hodge podge pork and beans with porcini sauce

hodge podge pork and beans with
Sainsbury's porcini sauce

"But since he stood for England
And knew what England means,
Unless you give him bacon
You must not give him beans."
G.K. Chesterton - The Englishman (1914) 
 
The time had come to rid the fridge of a few odds and ends before they re-enacted The Great Escape and dug their way out . . . What I had was a bit of a pork festival; a few herby sausages, a finger length of chorizo, a couple of slices of smoked bacon, a handful of mushrooms and some chicken stock. A complete hodge podge of ingredients.


I fancied cooking something vaguely Italian and knew that sausages cooked with lentils is a traditional Italian dish (cooked at New year). I can't wait until January 2013 but since it turned out that I was out of lentils, I might just have to. What I did have in the pantry was a tin of butter beans and it turns out those sausages and butter beans were made for each other.

Sainsbury’s had sent me a porcini mushroom paste from their speciality ingredients range and having loved their new harissa paste, I was pretty keen to give it a try. The paste is a mixture of various mushrooms, including porcini, oyster and shitake, with onion and garlic and a touch of acidity with white wine vinegar.

Despite the fact that my dish was something of an allsorts, a tumble of ingredients, it was absolutely delicious served with a mountain of buttery mashed potato and loads of peas. The whole dish would have been fine without the mushroom paste, but the Sainsbury's porcini paste turned something quite nice into something rather special.

Serves 4
Skill level: Easy

ingredients:
olive oil
1 x English onion, very finely chopped
2-3 x garlic cloves, very finely chopped
6 x good quality sausages
2 x smoked bacon rashers, finely chopped
5cm length of cooked chorizo, skinned and chopped
100g chestnut mushrooms, quartered and finely sliced
1 x tin of butter beans (about 400g)
1 x bay leaf
a sprig of fresh thyme
Sainsbury's porcini sauce
250ml stock (or leftover gravy from the Sunday roast)
a splash of red wine
1-2 tbsp sour cream
mashed potato (to serve)
fresh or frozen peas (to serve)

directions:

1. Heat a little oil in large pan and gently fry the onions until softened (about 10 minutes).
2. Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook for a further 2 minutes. Turn up the heat and fry the bacon and chorizo for another couple of minutes, before adding the sausages. Cook the sausages, turning occasionally, until lightly browned all over. The bacon should have cooked through and the mushrooms will be softened.
3. Add the drained butter beans, herbs, Sainsbury's porcini sauce, the stock and a little wine. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. The sauce should have reduced and thickened. Remove the sausages and slice into thick chunks.
4. Add a little sour cream and stir through until warmed, as well as adding the sliced sausage. Serve with lashings of buttery mashed potato and green peas.

tips:

• Sainsbury's recommend serving the porcini sauce with steak or in a quiche. They also have a rather nice recipe on the jar, involving chicken breasts. Check it out and other suggestions on their website!