SAUSAGE MONDAY

Thanks to Mrs P for linking Sausage Monday from her blog, so I'm returning the favour...go along and visit http://www.pettigrew.org.uk/anne/

Mrs P has asked searching questions about Sausage Monday, and is also to be commended for venturing the idea of Fishfinger Friday.

I'm not sure what actually is in Special Pork, but it was quite nice, if not a little bland. We went for a very traditional Sausage Monday choice - Sausage and Mash. Of course with brussel sprouts (possibly my favourite vegetable) and gravy. The mash was Steve's special mash. You add nothing until you've fully mashed, then you add butter only. No milk. You can create smooth mash quite easily without milk.

It was another Sausage Monday in front of the telly. This time we watched a very informative piece on visiting Bermuda on BBC's 'Holiday' programme (formerly presented by the late Jill Dando, but not any more due to her being late). We discovered that businessmen in Bermuda wear Bermuda shorts as formal dress. Then we switched over to watch Planet Earth as we'd both fallen asleep in front of it on Sunday night.

You'll note my interesting choice of plate from Steve's collection. He chose a yellow plate. We don't tend to do matching plates.

Although yet another exceptional evening in our household, I'm still only going to give Sausage Monday a 7 out of 10, because I feel we've had better sausage in our time.

Sausage Monday was kindly cooked by Steve as I arrived home belatedly from a trip to rainy Lancashire. In an unconventional move we had our pork and cracked black pepper sausages with pasta in tomato sauce. It worked well for a 7 out of 10 score. Sausage Monday happened in front of the telly. It was a quick, functional meal before going to bed. In fact so quick that I didn't even take a picture.

On the bright side, I brought back another 72 sausages from Mr Cowman's butchers in Clitheroe. It'll keep us going for all the Sausage Mondays up until Christmas.

In a controversial move, we ate sausages on a Wednesday. However, in the guise of Toad-in-the-hole, it's allowed under Sausage Monday rules. It was really good, served with mash, brussel sprouts, swede and gravy. Toad-in-the-hole, for the uninitiated, is like the best combination of roast dinner and Sausage Monday....sausages in yorkshire pudding. Amazing. Truly amazing.

It was an extra-special Sausage Monday last night, as we managed to get 7 participants around one table. Very exciting. The occasion was my birthday. Faced with a dilemma of having my birthday on Sausage Monday, I was about to do the sensible thing and cancel my birthday in favour of continuing the SM tradition, until someone suggested a solution: have Sausage Monday in the pub. Of course, what a plan I thought, and set about organising it. The obvious venue was Sauce, in Cambridge, a mere stone's throw from my work.

http://www.saucebars.co.uk/sauce/site/menu.acds?context=600207&instanceid=600208

It should be noted that the prices for 2/3 sausages and mash are now £7.50/£8.50 respectively, not as quoted by the sauce website. Maybe I should report the erroneous pricing to Sauce in case anybody walks in with £6.95 exactly and orders 2 sausage and mash, and finds themselves 55 pence short.


Sausage Monday followers

Present around the Sausage Monday table 23/10 were myself, Steve, Richard, Rufus, Becca, Caroline and Rachael. Bronwyn, Irish Kate and my housemate Gaz put in brief appearances, but none of these 3 deigned to try the sausage on the menu. Irish Kate had stuffed pepper waiting for her at home.

The ambience in the Sauce bar was an attempt at subtle mood lighting. Personally I found it didn't achieve its aim, with the result being that there was a preponderance of dingy corners. They did play Sam's Town by The Killers though, which was an excellent choice of music. The staff were mostly friendly, apart from the man who got mad with me when I had to ring (the yet to arrive) Steve to find out what his choice was in the absence of Venison and Blackcurrant. (It's a very important decision, not to be taken lightly, and I certainly couldn't pick an alternative on his behalf.)

Condiments appeared on the table promptly. There was a good selection of mustards, but a notable absence of ketchup (I couldn't be bothered to go and ask for any), so Sauce loses points for that misdemeanour.


Sauce sauce

My choice was 1. Pork, Honey and Mustard 2. Thai with Coconut 3. Pork, Apple and Cider. In hindsight, I wouldn't go for the Thai with Coconut again. If I'd wanted a bounty bar, I'd have gone to the Co-op on my way home and bought one. And I don't even like bounty bars. The other two were pretty good, but maybe not meaty enough. They were a bit easy to cut with the knife: I look for more texture in my sausage.

It was important to have the traditional mash and gravy, and I opted for Crispy bacon mash with Red wine gravy. The consensus on the bacon mash was that it was exceptional, but Richard quite rightly pointed out that the gravy was on the lumpy side. I'd have liked more red wine in the red wine gravy. In fact 100% red wine in the red wine gravy would have been fine by me. And maybe put in a bottle beside me. Yes, that's how my gravy would have been ideally.

