Pork sausage and apple pie

---

This pork sausage and apple `shepherds pie' was created from what happened to be about on the day. It was a brilliant success and will definitely be made again.

Ingredients

• Dash of olive oil
• 4 large pork sausages
• 1 leek, chopped into rings
• 450 g (1 lb) good mashing potatoes such as Nadine, Saxon, Wilja, Desiree or King Edward, peeled and quartered
• 25 g (1 oz) Butter
• 200 ml (.42 pint) dry cider
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• ½ teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and cut into thin rings
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mise en place

• Preheat the oven to 204° C (400° F - Gas 6)

Method

1. Fry the sausages in a little olive oil for 10 minutes, reserve and keep warm
2. Fry the leeks in the same pan until tender
3. Deglaze the pan with the cider
4. Add the mustard powder to the flour and whisk into the cider and leeks, season with salt and pepper
5. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until they are soft and can be pierced easily with a fork
6. Mash the potatoes and add the butter and salt and pepper to taste
7. Pour the Cider and leeks into an oven-proof dish
8. Lay the sausages on top of the leeks
9. Make a layer of apple rings on top of the sausages
10. Top with mash potato and decorate with the tines of a fork
11. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes

Serving suggestion

Serve hot with a green vegetable such as broccoli.

Chef's notes

If the leeks are large and a little 'tired', freshen them by blanching them in boiling water for 3 minutes-this stops them drying out whist they are being sautéd.

Follow the RSPCA Think Pig Checklist to make sure that your pork has come from pigs that have been reared to higher welfare standards.

• http://bit.ly/rspcathinkpig

See also

• other shepherds' pie recipes