Sausage, Red Pepper and Potato Bake

Me: ‘What shall we have for dinner tonight?”. Rob “I don’t know, what do you fancy?”. Me: “I don’t really know, how about you?”. I’m sure you recognise this conversation. Tonight was one of those nights where you either opt for takeaway or throw something together from what’s left in the fridge. Having already had takeaway this week the fridge won. It wasn’t exactly bare; there were pork sausages and minced beef sitting in there, but they left me distinctly uninspired as I wasn’t really in the mood for either. The problem was I didn’t know what I wanted but rather than either of us going out to get something different I opted for the sausages. Things seemed a little more promising when I discovered the small pot of sour cream and the red peppers in the back of the fridge and in fact the resulting dinner, this sweet and comforting bake, was really rather nice.



Sausage, Red Pepper and Potato Bake

Ingredients
6 Pork sausages
5 or 6 potatoes
1 onion
1 red pepper
A small tub of sour cream (about 140ml)
Marsala (about 140ml)
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200c. Brown the sausages well and fry them until they’re almost, but not completely, cooked through. Remove them from the pan and cut them into bite sized pieces, then put them into an oven proof dish.

2. Halve and slice the onion and sauté it in the sausage fat until starting to colour. Next chop the pepper and add it to the pan with the onions. Cook for a few minutes more.

3. Add the marsala and allow to sizzle for a minute or so to cook off the alcohol, then add the sour cream. Stir well to mix everything together and allow to cook and bubble for a few minutes more. Season well then pour the mixture over the sausages.

5. Peel and slice the potatoes about ½ cm thick, parboil them then lay them on top of the sausages and onion mixture. Season the potatoes and drizzle over some olive oil, then put the dish into the oven for about 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are golden.

Easter Cake Bake, Round 2!

Pat a cake pat a cake baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can!

Last March I launched my very first food blogging event, the ‘Easter Cake Bake’. I asked my fellow bloggers to bake themed cakes for Easter. The event went down a storm and had 29 amazingly creative entries. Take a look:

If you click on each picture you'll be taken to the blog that it came from. It was so hard to find a winner but in the end I chose Cheryl at Gruel Omelet for this fabulous entry:

I hope you're feeling inspired now because we're going back to our kitchens armed with wooden spoons and creativity for round 2! Here's how to enter.

Entry Details

All you need to do is bake a cake, or several smaller cakes, with an Easter theme then post about it on your blog, including a link to this post so that people know what the event is about and how to enter. Feel free to use the logo too.

Once you've baked your cake and posted about it send an email with ‘Easter Cake Bake’ in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie@yahoo.co.uk by Monday 31st March with the following information:

• your name
• the name of your blog
• a link to your post
• a picture of your cake(s)

I’ll post a round up of all entries and announce the winner. Happy baking!

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of February - The Round Up

Here we are again with yet another fantastic round up of 'In the Bag' entries. February's bag contained forced rhubarb, an orange and sugar. Let's take a look at the dishes you made.

Andrew from 'Spittoon Extra' entered this wonderful Sweet Risotto with Rhubarb Compote.



Kevin from 'Closet Cooking' made us this sweet Rhubarb Crisp.



How about this Rhubarb Orange Cream Pudding from Caitlin of 'The Gooseberry Fool'?



This tempting Rhubarb Souffle was entered by Jonathan of 'Around Britain with a Paunch'.



I'd like a slice of Cakelaw's (from 'Laws of the Kitchen') Rhubarb, Orange and Yoghurt Cake.



This Rhubarb Fool with lovely little Orange Poppyseed Biscuits was entered by Antonia of 'Food Glorious Food'.



Now for a savoury entry from the lovely Kai over at 'Kai in London'. She made a Rhubarb Relish.



Wouldn't you love to delve into this Rhubarb Fool from Pixie at 'You Say Tomato.....I Say Tomato'?



Alexandra from 'Addicted Sweet Tooth' baked us a fabulous Rhubarb Custard Tart.



I'm drooling over these Rhubarb and Strawberry Tarts from Aran of 'Cannelle Et Vanille'.



Rachel from 'Coconut & Lime' had fun with these Rhubarb and Orange Pancakes.



My own entry was a Orange and Rhubarb Jelly.



Great job everyone!

"In The Bag" is a monthly food event run by Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie and Scott at Real Epicurean

Chicken, Chorizo and Watercress Risotto

I was really very pleased with how this turned out when I put it together for dinner last night, using leftover roast chicken and stock from the carcass. Chicken and chorizo is a great combination anyway, and the base rosemary flavour was a very complimentary backdrop. Whilst there wasn’t a great deal of flavour from the watercress it gave a really good texture and colour to the dish.

I really do think it’s worth taking the time and trouble to make your own chicken stock for this, and in fact any, risotto. The stock is what gives the rice so much flavour, and as the main ingredient in risotto, you really do want the rice to be packed full of flavour.

Whilst I’ve specified the amount of chorizo and chicken (yes, I actually weighed them just so I could tell you how much I used!), really just throw in a handful or two of each, roughly the same quantity. It probably is worth weighing out the rice because it can be deceiving and when it swells up you could end up with a lot more than you bargained for!



Chicken, Chorizo and Watercress Risotto

Ingredients
150g Risotto rice
100g Chorizo sausage
100g Leftover roast chicken
A handful of watercress
1 spring onion
1/2 a stick of celery
1 sprig rosemary
About 500ml of hot Chicken stock – fresh if possible
A slosh of vermouth or white wine
A knob of butter
A little olive oil

1. Finely chop the spring onion and celery, and gently fry them in the butter and olive oil for a minute or so.
2. Dice the chorizo sausage and add it to the pan, frying it for about 3 minutes.
3. Next add the rice and stir it around to coat it well with the oil that will have seeped out of the chorizo. Fry it for a minute or so.
4. Add a slosh of vermouth or white wine to the pan and allow it to sizzle so the alcohol burns off.
5. Chop the leaves from a sprig of rosemary very finely and add to the pan.
6. Start adding the stock, a ladle full at a time, stirring the rice continually so that it absorbs the stock. Wait for the rice to absorb one ladle full before adding another.
7. About half way through add in the roast chicken.
8. Once the rice is creamy and al-dente (softened but with a ‘bite’ in the middle) and the chicken is heated through take it off the heat and serve.

Serves 2