Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in last year’s BBC TV’s Masterchef competition. Every Saturday Yemi will be writing on the Stray Ferret about her love of the district’s food – please get in touch with her if you want her to review a restaurant, visit your farm, taste the produce you sell or even share a recipe.
Many foods and ingredients scream ‘English’ whenever they are mentioned and one of them is sausages. You can’t have full English breakfast without sausages, there is no ‘Sausage and Mash’ without sausages, or ‘Toad in the hole’ without the toad.
A reader recommended that I go try the pies at Hutton’s in Knaresborough, but what caught my eyes when I got there were the varieties of sausages from their best selling pork sausage to others including the black pudding, pork and wild garlic, marmalade and ginger, Toulouse made from a meat blend that is half gammon and half pork and the Thai green curry.
What shone through from Alan who showed me around is the care and attention that goes into their products. They work closely with suppliers to ensure the animals used for their products are taken care of and dealt with ethically to making all sausages on site using their signature blends of spices.
Their products are proudly Yorkshire sourced as should be. Every sausage starts with a base of good quality meat, salt and black pepper before tailoring to achieve the desired flavoured profile.
Each variety of sausage inspired a different idea of a dish to pair it with.
The pork and wild garlic sausage immediately made me think of wild garlic butter and curry-oil cooked potatoes on a bed of crushed peas, wild garlic risotto or a bean cassoulet with garlic bread.
I could see the marmalade and ginger sausage working well with my breakfast of toasted bread and marmalade. It’s one of my favourite sweet and savoury breakfast pairings; I know it sounds odd having the sweetness of the marmalade with the sausage appearing to gate-crash the party but I have always had that combination. Finding this sausage resonated with me and was instant validation that I haven’t lost the plot.
Thai green curry was surprising and I reckon this would go really well with sticky rice and curry, sliced on top of noodles in a Thai inspired broth or in a flat bread with some satay sauce, crunchy carrots and bean sprouts.
The Toulouse with gammon and pork reminded me of my Christmas turkey and ham pies that’s made using left over roast ham, turkey, leeks, fresh tarragon, onions and cream with puff pastry to make the most delicious pies.
I expected this sausage to be mild in spice and meaty but when I opened it, the whiff of garlic, rich colour and spicing reminded me of chorizo so I concluded it would be perfect for a stew or cassoulet.
After watching a show about how black pudding was made, I steered clear of them for twenty years as I still remember seeing the buckets of blood. Alan persuaded me to try the Black pudding sausages and educated me on how the process has evolved over the years to incorporate blood powders. He was confident that I would like them and persuaded me to try some.
For dinner, I decided to use the black pudding and Toulouse sausages for a couple of toppings that could go on jacket potatoes. I cooked the Toulouse sausage with chickpeas in an Indian inspired spicy tomato, onion, pepper and ginger sauce (see below). The sausage held its own against the strong flavours and was delicious.
I oven cooked the black pudding sausage and served it with some peas, roasted piccolo tomatoes and finished the reduced roasting juice with some mint basil (see main image). The sausage had a good depth of meaty goodness; I could see the specks of black pudding but felt like I was just eating a quality sausage.
I am definitely a black pudding sausage convert and I am glad I trusted Alan’s recommendation. I will definitely be back to Hutton’s for their quality products, excellent selection and great value; I hope you check them out.
This weekend, I am cooking up a storm alongside some other chefs and foodies including renowned Italian Chef, Gennaro Contaldo, in London, followed by a demonstration at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham.
I am next at the Harrogate Food Festival on the 24 June so hope to see you there.
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