- 8 meaty pork sausages
- English mustard to serve
- 700g/1½lb onions, sliced thinly
- pinch sugar
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 25g/1oz butter
- 1 tsp plain flour
- 600ml/1 pint brown ale
- 600ml/1 pint fresh beef stock
- ½ star anise
- 2 cloves
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- 900g/2lb floury main crop potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 55g/2oz butter
- 2-3 tbsp milk
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- To make the beer and onion gravy, heat the oil and the butter in a large, heavy based saucepan. Add the onions and sugar and cook over a low heat for 45 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and richly caramelised. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
- Stir in the beer, beef stock, star anise, cloves and bay leaves and boil vigorously until reduced to a rich, glossy sauce – about 20 minutes in a large sauté pan. Remove the star anise, bayleaves and cloves (if you can find them) from the gravy and season to taste with some salt and pepper.
- For the sausages and mashed potato, cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 20 minutes until soft. Then after about 10 minutes, heat the oil for the sausages in a large frying pan. Add the sausages and fry them over a medium heat for 10 minutes, turning now and then, until nicely browned and cooked through.
- Drain the potatoes and mash until smooth – a potato ricer does this really well. Beat in the butter with some seasoning and enough milk to make a smooth, creamy mash.
- Spoon the mashed potatoes onto warmed plates and rest the sausages alongside. Pour over some of the gravy and serve with a good spoonful of English mustard.