Bangers and mash recipe with pan-fried bite-sized sausages smothered in stout and onion gravy on creamy garlic mashed potatoes. A classic comfort food recipe with bite-sized sausages which makes it easier to enjoy!
Comfort foods are wonderful. Although it is summer and it's too warm out for comfort foods, I often ask - why limit it to cold and dreary days? 🙂 Tasty foods should be had all year round right?
If you never heard of bangers and mash, it is a traditional dish from United Kingdom made of sausages, mashed potatoes and smothered with gravy and it's absolutely delicious.
Personally, I think comfort foods should be easily eaten with one utensil and served in one bowl and usually wrapped in a cozy blanket in front of the TV. Sausages can be unwieldy and usually need to be cut or bit off piece by piece - and then there's that fear of the initial bite where hot grease can potentially squirt out and burn your face (ouch?) so I decided to muck around with the classic bangers and mash recipe to make it easier to eat. 😛 The result? Deconstructed bangers and mash with bite-sized sausages over a roasted garlic mashed potato smothered in a beer and onion gravy! 🙂
INGREDIENTS FOR BANGERS AND MASH
All ingredients for this bangers and mash recipe can be found at your local grocery store.
For the mashed potatoes, I used milk however if you want to go the healthier route you substitute this for chicken broth but it will be slightly less creamy.
I switch up my potatoes when it comes to mashed potatoes. To be honest, I haven't found a type that really stands out! For this recipe, I used russet potatoes but please let me know your preference because I can't seem to tell the difference in flavor! 🙂
For the sausages, anything goes. Usually, I like to keep it to simple pork sausage.
For the gravy, we used a dark beer to give it a bit more flavor. (Stouts, Porters or any dark beer.) However, depending on how dark and strong the beer is, it may give the gravy a bit of a bitter kick. To reduce the bitter kick, we added ¼ to ½ teaspoon of maple syrup.
ROAST THE GARLIC FOR THE MASHED POTATOES
Roast garlic is always something good to have on hand because it's such a versatile ingredient to have but sometimes when I know I won't be using any roast garlic for the next week or so it seems wasteful to roast whole garlic bulbs. For days where I just need a few roasted garlic cloves, I will only roast the individual bulbs and yes oddly although people never mention it, it actually works! 🙂 It uses the same method of oiling the garlic, but the main difference is you don't put it in for as long and you need to occasionally check on it so they don't burn.
SUPER-DUPER EASY WAY TO PEEL BOILED POTATOES
Peeling potatoes is not fun, but there is an easy work way to do it! The trick is to leave the skin on while you are boiling the potatoes. Once the potatoes have finished boiling and you can easily insert a knife into it, bring it over to the sink and drain it and then submerge in cold water. While it is submerged, score around the skin and make a ring around the whole potato and put it back in the cold water and wait for about 5 minutes. Once the potato starts to cool off a bit in the water the skin will peel back easily!
MASH THE GARLIC AND BUTTER RIGHT INTO THE POTATOES DIRECTLY
Yup! It's much easier to do it this way. You may need to re-heat the potatoes if you like them piping hot with gravy - it tastes better piping hot anyways right? 🙂
BITE-SIZED SAUSAGES MAKES IT EASIER (AND COZIER) TO EAT
Whenever I have bangers and mash is such a cozy dish that I usually don't like using a fork and knife to cut the sausage whenever I am eating it because I'm usually tucked into blankets or in front of a TV. My utensil of choice is a spoon for this dish, so I like to cut the sausage up into bite-sized pieces. You can cut the sausage into bite-sized pieces as-is, or you can peel off the skin - both work and taste good.
LOOKING FOR MORE COMFORT FOODS? YOU MIGHT LIKE THESE!
DID YOU MAKE THIS BANGERS AND MASH RECIPE?
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Bangers and Mash (Deconstructed) + Stout & Onion Gravy
INGREDIENTS
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- 4-5 medium potatoes
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3-4 bay leaves
- 1 cup milk
- salt (to taste)
Sausage & Gravy
- 3 sausages
- 1 onion
- 2 ½ cup beef stock
- ½ cup dark beer (stouts, porters , or dark)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon + ¼ teaspoon corn starch
- 1 tablespoon + ¼ teaspoon cold water
INSTRUCTIONS
Roasting the Garlic
- Separate the cloves but don’t peel it. Leave it in it’s skin. (Make sure the garlic cloves are similar in size, else the smaller ones get burnt.)
- Coat the garlic in oil.
