Bangers & Mash-Up: A Meat and Potatoes Challenge

Nothing will shake me out of my blogging doldrums like a good old Creative Cooking Crew challenge. This month's challenge, hosted by the fab Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! and the lovely Joan of Foodalogue,  was as wide open as it gets: We were tasked with creating a dish around the theme of "meat and potatoes."

So. Where to begin? Well, given that I have been on something of a British television kick lately (particularly BBC Sherlock, but as this is a food blog and not a fangirl's Tumblr I will spare you the details) I decided I would look to the traditional cuisine of the U.K. for ideas.

First stop: 1787, the date that the Oxford Companion to Food cites as the first reference to Toad in the Hole.  First described as "meat boiled in a crust," it has evolved into an iconic British dish of sausages cooked in a Yorkshire pudding batter. So far, so inspiring, but my dish-to-be still needed the starch component. And what goes with sausage, or bangers, better than mash?

And so I had my dish - "bangers and mash-up," a twisted cross between toad in the hole and bangers and mash. Rather than the traditional Cumberland pork sausages, my version uses a decidedly more American beef and Kentucky bourbon sausage, and instead of a white potato mash I used mini blue potatoes which I fried in duck fat.  And finally, I dressed up the batter with a bit of fresh sage.  Gourmet? Not really, but a fun creation nonetheless.

You try making sausages look pretty.  

Before making this, I read dire warnings about the temperamental nature of Yorkshire pudding batter. The batter is simple enough to throw together - 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 3 beaten eggs, a pinch of salt, and butter - but if you don't handle it right it can flop. The keys are to let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes and to  get your cooking vessel blazing hot, with the oil hissing and sputtering, before you pour the batter in. Do this and a fluffy result is nearly guaranteed. The rest is pure simplicity: I heated my duck fat smeared casserole for 15 minutes at 425 F while I fried the potatoes and sausage. Next I plopped everything together into the hot casserole and baked for about 25 minutes.

The only thing it was missing was some traditional onion gravy, which I'll make next time. It's too much fun for there to not be a next time.

Make sure to check out the other meat and potato creations over at Lazaro's blog. Cheers!