Information about the book
Apple and Sage Pork Sausages with Sweet Mustard Sauce
By Bertus Basson
Other than Bertus’s love affair with his girlfriend Mareli, his dog Patat and his award-winning Stellenbosch restaurant Overture, he also has a skelmpie on the side called Die Worsrol: a travelling caravan that serves up some of the best hotdogs in the country. So for you to get your hands on a Bertus Basson sausage recipe is first prize. Serve the pork sausage with bread, potato salad or whatever tickles your fancy, but always have a jar of sweet mustard sauce on the table. Like Bertus says: ‘It just works.’
Luckily for you, Bertus gets that not everyone is going to go out and make the sausage meat from scratch, so the recipe he gave me uses ready-minced pork (available at most butchers). If you want to know how to make this mince, watch episode 1 of Ultimate Braai Master II, or go visit Bertus at his restaurant and bribe him with a bottle of good whiskey. He’s a keen teacher and if you’re lucky, you might just catch him in action.
You can prep all of this in your kitchen at home, but you have to braai the sausages to get that umami taste!
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Photo credit: Louis Hiemstra and Dominique Little: Cooked in Africa Films |
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Ingredients
YOU’LL NEED:
150 ml olive oil
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of allspice
2 tablespoons of paprika
a decent pinch of salt and black pepper
4 apples, cored and diced (skins still on)
1 kg pork mince, with no more than 10% fat
a handful of celery leaves, chopped
a big handful of sage, chopped
200 g finely cubed pancetta
about 100 g sausage casings (30 mm diameter), cleaned by running water through them, and soaked in fresh water overnight to make them easy to use
SWEET MUSTARD
YOU’LL NEED:
6 egg yolks
3 tablespoons of mustard powder
100 g sugar
150 ml spirit vinegar
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Method
PORK SAUSAGES
Splash some olive oil into a pan then add the finely chopped onions, all the garlic and spices (except the celery leaves and sage) and sweat until tender. Remove from the heat and let it cool down completely. Next, put the chopped apples in a pan with a bit of oil and let them slowly caramelise. There’s no need to add sugar – the apples are naturally sweet. Once they’ve got a bit of colour, take them off the heat and let them cool down.
Mix all the ingredients with the pork mince, including the finely cubed pancetta, celery leaves and the chopped sage, then work the meat for at least five minutes by kneading it like you would bread dough. By working the meat, you allow the protein to stretch and that’s a good thing. To understand this, compare the difference between boerewors and German sausage. You don’t want to overwork the meat that you put into boerewors, because it still needs to come apart slightly when you bite into it. When you really work and stretch the protein it makes it bind together better, like you would expect in a good pork sausage.
Now for the only tricky part: getting the mince into the sausage casings. If you have a handy electronic mincer, this should be easier. If you don’t, use a hand-driven one (it works just as well). Make sure the casings are clean and moist. Slide the casing up onto the sausage funnel of the mincer (yep, pretty much like you would roll on a condom). Hold on to the casing end with your one hand (pinching it closed with your thumb and forefinger) and then slowly push the mince through the top. Once the meat starts going into the casing, let the filled casing slide over your hand naturally … like a snake. Once the casing is filled, tie a knot at both ends. Keep stuffing sausage casings until you’ve used up all the mince.
TIPS FROM BERTUS
• The fat content in any type of sausage should
never be more than 10%.
• Mincing works better if the meat stays cold. If it
gets too warm, it won’t go through the mincer,
as warm fat becomes sticky.
• Always cook a small batch of the mince first
before putting it in the casings. Taste it and
adjust the flavour if it’s not to your liking.
• Don’t stuff the sausage too tightly or it will
explode when you braai it.
SWEET MUSTARD
In a pot over a medium heat, whisk all the ingredients vigorously so that the eggs don’t scramble. The mustard is done once it’s heated through. Pour the mustard into a sealable jar. It will keep in your fridge for weeks, but then again it’s so good, it might not.
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