That video was one of the first times I watched a cooking video and thought, "Hey, I can probably do that!", in conjunction with, "Hey, I'd definitely eat that!" Well, ignoring the part where he makes his own sausages, because I don't really have the desire to own a sausage maker (or stuff my own sausage skin), so I cheated and just bought some pork sausages from the supermarket. The packaging said they were gourmet though, and they had fennel and Italian herbs! I also didn't have the pig fat or sausage meat to add to the gravy, so my onion gravy was more of an onion sauce.
So this is what I was aiming for:
This is what I ended up with:
Not exactly perfection, but here's what I did, and what I think I'll improve on next time:
The sausages
Heston's method to cook the sausages is to poach them for 10 minutes (Google says that just means to put them in a pot of boiling water), then lightly fry them in a pan. Someone commented that there's nothing more unappealing than a pale grey sausage, and I definitely agree. So I fried them for a little longer to try and make them more brown, but I think because I tried to fry them all at once, they didn't all manage to cook evenly, and so some were more brown than others. I might try doing a few at a time in the future.
Taste-wise though, I think the method is great. The sausages were moist and tasty, and I didn't have to cut any in half to check that they were cooked. Plus, the light frying at the end meant they weren't super oily at the end. I also didn't poke holes in any of them, and wasn't worried about them exploding on me - and they didn't.
The potatoes
Heston's method is to bake the potatoes at 180 degrees, for 1-1.5 hours, depending on the size of your potatoes. He said 4 large potatoes, so when I went to the supermarket, I picked the 4 biggest potatoes I can find. But really, saying 4 large potatoes is so unhelpful. Turns out the potatoes I bought were a bit too big, so there were some uncooked chunks of potato, but overall it was OK.
After the potatoes have been baked, you cut them in half and scoop the insides into a bowl. Add butter, pepper and 100ml of hot milk, and then mash it all together. I substituted Nutlex for the butter, and soy milk for the hot milk, which is why my mash looks kinda pale compared to his, but I have to say, it was incredibly creamy. Possibly the best mash I've ever had. Protip: Don't try to be efficient and grind the pepper into the bowl while you wait for the potatoes to bake; all it does is leave a huge patch of pepper at the bottom of the bowl after you add the potato in, and it's really difficult to mix it in! Grind the pepper into a different bowl!
The Onion Gravy
I was a bit hesitant about this, because I wasn't really a gravy person (until I saw a gravy boat shaped like the genie's lamp in Aladdin at DisneySea), and I think sausages are just an excuse to eat tomato sauce, but I figured if I was going to try doing this, I had to do the whole thing.
Heston's method is to take 100-150g of pork skin (the fatty part) and 400g of the sausage meat he made earlier (I can't be bothered listing the ingredients, watch the video if you want to know), and fry on medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly. In a pressure cooker, caramelise 6 onions, with 2 star anise. Remove half and save for later. Empty the pork and meat into the pressure cooker, and use some water to help scrape the bits that got stuck to the pan. Add enough water to cover the onions + rest, and cook in the pressure cooker for an hour. Add in the onions you put aside earlier, and a few drops of sherry vinegar. Rub 3 sage leaves to remove the oils, then chuck it in the pot to infuse.
My method: Cut 2 brown onions into long, thin pieces and caramelise (lightly fry over a low heat for around 30 mins). Add a cup of chicken stock. Simmer until it thickens to your desired consistency. Add a tablespoon of plain flour if it needs some help. Done.
I didn't caramelise the onions for long enough, so they weren't brown and sticky, but they were still nice and soft. So I added 1.5 cups of water, after adding the stock, to let it boil a little longer so they became more squishy.
I was surprised at how good the onion gravy tasted. I think that was the hardest part for me: not adding tomato sauce to my sausages. Will try this again in a month or two and try to get a hold of Heston's other episodes so I can go through his other meals.