- Set the oven to 400F (204C)
- On a cookie sheet with parchment paper, put the garlic in and roast it. I keep it in for 10 minutes for smaller cloves and 15-20 minutes for larger cloves but check at the 10 minute mark to see if it has browned and soften before adding extra time to it since ovens and garlic sizes vary. You'll know it's down when it is golden brown.
- Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, peel the skins off and remove the hard nubs on the bottom end (Those are not always fun to eat.) and set aside.
Peeling & Mashing the Potatoes
- Scrub the potatoes to remove the dirt.
- In a large pot, add in bay leaves and the potatoes
- Add enough water to the pot to cover the potatoes and a dash of salt
- Set the stove to medium high heat and cook the potatoes for 30-40 minutes. (This will vary depending on the size of the potatoes. (You’ll know it’s done when you can insert a knife into it smoothly and it doesn’t feel like a crunchy apple in the middle.)
- When the potatoes are done, drain the water out of the pot.
- If you are peeling the potatoes, do it now. (Detailed instructions on how to easily peel it is on the blog post)
- In a bowl, combine the roasted garlic, milk, butter and potatoes and start mashing! Mash it lots for a creamier mashed potato – Mash it less for a chunky rustic mashed potato!
- Add salt to taste (not too much, the gravy has salt too! :)) and set the mashed potatoes a side for later.
Sausage & Gravy
- With a sharp knife, make a slit down the sausage and remove the meat and break it up into small pieces. Discard the casing.
- In a large skillet pan, set the stove to medium high heat and cook the sausage for 20 minutes or until cooked through and brown.
- Once the sausage is done, remove the sausage from the pan and set aside. Leave the drippings in the pan.
- Add the onions into the pan and set the stove to medium low heat. Cook this down until it is brown and caramelized. It should take about 15 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and cold water and mix well, add it to the beef stock and stir
- Add in the beef stock and beer and cook it let it simmer for about 5-10 minutes to allow the flavours to meld.
- Add in the maple syrup
- In a bowl, combine the potatoes, sausage and gravy and dig in!
NOTES
- If you are a traditionalist, you don't need to remove the sausage from the casing. You can pan fry the sausage whole and cut them into small pieces before serving.
NUTRITION
Portelance says
I just made this last night and it was so good! Quick, easy and a great meal for the start of a Canadian winter.
Joyce says
Woohoo! I am so happy you liked this! This is such a comforting meal eh? I love having this too, now that it's cold and wet outside. Woohoo fellow Canadian! 🙂 Bundle up and stay warm for this winter friend! 🙂
Liz says
Wow your version looks really good! And your photos are gorgeous!
Joyce says
Thank you 🙂
Helen of Fuss Free Flavours says
Winter here in the UK, and it has been bitterly cold of late. This is the perfect kind of comfort food you need for supper; tastes wonderful, fills up nicely, and warms the tummy. Just right. Making it a true one utensil dish is such a good idea. Sausages are naughty when it comes to trying to cut with just a fork.
Joyce says
Gosh you are so right, you won't believe how many times I made a mess out of my forked sausages around here! haha I still can't find half the squirted sausage grease, they fly far!
Valentina says
I LOVE this sort of meal -- and in your recipe, each of the individual ingredients look so divine. That garlic! Those potatoes! Oh my. And I'm with you, I'll take a comfort food any season!
Joyce says
Garlicky potatoes are my kryptonite! haha!
Thanh | Eat, Little Bird says
Comfort food is absolutely a year-round thing! I love love bangers and mash and your gravy looks divine! I love the touch of maple syrup in your recipe - I must try that 🙂
Joyce says
I definitely agree with you, comfort foods should be all year round! 🙂 I'm a huge fan of using maple syrup, honey or condensed milk as sweeteners! If you're going to sweeten something, why not use something flavourful right? 🙂
Traci says
Omgosh Joyce...I CANNOT wait to make this recipe! Just bookmarked and, of course, scheduling it to Pinterest. It's just gorgeous...thanks for sharing!
Joyce says
Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
heather (delicious not gorgeous) says
anything deconstructed is fancyyyy in my eyes! i personally like the texture of russets more than yukon gold/etc in mashed potatoes because i feel like they're a little less dense, but i also never say no to mashed potatoes (; especially if it has roasted garlic!
Joyce says
haha you'd be surprised how un-fancy this is. It's just nice to have nice bite sized sausages with every spoonful of mashed potatoes! I am a carb fiend. I love all the carbs and all the potatoes haha