Tom Kerridge's sausage, tomato and butterbean stew

You might associate Tom Kerridge with fancy cooking but his time with footballer Marcus Rashford has found its way into his latest book Real Life Recipes which are, as the tiitle suggests, basic easy recipes to cook for the family. This hearty sausage dish is perfect for the chilly weather we're having now

Tom writes: I guarantee this one-pot sausage stew will become a new regular on your midweek menu. It delivers on all fronts with filling beans, sweet cherry tomatoes and smokiness from the paprika. Get a good colour on the sausages in the pan first, as this really boosts the flavour.:

SERVES 4

1 tbsp olive oil

8 pork sausages

2 onions, finely sliced

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp sweet smoked paprika

1 tbsp tomato purée

120ml red wine

400ml beef stock

2 tbsp rosemary leaves, roughly chopped

400g tin chopped tomatoes

2 x 400g tins butter beans, drained and rinsed

150g cherry tomatoes, halved

2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat a large non-stick casserole pan over a medium-high heat. When hot, add the olive oil followed by the sausages. Cook, turning, for around 5–6 minutes or until well browned on all sides. Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate.

2. Add the onions to the pan and sauté for 2–3 minutes then add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the paprika and tomato purée and cook for 1 minute before deglazing the pan with the wine. Let bubble, stirring gently, until the wine is reduced by half.

3. Add the beef stock, rosemary and tinned tomatoes and bring the sauce to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Now add the sausages back to the pan, along with the butter beans. Leave to simmer gently for another 5 minutes or so.

4. Lastly stir in the cherry tomatoes and cook for another 2–3 minutes or until the tomatoes are just starting to break down. Taste the sauce for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Sprinkle over the chopped parsley.

5. Divide the stew between warmed bowls or plates and serve with crusty bread, or mashed potato if you prefer.

What to drink: A hearty red - the same as you're putting in the stew would be perfect. I'd suggest an inexpensive Côtes du Rhône or Languedoc red.

Extract taken from Real Life Recipes by Tom Kerridge Published by Bloomsbury Absolute at £26 Photography © Cristian Barnett

Bacon sausage bread

If you like a bacon sandwich and/or a sausage sandwich what better idea than combining the two in a bread as Niamh Shields has done in her Bacon: The Cookbook. Stroke of genius!

"Bacon is as intrinsic to Irish food culture as potatoes, black pudding and Irish stew" writes Niamh, who blogs as Eat Like a Girl. "Traditionally, an Irish family would have a pig that they would raise for the year. That pig would then provide meat for the following year. In Ireland, a whole pig could be and was cured as bacon so that it could be preserved for longer. This is less typical now, but joints of bacon for boiling and roasting, bacon chops and bacon ribs are still common and Bacon and Cabbage is a core national dish that everyone loves. Bacon is so much more than a rasher, or streaky bacon. Although we love those too.

"This is one of my favourite recipes in the book and you absolutely need to make it. A soft bread dough, butter or lard and egg enriched with a little milk, so like a porky brioche but not as sweet and rich. You can use butter or lard, and if you have some bacon fat to hand, absolutely mix that in.

The bread is made in a more or less typical way, and proved twice. The second time you prove it is after you shape it as a sausage-and-bacon braid. Brushed with egg wash before baking, it gets a lovely bronze sheen.

For special occasions, double up the amounts and shape it into a circle. During the festive season you can fashion a bow of crisp-fried sage leaves and redcurrant berries and you have a Bacon Sausage Bread Wreath.

Bacon Sausage Bread

Makes: 8 slices

For the bread dough:

330g (11½ oz) bread flour

5g salt

100g (3½ oz) room temperature butter or lard

7g (¼ oz) fast-action yeast

3 large eggs

50ml (2fl oz) milk

For the bacon and sausage filling:

15g (½ oz)/1 tbsp butter

1 red onion, finely chopped

400g (14 oz) sausage meat (or the equivalent in sausages with the meat removed from the skins)

1 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped

6 slices smoked streaky bacon

1 egg for egg wash

sage leaves, to serve (optional – they look great and are very tasty too)

METHOD

1. Start by preparing your bread dough, using either a dough hook or by hand. It is important that your lard or butter is at room temperature, and therefore soft and easy to work with. This makes it much easier to mix.

