Sausages and mash

Ingredients

• 8pork sausages, good butcher's sausages
• 1 tbspsunflower oil
• 3onions, halved and finely sliced
• 1 ozunsalted butter, for the onions
• 2 tbspall-purpose flour
• 2 1/8 cupsbeef stock
• 1 tbspWorcestershire sauce
• 1 tspwholegrain mustard
• 2 1/4 lbpotatoes, floury, such as Maris Piper, cut into chunks
• 2 3/4 ozunsalted butter, for the mash
• 1/2 cupwhole milk, warmed
• 2 tspsea salt
• 1 tspblack pepper

Method

1. 1

   Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy skillet and cook the sausages over a medium-low heat, turning them often, until they are browned all over and cooked through. Lift them out and keep them warm.

2. 2

   Add the butter and the sliced onions to the sausage pan with a pinch of the salt, and cook them gently, stirring now and then, until they are completely soft, sweet and properly brown.

3. 3

   While the onions cook, boil the potatoes in well-salted water until they collapse on a knife. Drain them, let them steam dry in the hot pan for a minute, then mash with the butter and warm milk and season.

4. 4

   Stir the flour into the onions and cook it out for a minute, then add the beef stock gradually, whisking, along with the Worcestershire sauce and the wholegrain mustard. Simmer until it coats a spoon.

5. 5

   Pile the mash onto warm plates, lean the sausages against it, and pour the onion gravy over the lot.