Opinion – Recipes from Marcão: Keith Richards’ Sausage Recipe from the Rolling Stones

England, seed in the Qatar Cup, invented football. With all due respect to the sport’s fathers, they’re better at rock music — an American invention, by the way. As for the food, well…

All kidding aside, British cuisine’s bad reputation is well founded to some extent. The English fit, along with Germans and Dutch, in the same profile of northern Europeans for whom food is not a priority (as opposed to French, Italians and Iberians).

Carelessness with food is even common among Queen Beth’s subjects.

But it was much worse. In the last few decades, London has become one of the most interesting cities in the world to go to restaurants. And there has always been the pub, the British version of the bar, which serves hearty, home-cooked food. Food not to everyone’s taste, but great value.

Included in the “pub food” category are fish and chips (fried fish with potatoes as well) and the many variations of savory pie, such as meat (or beef with kidneys) cooked in stout.

Another English pub classic is bangers and mash — in our language, sausage with mashed potatoes. “Mash” is the puree and “bangers” comes from the onomatopoeia “bang”, for explosion. That’s because, if not cooked carefully, sausages have an annoying habit of bursting.

To help me prepare this English institution, I went to look for an expert… in rock: none other than Keith Richards, the immortal guitarist and songwriter of the Rolling Stones.

In the autobiography “Vida” (Globo, 2010), Keith spends a few pages explaining how to make bangers and mash. More than an organized recipe, the old rocker offers wisdom: cook the sausage patiently, slowly, over the lowest possible heat, so it doesn’t explode.

Keith isn’t a cook, and his recipe has some gaps that I’ve had to fill in here — for example, food amounts. It is also necessary to make a fundamental adjustment to the dish, as the sausage here is very different from the one there.

In England, it is common to buy sausage made in the butcher shop, on the same day, with different seasonings from those used in Brazil, without curing salt — a preservative that makes the meat pink and alters its flavor.

Under Brazilian law, it is mandatory to use curing salt in sausages intended for sale. It’s what we have, it’s what we can use. Try to buy a fresh, very basic pork sausage. Don’t give me cuiabana or anything like that… adaptation has limits.

At the same time you cook the bangers, you prepare the onion gravy — a dark sauce based on onions, bacon and the broth that the sausage releases into the skillet.

As for the mash, the puree, it doesn’t have milk, cream or butter. For those who are used to French puree, Keithão’s recipe is a bit unusual. You cook it in water with chopped onion and vinegar, then mash it in the pan and leave it on the fire until it thickens. Until it works fine.

In addition to the puree, you can accompany the sausages with peas and/or carrots in butter. Open up a stout or other ale to get into the London pub vibe and start singing: “I know, it’s just sausage and potatoes, but I like it!”

Bangers and Mash

Yield: 2 servings

Difficulty: easy

INGREDIENTS

2 potatoes, peeled, cubed

2 onions

1 tablespoon of vinegar

50 g of chopped bacon

4 slices of fresh pork sausage

1 teaspoon of flour

Salt and black pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1. Start with the puree. In a small pan, place the potato, 1 chopped onion, enough water to cover, the vinegar and a little salt. Boil and let it cook on low heat.
2. In a nonstick skillet, heat the bacon over low heat until the fat begins to melt. Add the other onion, sliced ​​into half moons, and sauté until wilted.
3. Reduce the heat of the skillet to the minimum possible. Move the onion and bacon to the side of the skillet and add the sausages. Cook, turning occasionally, until the liquid that the sausage releases dries up.
4. Mash the potato inside the pan using a spatula or wooden spoon. Cook the puree until it thickens, adjust the salt and season with black pepper.
5. Reserve the sausage and add the flour to the skillet, mixing well with the melted fat. Add 1 cup of water and make the onion sauce, mixing well so the flour doesn’t clump. Let it boil for 2 minutes to thicken and return the sausage to reheat before serving.
6. Serve the sausage with the onion puree and sauce.