USING A MIXER WITH A DOUGH HOOK: Put all of the ingredients for the bread dough in your mixing bowl and mix at a low speed until it has formed a dough. If it feels sticky add a little more flour, a tablespoon should do it, but add more if you need to, slowly and mixing well every time. When it is no longer sticky but before it is dry and flaky, it is good. If it feels too dry, add a tablespoon of milk at a time (flours vary so both of these things can happen). Continue to knead with the dough hook for 5–6 minutes until the texture is no longer rough and it has an elastic quality.

BY HAND: the same as above but it takes longer to knead (approximately 10 minutes).

2. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and allow the dough to double in size in the warmest part of your kitchen or in your airing cupboard. This will be faster in the summer and slow in the winter; I usually put it near a radiator in the winter to help push it along. This proving stage usually takes an hour to an hour and a half.

3. Prepare your bacon and sausage filling. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a low heat and gently sauté the finely chopped red onion in it for about 10–15 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool and combine with the sausage meat and sage and mix well with your hands.

4. When the dough has doubled in size, knock it back by punching the air out of it and allow it to settle for 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl to a floured board and divide into three equal amounts. Roll into sausage shapes roughly twice the length of one of your smoked streaky bacon strips and just as wide. Flatten each log so that the width doubles and lay two strips of bacon on each so that the surface is covered with bacon from top to bottom. Now divide the sausage meat mixture into 3 and place the sausage meat on top of the bacon in a strip. Pull the dough up around the bacon and sausage meat gently and press it closed as best as you can and lay the three strips next to each other. Bread dough can take it, don't worry.

5. Join the three strips of dough together at the top and pinch them together so that they all originate in the same place. Tuck the ends underneath what will become your loaf, and again, press them firmly underneath, without squashing the top, aiming to hide the messy bits and secure the braid. Braid the three strips by pulling the outside strand over the centre one, and repeating with the other side until you have a braid. These look best if done a little tightly. Join the ends as neatly as you can, and tuck underneath, just as you did the start. Place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and allow to sit at room temperature while you preheat the oven.

6. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180° Fan (400°F). Beat the egg and gently brush the surface of the braided bread with it. Bake your bread for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown. Best eaten warm and the leftovers (if any!) make a terrific French toast.

What to drink: Got to be a good strong cup of breakfast tea IMO!

All content copyright Niamh Shields from Bacon the Cookbook

Sausages with rich Guinness gravy

If you don’t like Guinness don’t be put off making this recipe for St Patrick's Day from my book Sausage & Mash. It makes the most fantastic dark, rich, sticky onion gravy that doesn’t taste remotely of beer.

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil
20g butter
2 large Spanish onions (about 425-450g), peeled and finely sliced
1 dsp granulated or caster sugar
1 dsp plain flour
175ml fresh beef stock or stock made with 1/2 an organic beef stock cube
225ml original Guinness
8 plump traditional pork sausages or 2 Cumberland rings (about 700g in total)
2-3 tsp malt or wine vinegar
Seasalt

Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large frying pan, add the butter then when it has melted tip in the onions. Stir them so they’re coated with the butter mixture then cook slowly over a low heat for about 25-30 minutes until soft and golden. Sprinkle in the sugar, mix in well then turn the heat up and stir continuously for about 5 minutes until the onions are brown and caramelised. Stir the flour into the onions and cook for a minute then add the stock and the Guinness. Bubble up for a minute or two then turn right down and leave to simmer.

Grill or fry the sausages using the remaining oil until browned on all sides. Check the seasoning on the onion gravy adding salt and vinegar to taste. Transfer the sausages to the gravy, spooning it over them thoroughly then continue to cook on a low heat for about 15-20 minutes until the sausages are cooked, adding a little water if the gravy gets too thick. Serve with colcannon (below).

What to drink: Guinness or another Irish stout would be the obvious pairing but a hearty British ale would work too. Or you could drink a hearty red like a Malbec - see this list of wines to pair with Irish food.

Colcannon
Serves 4
900g King Edwards or other good boiling potatoes, peeled and cubed
250g sliced spring or Savoy cabbage
50g butter at room temperature
75ml warm milk
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the potatoes in a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil. Skim off any froth, season with salt then cook for 20-25 minutes until done. Drain the potatoes thoroughly then return to the pan.

Meanwhile toss the greens for 2-3 minutes in a little boiling, salted water until just cooked. Drain, return to the pan and season with salt, pepper and 10g of the butter.

Mash the potatoes thoroughly till smooth then beat in the remaining butter and milk. Season with salt and pepper then mix in the buttered greens.

Sausage and Mash is published by Absolute Press. Photo © Georgia Glynn-Smith

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