Mar 7, 2010

Why we need to record - Mrs Joan Adams's Devilled Sausages - a childhood memory inspired by Kylie Kwong

Sunday night - for the last 15 years it has been an Aussie family get together night - I cook Mains and my Mum does the Desserts. And so my 16 year old, Kat, has experienced some very traditional Desserts as well as her Nan's latest experiments ....

Joyously, Kat is now emerging as a Foodie in her own right .... Japanese is her specialty, along with Cambodian dishes, Profiteroles & White Chocolate Mud Cakes... 

Tonight it was another of our traditional Aussie Sunday nights - a sort of comfort food theme - a left over night from Kat's 16th Birthday Party (a Disney Princess Party - and that's another story ... ).

We had heaps of leftover sausages (uncooked) & cubed cheese from for Kat's birthday party. David had done his always absolutely superb Indonesian Chicken Sate in Peanut Sauce to complement my Delicious Fried Rice (another Kylie Kwong gem featured in Delicious Magazine a few years back) - hardly surprising that sausages were not going to be much in demand at the birthday party!

So for our Sunday night dinner I decided to cook my Mum's Devilled Sausages - partly from my childhood memory and part from Kylie Kwong's "Recipes and Stories" p 40-41 : "Mrs Adams's Savoury Sausages & Mashed Potatoes". Coincidentally my Mum is another Mrs Adams!

(And on this occasion I supplied the Dessert - more leftovers : Aussie Kids Party fav : "Frogs in the Pond" aka Chocolate Freddo Frogs in Green Lime Jelly (Jello). )

I had previously scoured Mum's decades old recipe clippings, but had not located her "Devilled Sausages" recipe, and so I was hoping that when Mum tasted my improvisation, that she might be able to shed some light on any specific ingredients that I had missed.

Over dinner, Mum admitted that she certainly recalled the dish, and thought my improvisation was fairly close - but sadly explained that although she had been searching her recipe clippings collection, so far she had not found her original recipe.

How many family treasures could that scenario apply to ?

So important to document them isn't it ?

Otherwise lost forever...Records matter ... otherwise knowledge sharing can be limited

PS ...

Sausages are fairly basic, traditional family fare - although it is easy to pimp them with trimmings. 

One of my fav memories is the trimmings used by my friend & caterer, Irene Tognetti, and also mother of one of Australian's Living Treasures : Australian Chamber Orchestra's Richard Tognetti.

It was local government election time, where Irene was doing the catering for 100+ folk at a Trivia Night fundraiser. Although I was fairly distracted being both a candidate & the campaign director, I was still so impressed with how Irene transformed what could have been just another mundane sausage sizzle.

How ? So easy really - with generous sprays of Rosemary on the platters of sausages for each table - so simple and so effective.


KerrieAnne's Devilled Sausages Recipe

- 10 sausages (ours come from our local Harvey's Gourmet Butchers in the NSW South Coast seaside village of Thirroul - their meat is so absolutely superb! )
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (sliced or grated or finely chopped - I used finely chopped from the excess I had prepared for the birthday party)
- Worcestershire Sauce (I use Lea & Perrins which is quite runny and not as thick as some brands)
- 4-6 Basil leaves (I used fresh from our Vege Patch - David is amazed how big the Basil leaves are this year - with all the warmth, rain & humidity ! )

Sauce
- 1/3 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup brown vinegar
- 3 tbspns brown sugar
- 2 tspsns Keens Mustard Powder

1. Preheat oven to 190oC
2. Grease rectangular baking dish
3. Combine sauce ingredients
4. Slit sausages lengthwise - but do not cut all the way through - then place them in baking dish
5. Spoon mixed sauce ingredients into slits in sausages
6. Arrange cheese (slices - grated or finely chopped) over the sauce filled slits in sausages
7. Sprinkle Worcestershire Sauce over the cheese - but do not be heavy handed
8. Bake in oven for approximately 25 minutes
9. Remove from oven - lift with egg slice or BarbieMate tool.

To serve :  Garnish with fresh Basil leaves & serve with potato mash & steamed vegetables 

(Note

- Kylie Kwong's "Recipes & Stories" p 40-41 version has a Bacon slice placed over the sauce on each sausage, before the cheese is added - and did not have the Worcestershire Sauce sprinkling

- my Mum doesn't recall using Bacon in her version but reckons it would work quite well
- also, neither Kylie Kwong's nor my Mum's had the Basil leaves)

Posted via email from KerrieAnne's Kitchen

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