Not Just a Man's World

A little while ago Chris had a moment when he went a bit off eggs.  This was a little difficult since we have them every morning for breakfast. 

Fortunately I managed to devise this simple sausage casserole which didn’t take long to make and could be put in the oven on the timer the night before to be ready to serve when we came down for breakfast the next morning.  At the end I’ve also included a note on making this into a meal that slightly resembles sausages in Yorkshire pudding.

Sausage casserole (on an omlette)

Ingredients: (serves 2)
6 sausages (I find I can get some that are very high meat percentage and I’m not so strictly paleo that I won’t put up with the little bit of bread they use provided the sausage is 90% or more meat)
200g (½ can) chopped tomatoes
1 pt (1 cup) beef stock
1 large onion
½ small head of cauliflower
1 carrot

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (unless you are going to be serving the casserole up much later, eg. the next day).
2. Slice the onions, chop the cauliflower into small florets and cut the carrots into short batons. 
3. Heat a little oil in a pan, add the onion, and leave to fry over a low heat for about ten minutes until soft and lightly browned.  Keep an eye on the onion and move it about every so often.  You don’t want the onion to burn but you do want it to cook through.
4. Once the onions are browned, add the cauliflower, chopped tomatoes and beef stock, cover the pan and simmer for ten minutes.  If you are short on preparation time: you can take a shortcut here and just leave out this step, but be aware that you need to increase the casseroling time in the oven to compensate, otherwise you’ll have crunchy carrots and cauliflower.
5. Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a frying pan, pierce the skins of the sausages to stop them splitting and briskly fry the sausages so that they are browned and crispy on the outside (you can casserole the sausages without frying them first but they then have an anaemic and rubbery look to them – Chris hates this so I always briefly fry sausages before putting them in a casserole).  You don’t need to fry them until they are cooked through, just enough to get the outside browned.
6. Place the browned sausages in a casserole dish, add the onion, veg and sauce on top and put the lid on the casserole dish (or cover with foil if you don’t have a lid).
7. If you are preparing the casserole in advance, stop at this stage and put in the fridge until needed (or in my case, place in the cold oven with the timer set ready for the next morning).
8. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or for 1 hour if you left out step 4.  The carrots and cauliflower should be soft so if you are worried it may not be ready stick a fork into a carrot.  If it doesn’t go in easily, return to the oven for another 10 minutes and retest.
9. Once cooked, pour the sauce off into a clean frying pan (I find this easiest to do by removing the contents to another dish using a slotted spoon, pouring out the liquid and then returning the sausages and veg back to the casserole dish to keep warm in the oven until I’m serving up).  Place the frying pan over a high heat and allow the sauce to boil until it has reduced by about half to a thick gravy consistency.  Serve this gravy with the sausages and veg.

A note on serving:

Since I was serving this as a breakfast, I wanted to make it a filling meal.  I was also reluctant to completely abandon the eggs, so I made a sort of “sausages in Yorkshire pudding” meal.

Make a large plain omelette by gently beating 3 eggs with a little cold water, heating a little oil in a non-stick pan, and then adding the beaten eggs once the pan is hot and smoking.  Immediately reduce the heat to a low setting so that the egg mix can cook through without the bottom of the omelette burning.

Once cooked through, slide the omelette out onto a plate.  By making it with three eggs in a frying pan you should find it is fairly large.  If you’re lucky the sides may even have curled up slightly too.

Serve the sausages and veg in the middle of the omelette with the gravy poured over them.

Related posts:

1. Paleo recipes: beef casserole
2. Paleo recipes: omelette muffins
3. Paleo recipes: baked eggs with spinach and mushrooms
4. Paleo recipes: Chorizo sausage in a tomato sauce and paleo tapas