

I'm terrible, aren't I? I can't bring myself to make the steamed meatloaf, either.

[judydawn]

thermoheaven, if you buy good quality sausages you will not have a problem with the fat.  I am not a fat loving person and if I can eat this meal (not being a lover of sausages) anyone can and believe me, the men in your family will love it.  The sausages do not look steamed, chicken sausages would be paler though but I don't use them because of their usually high fat content. They are then covered in mushroom gravy and no-one would ever know they were steamed.  It is not an expensive meal to try so give it a go and be pleasantly surprised.

[thermoheaven]

Thanks, JD. I did read that a few people didn't like sausages and liked this, that's why I thought I could voice myself. I might give this a go when I see my nephews, who love sausages. I know you say to use good quality sausages, but my nephews love the regular woolworths sausages - would that work?

[judydawn]

I'm sure they all work thermoheaven but the cheaper ones would contain more fat.  Having said that, the beef chipolatas I used yesterday were not that expensive and I saw no sign of fat in the gravy.

[CreamPuff63]

I've used the Angus sausages from Coles and they were lovely

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I think it is worth trying steamed sausages.  I know I was pleasantly surprised. I made curried sausages last night with steamed rice and it is so nice not to have to stand around turning them in the pan or cleaning the grill after grilling them.  I'm sure a little bit of fat does drip down in to the bowl, but most of it pools around on the lid. I take the lid off quite carefully. Chicken snags look terrible steamed (in my opinion), but beef ones are fine. I wouldn't serve them without a sauce or gravy though. I probably wouldn't bother steaming if you were then going to brown them in the pan, but then I really hate washing up.

[Snoozie]

This was a winner for tonight's tea