Braised sausages and greens with (not very) crispy potato slices

Jump to recipe

Another long day of mum lying in bed complaining about how much pain she was in. I tried to encourage her to get up and distract herself from her problems, she refused (“but it hurts!”), I shrugged and left her to get on with it. She’s a grown woman with enough mental capacity to make her own choices, so if she wants to lie in bed and feel sorry for herself then that’s entirely up to her.

At some point she remembered that tomorrow we have a potential respite sitter coming to visit us, and she told me “I don’t think I want them coming here”. I think she was more than a little taken aback when I insisted that either she let the person visit or I would be looking at moving out: she’s so used to me going “yes mum” that me standing my ground was a shock to her.

Eventually she did get up, put out some bird food, and deigned to eat some of the many varieties of food I have bought or cooked to tempt her appetite. Around mid-afternoon, while I was looking online for accessible rental properties (of which there are precious few around here), mum started talking about how it might be nice to have a new friend coming to visit regularly. Hooray: I may have finally got through to her.

Given how much she complained about the (very nice) man who came around to replace the broken toilet frame ‘disturbing her rest’, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if that opinion doesn’t last the night.

Dinner was a meal I thoroughly expected mum to say “urgh” to: chipolatas (pork and honey), cabbage and leeks, braised in chicken stock (or, in this case, chicken gravy granules – you have to use what you’ve got) with garlic. When I told her what we were having, her response was a rather dubious “sounds… interesting”. 🫤

After a couple of mouthfuls, though, she not only revised her opinion to ‘delicious’, but she went back for seconds!

To make your own version of the meal that gained this rare accolade:

In a frying pan, brown chipolatas on all sides, with a splash of cooking oil if needed, (they don’t need to be cooked through). Place the browned chipolatas in a casserole dish.

Deglaze the pan with a generous splash of water (or white wine, if you have some), then add chopped garlic and some dried or fresh herbs (I used rosemary; thyme is also good, or just use mixed dried herbs).

Add roughly sliced green veg (I used a bag of mixed winter greens and leeks from Tesco) and mix it into the garlic and herb water. (If you don’t hate pulses as much as mum does, you can add a drained can of white beans or green lentils too, and then you have a complete meal in a casserole dish.)

Pile the greens on top of the chipolatas, then make a small quantity of stock in the same pan (to save on washing up): heat a glassful of water, then add half a stock cube / a jelly stock pot / a light sprinkling of chicken gravy granules.

Pour the stock over the greens, cover the top with some foil (I forgot this bit, which is why this is a bit browned and crispy on top), then put the dish in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread, or potatoes in some form. I’ve always thought it’s very nice, and I’m surprised and pleased that mum thinks the same.

And on that note, goodnight. Tomorrow we’ll meet our new friend, if mum doesn’t make herself sick with anxiety when she wakes and finds the television doesn’t work. (We have a scheduled power outage for an hour tomorrow morning, and I am thoroughly expecting this to be a Big Deal.)