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Bangers & Mash

During the year I spent living in Philadelphia when I was twenty-one, I enjoyed spending time at an Irish pub called The New Deck Tavern. They served consistent, reasonably-priced pub fare, including a famous dish in the U.K. called Bangers & Mash.
Bangers & Mash includes cooked sausages that are served atop steaming, buttery mashed potatoes, and covered in a rich gravy.
The recipe below serves roughly 4-6 people, depending on how hungry you are.

Ingredients

For the Gravy:

  • 2 cups fortified pork stock, or your favorite type of collagen-heavy stock
  • 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 4 sprigs thyme
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 Tbsp corn starch
  • 2 Tbsp cold water
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 2 tsp sherry vinegar
  • 4 Tbsp salted butter, cut into small cubes and kept cold
  • Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

For the Remaining Bangers & Mash Components:

  • 4 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½” chunks
  • 12 Tbsp salted butter
  • ¼ cup heavy cream, heated until it is warm
  • Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
  • 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 6 pork sausages, or any sausages of your liking
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely sliced, as garnish

Instructions

For the Gravy:

  • Add 2 cups of collagen-heavy pork stock to a soup pot.
  • Turn the heat up to high, and bring the stock to a simmer.
  • Reduce heat to medium-low.
  • Add the Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, fresh thyme, and fresh rosemary to the pot and whisk to combine.
  • In a small bowl, stir together 2 Tbsp corn starch and 2 Tbsp cold water, and mix until combined.
  • When the stock is simmering, whisk in the corn starch and water mixture into the stock, and note how the sauce thickens.
  • If you prefer a thicker sauce, make some more of the cornstarch and water mixture and add it to the stock.
  • Taste your thickened sauce, and stir in the honey and sherry vinegar.
  • Remove the sauce from the heat.
  • Stir in the 4 Tbsp of cold, cubed salted butter, while the sauce is off the heat.
  • Stir until the butter is completely melted into the sauce.
  • Taste, and season with kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper.
  • Add more honey or sherry vinegar if desired.
  • Gently warm up the sauce right before you are ready to serve.

For the Remaining Bangers & Mash Components:

  • Boil the peeled potato chunks in salted water until they are completely tender.
  • Drain the water from the potatoes, and return potatoes to the pot.
  • Mash the cooked potatoes with a potato masher, and fold in the salted butter and warmed heavy cream.
  • Taste the mashed potatoes, and season with kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper.
  • Set the warm mashed potatoes aside, covered with plastic wrap on the surface, until you are ready to serve.
  • For the sausages, heat 2 Tbsp vegetable oil in a large saute pan, and increase heat to medium.
  • Gently cook the pork sausages until they are golden brown on the outsides.
  • *Try to avoid cooking the sausages on high heat, as their casings can burst and the sausages can dry out.
  • When the sausages are finished, you are ready to serve your dish!
  • Add the mashed potatoes to the bottom of a large serving platter.
  • Arrange the cooked sausages on top of the mashed potatoes.
  • Pour some of the beautiful pork gravy that you made earlier on top of the mashed potatoes and sausages.
  • Garnish with the finely-sliced fresh parsley.
  • Allow people to add more gravy to their individual plates once they have served themselves.

Notes

Make extra mashed potatoes, so you can have some for leftovers during the week. You can use less butter, if you prefer a denser and less rich mashed potato product.
People will sometimes serve this entrée with cooked green peas.