Stoemp and sausage with onion gravy

So let’s start with my take on a typically Belgian dish – Which involves Oxo cubes.

Incidentally, if you venture into deepest Wallonia, you might find stoemp referred to as ratatouille, or ‘ratas’. Don’t be misled.

You could use any sausages, I suppose. I prefer saucisse de Toulouse or others with a chunky filling.

I tend to move things back and forth between the hob and the oven, because it’s the best way I know to get the sausages evenly browned. You could just use the pan.

Put a couple of sausages per person on to fry in a little oil. When you’ve turned them once, add one large or one-and-a-half medium onions peeled, halved through the root end and sliced as thinly as you can manage. Cook and cook and cook on a lowish heat, stirring occasionally and turning the sausages.

You know how difficult it is to cook the convex and concave bits? Here’s where the oven comes in. Transfer a sausage from the pan to a plate, shove a couple of cocktail sticks in one of the cooked sides, and skewer the other one on top. You can now put these on a baking tray with one of the curved sides uppermost. Tip the half-cooked onions onto the tray and let them continue in the oven, turning the sausages the other way up after about 10 minutes.

When everything is looking reasonably done (the onions should be soft and golden, or heading that way), transfer the onions back to the pan and turn the heat up to medium. Try not to have any surplus oil. When there are signs of fairly vigorous cooking, crumble in an Oxo cube, stir briefly, then pour in about a third of a bottle of brown beer (Maredsous, Grimbergen, Chimay rouge .. ). It will of course bubble and froth, then quickly reduce to a nice thick gravy. Add the sausages to warm through and turn the heat down to minimal until you’re ready to serve.

Now the stoemp, which you will in fact have prepared while all this was going on. You’ll have to decide what flavour you want. Could be carrot, cabbage or sprouts, leek, broccoli, celeriac or celery leaves – the choice is enormous. A ‘proper’ stoemp will have only one addition, but hey. The potatoes must be ‘frites’ or ‘puree’, NOT ‘chair ferme’ or ‘assez ferme’. Count, say, 2 big or 3 medium p.p. and as much veg as you would have in a regular serving.

If you’re using leafy veg, shred it finely and steam on maximum heat for 5 minutes, to be added to the potato when it’s cooked and mashed. If you’re using root veg, just pile it into the steamer with the potato, cut into smallish chunks and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.

Mash the potatoes with a hand masher in a big bowl, adding a knob of butter, salt and pepper. If you can stand the worry, finish off by beating with a wooden spoon. It is at this stage you mix in any pre-cooked green veg, as well as the final (optional) flourish – a handful of crispy fried onions, which you should be able find in your local supermarket.

Since the mixture will have cooled a bit by now, pop it back in the oven to warm through, pour yourself the rest of that beer and … enjoy.