As the last glowing embers of barbecue season begin to die down, so to speak, it’s nice to cram in as many grilling sessions as you can. But Monday to Thursday grilling, for a family man with a job, can be too time consuming.
This week, about four months too late, I remembered a long forgotten friend of the grill: the sausage. Often relegated to breakfast, or a fast-food standby, a proper sausage can be a gourmet treat. And when I say proper sausage, I naturally mean an English sausage. As settled in my Swedish existence as I am, nothing beats a good English banger (that’s sausage to all you non-Brits).
I’m lucky enough to work relatively close to Taylor and Jones, Stockholm’s finest –and maybe only- English butchers. They take the finest Swedish pork, beef and lamb and turn out hand-crafted English sausages the like of which I have never tasted. And they are, to coin an English phrase, as cheap as chips.
Is there anything better than a Swedish/English sausage? Of course not
What better way to liven up a slightly grey, cloudy and chilly autumn Wednesday dinner. I had the sausages; all I needed was a simple but luxury touch to make our mid-week repast a luxury affair. And with seasonal cooking in mind I thought apples and sage: sweet, sharp, musty September flavours, perfect for a coarse-ground pork sausage. Add a little cider, mustard and honey and now we are talking.
I used the aforementioned to make a glaze, as a good sausage needs no marinating; a quick and delicious route to a gourmet dinner. Slice the sausages in half lengthways (not all the way through) and brown the skin side nicely on a hot grill. Then turn down the grill to medium, brush the upper-facing side with the glaze, turn, grill for 1 minute, brush with glaze, turn, grill for 1 minute, brush, turn and so on; for about eight minutes.
Eat them in soft, white rolls with salad, tomato, thinly sliced raw red-onion and a little of the left over glaze. A cheap, quick, easy and luxurious dinner. And a quick way to make the most of your grill time before the Swedish winter kicks in.
Autumn Sausage Glaze
enough for about 4 portions
- 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp. honey
- 1 apple cut into matchstick-size pieces
- 1 tbsp. sharp cider
- Zest of half a lemon plus a teaspoon of lemon juice
- A good sprinkling of finely chopped fresh sage leaves
Mix all the ingredients together and brush onto the sausage as above.
