Bangers and Mash with Onion Gravy

Ingredients

• 8 Cumberland or Lincolnshire sausages
• 1kg floury potatoes such as Maris Piper
• 100g butter
• 120ml whole milk, warmed
• 3 large onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 500ml beef stock
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 sprigs thyme
• Salt and white pepper

Before you cook

• Peel the potatoes and cut them into even 5cm chunks.
• Halve the onions and slice them into thin half-moons.
• Warm the milk in a small pan or the microwave.

Steps

1. Put the potatoes into a large pan, cover with cold water, add a generous tablespoon of salt and bring to the boil.
2. Simmer the potatoes for twenty minutes until a knife meets no resistance.
3. Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan over medium-low heat and lay in the sausages.
4. Cook the sausages for twenty to twenty-five minutes in total, turning them every four or five minutes, so they brown evenly all round without splitting.
5. Lift the sausages onto a warm plate and cover them loosely with foil.
6. Add the sliced onions and thyme to the sausage pan with a pinch of salt.
7. Cook the onions over medium-low heat for eighteen minutes, stirring often, until they collapse and turn dark caramel brown.
8. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir for one minute.
9. Pour in the stock gradually, stirring hard after each addition to keep the gravy smooth.
10. Add the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and sugar, then simmer the gravy for eight minutes until it thickens.
11. Drain the potatoes and leave them in the colander for two minutes to steam dry.
12. Push the potatoes through a ricer back into the dry pan, or mash them thoroughly.
13. Beat in the butter a piece at a time, then the warm milk, until the mash is glossy and soft.
14. Season the mash with salt and white pepper and taste it.
15. Season the gravy and remove the thyme stalks.
16. Spoon the mash onto warm plates, lean two sausages against each mound and pour the onion gravy over the top.