Sausage & Apple Frittata

Apologies for this weeks late post, as I have not had a day off this week. Circumstances have left me and the team to cover in the absence of our esteemed leader, whilst he sees to his paternity duties. He is currently celebrating the new arrival of a beautiful new daughter called Paris.

In his absence I have found a new gear and speed at which to work, tying up loose ends and partially stepping into his shoes. This has also meant I have had the early shifts also, which means I get to get up earlier, enjoy the longer day that we are graced with, and burn more calories. I have also discovered the advent of the energy giving properties of the banana. One banana in the morning with a bowl of cereal has in fact given me enough energy to see through until mid afternoon. I found this absoloutely amazing. I have always loved banana, its texture, its flavour and its wonderful aroma.

Alas I digress. I would like to share with you one of my dishes from the breakfast menu at The Church - The sausage and apple frittata.

This is a simple dish, which can be made very easily at home. In essence all a frittata is an oven baked omelette. the version we do at The Church is in fact two small fittata on a crouton, with a sweet hickory smoked sauce. The recipe remains largely the same, and makes a wonderful breakfast dish. It is however a bit too rich for me for breakfast - hence I will stick to my cereal and banana approach for now.

You will need:

2 pork sausages
1 sweet apple (golden delicious, braeburn etc are fine for this)
2 eggs.
25 ml cream
1 Slice wholemeal bread
Egg / Tiane Ring / Pastry cutter
1 tbsp Cooking Oil

For the sauce:

3Tbsp barbecue sauce (home made is much better)
1 tbsp Maple Syrup
Dash Red Wine
1/2 crumbled chicken oxo cube, or equivalent dry stock.

Equipment:

Shallow yorkshire pudding tin
Pallete knife / spatula
Sharp knife you are comfortable chopping with
Chopping Board
Whisk
Mixing Bowl
Saucepan.
Baking tray.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Put the sausages on a baking tray, and put int the oven to cook. Whilst the sausages are cooking, make the fritatta mix.

For the mix, first chop the apple into small thin slices (Julienne). Put these into the mixing bowl along with the eggs, and cream. Add 1 tbsp of the barbecue sauce, and season with salt and pepper if you wish. Whisk together contents until eggs and cream are evenly mixed. Let the mixture rest for a minute or two, whilst we prepare the next stage.

In the yorkshire pudding tin, add 1/2 tbsp of the oil to each compartment (you are going to make two of these) and put in the oven to heat up the oil. After about a minute take out the tin and add the mixture to each compartment. With the egg ring / pastry cutter, cut a crouton out of the wholemeal bread.

Put the tray back into the oven and leave to cook for approximately 5 minutes. After 5 minutes add the crouton to a spare compartment in the tin for it to toast. By the time the bread has toasted, the frittata should be ready.

Whilst you have this five minute gap, in the saucepan add the remaining barbecue sauce, red wine syrup and chicken stock, whisk together and bring to the boil. Turn down to simmer.

When the sausages are cooked, cut into thin slices. You'll need them shortly, so keep them in the sauce to keep warm.

When both are ready, in the centre of your serving plate add the crouton, glazed sausages, and frittata. Repeat sausage and frittata layer to stack the dish. Drizzle remaining sauce around the edge.



Serve!