Steve was rather upset as he had misheard me on the phone and hadn't realised he could have crispy bacon mash. He opted for Dijon mash, and was mortified when he discovered he could have had more meat with his mash.

Becca gave a very definite thumbs up to her vegetarian choice of sausage, proving that sausage mondays are for omnivores and vegetarians alike. The mash was damn good apparently too. And all the omnivores resisted hitting her round the face with a gammon steak, so it was a good night for omni-vege relations.

Richard and Steve commented that the Hog and Ale had more texture and were much tastier than the other sausages they tried. I myself tried them and noted that the superior taste may have been because they were reminiscent of beer.


Richard suspiciously eyeing his Sausage Monday meal

Rachael tried the Newmarket sausages and noted they were 'quite plain'. She does like her sausages like this though, so it was a fine choice for her. And the spring onion mash was beautiful.

Caroline controversially claimed that the Pork and Apple sausages she had were not as good as the Tesco's finest Pork and Apple. I think I may need a trip to Tesco to verify this.


Caroline venturing that Tesco sausages are better than this, to much shock from fellow Sausage Monday devotees

Richard summed the whole evening up with one word: exceptional.
I think I prefer other brands of sausage, but this was a more social Sausage Monday than I've ever experienced before, and for these reasons, I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. I invite my Sausage Monday companions to rate it out of 10 also.


My half eaten Sausage Monday

There are perils associated with sausages. You must pay heed!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/4458941.stm

Happy sausage eating, and remember, stay safe!

Petters (http://john.pettigrew.org.uk/blog/) recommends Proctor's sausages: http://www.procters-sausages.co.uk/

Thanks Petters, and remember, Sausage Monday: Join the campaign!

Poll #846869 Mustard, HP or Ketchup?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 2

What's your sausage dipping sauce of choice?

So last night we had Garlic Pork Sausages, all the way from a butcher's shop in Clitheroe.

With them we had Garlic and Herb tortellini and spinach with a fruity salad dressing. My drink of choice was tea.

All in all there was a lot of garlic involved, but I felt it wasn't too over-powering, and actually created a nice theme to the meal. The sausages themselves were exceptional.

Our Sausage Monday meal was eaten on our knees in front of Hollyoaks (the one on e4 that's a day ahead of channel 4). It was a good choice of entertainment for this particular meal. Present for Sausage Monday 16/10 were myself and Steve.

I'm going to set the bar high here, but I'm going to give it an 8/10 overall.

Next week I'll take a picture of Sausage Monday but last night I hadn't thought of the idea of blogging this, so I didn't take a picture.

Sausage shops

My favourite sausage shop is Cowman's famous sausage shop in Clitheroe. I'm not sure how famous it is outside of Clitheroe, but here's their website:

http://www.cowmans.co.uk

Although don't be fooled by their 'Sausage of the month'. It's been Highlander Pork since January and nobody's bothered changing it.

If you want your Sausage Monday to be restaurant based, I'm reliably informed that The Cock in Hemingford Grey near Cambridge does some good sausage:

http://www.cambscuisine.com/tc_restaurant.html

As I live in Cambridge, if I ever mention sausages, people tell me that Newmarket is famed for its sausages. I'm dubious about a town with both a racehorse industry and a sausage-making industry. In the absence of a nearby Pedigree chum factory I suspect the two may be interlinked. Anyway, wild theories aside there's a picture of a man with Shergar and Red Rum here:

http://sausagefans.com/newsarticle.php?id=185

Sausage Monday. It's the future.

You know the drill. It's been a good weekend, and a bad Monday morning back at work. It rarely gets much better the rest of the day (apart from the unbridled joy associated with Monday afternoon being a whole 7 days away from the next Monday morning). You get home and you're fed up. With your belly rumbling, you look what's in the fridge. And there, resplendent in food packaging glory, is your solution. Sausages.

For us it started exactly this way one Monday evening after work. We had sausages with beans and chips. And a splodge of tomato ketchup at the side. (Sacrilegious are those who deign to splurge ketchup all over their food. Because that way you have some chips and sausage that are filthily soaked in ketchup, and some chips that are dry and flavourally vapid. You just don't get an even spread that way. Anyway, I digress.) But after those first sausages, which I declared to be exceptional, we decided this idea had legs. There really was no going back, and Sausage Monday was born.

This has made such an impact on my life that I feel the need to share the joy that is Sausage Monday. I implore you to spread the word, and to join me every Monday for Sausage Monday. Whether it be sausages from your local butcher, sainsbury's taste the difference, tesco extra value or your bog standard hot-dogs, get some sausage and join me.

Please share your sausage stories and pictures (nothing rude please) with the world. Share your thoughts on how you felt your sausage monday went. What did it taste like? Was it aesthetically pleasing. What was your choice of side dishes to go with the sausages. How many sausages did you have. Please also rate your experience out of 10.

This campaign's on a roll!

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