Give curry powder a chance

After several days of variations on the chilli con carne theme, I decided it was time for a change. I put the remaining chilli in the freezer and took out my sausages. I've found only two recipes in the Edmonds book which use sausages as an ingredient, so it would perhaps have been nice to use some slightly better quality sausages than the cheap pre-cooked ones I got with my $25. Then again, curried sausages (p125) proved to be an excellent way to make a tasty meal out of cheap sausages.

I hadn't really been looking forward to making this dish, because I've always been a bit wary of recipes that have curry powder as their main flavouring. I've got nothing against curry powder when used sparingly, and/or in conjunction with other flavours, but every now and then you get a dish that just tastes like a mouthful of curry powder.

And that's not a good thing at all.

 

I was worried that my curried sausages were going to be like that. Luckily, they weren't. You start by frying the sausages, (and "keep looking while you're cooking" so you don't set fire to the kitchen) then you set them aside and fry up some onion. Stir in the curry powder, and some flour, then gradually add beef stock, stirring until thick. I actually added a bit more stock than it said in the recipe - there just didn't seem to be enough sauce to go with the sausages.

 Meanwhile, I'd chopped up the sausages. The recipe said to do this at the end, (after heating them through again in the sauce) but I didn't see any point in that - it'd be messy, and the sausages would take longer to heat through if you added them whole.

When the sauce had thickened, I stirred through the sausages, along with a generous spoonful of my homemade tomato chutney. You remember me saying, when I made the chutney, that I found it too sweet? Well, it just so happens that the sweetness worked beautifully with the curry powder.

Served with some rice and veges, my curried sausages made a very pleasant meal. They may not be interesting or exotic, but they do taste good. When you consider it's a meal based on a $3.87 packet of sausages, I reckon it's pretty awesome. I suspect that the chutney you use has a major impact on the end product - I'd recommend using something sweet and fruity like I did.

So if, like me, you've been side-stepping curry powder for the past few years, give it another try. You may be pleasantly surprised.