Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Bangers & (S)Mash

This was Sunday night's dinner. Growing up, we didn't really have a "Sunday night dinner" tradition. We mostly just had dinner together every single night. All seven of us. My parents usually sat on the couch, when it wasn't the holidays & the leaf wasn't in the table, and my four siblings and I sat at the round kitchen table in our open concept one room living room/kitchen. One of us usually sat on the butter churner, which we used for a stool.

Kili's family, when she was in high school, had a standing & open invite for Sunday night dinner at their house. Her mother is an excellent cook, and would make meals for their family and whoever else wanted to show up.

Cooking for both of our families has never been a special occasion thing--though it really was only once a year that we would make peanut butter balls & fudge--and despite my multiple jobs and Kili's job & school schedule, it is still a mostly every day thing for us, too.

On Sunday night, I made a modern version of bangers & mash, which is usually served with onions, if I'm not mistaken, Heather? Halp? We had some purple potatoes, onions, and andouille chicken sausage. I baked the potatoes and instead of putting in the work & butter to make mashed potatoes, I just smashed them down onto the plate. (Okay, I put butter on them, anyway.)

The onions were adapted from French Food at Home chef Laura Calder, and are slow-baked, over the course of about two hours. Just slice off the bottom, poke some holes in the tops, and put them right in the oven, skin & all. Serve with an egg-based vinaigrette--we substituted lemon thyme and added extra garlic. They come out soft and warm and delicious and I love them.

If you're lucky, your roommate is also the best salad dressing maker in the whole world, and you'll have a bottle of chianti in your teacart.

2 comments:

Joanne said...

Ooooo, sounds good. And really, both of you are pretty lucky to have each other as roommates.

Chelsea said...

This sounds amazing. Can I come to every dinner?