Sausage and Fennel gratin

Save this recipe for your Christmas leftovers.

If you can start prepping for Christmas in October - You know who you are - then I can start to prep for Post Christmas in November.

A good way to start is by firstly clearing out your freezer, your going to need it ready to fill up with all that food you did not get around to eating over Christmas.

Today I found some chipolatas, with no label to identify when they were put in there I could pretend they were only put there last week but the fact that they were already wrapped in bacon did suggest otherwise. I am really bad at labelling food before I put it in the freezer, always assuming I will remember what it is I have cooked.

Ingredients - Serves 3.

1 tbsp olive oil

6 sausages, or 12 chipolatas

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 bulb of fennel, thinly sliced

3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

500g potatoes, such Desirée, thinly sliced

1 tsp thyme

salt & pepper for seasoning

400ml chicken or vegetable stock

Method

Heat the oven to 180c. Put the oil in a baking dish (approx. 2 litre) and pop in the oven to warm up. Once up to temperature add the sausages to the dish and cook for 15 minutes until they start to brown.

On the stove reduce the chicken stock by half.

Turn the oven down to 160c before adding the remaining ingredients in layers over the sausages. Onions, garlic, fennel and lastly the potato’s. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and thyme then pour over the stock.

Return to the oven and cook for 35 minutes.

Now grate some cheese over the top and cook for another 15 minutes until browned.

Serve with some fresh green vegetables such as kale or sprouting broccoli.