Do you ever just crave something?? I had been to a farmers market and clearly the Wild Boar sausages that I had bought had been calling me. I wanted to couple them with some other great flavours but was not sure what I needed to do. The day had progressed and my mind had not stopped being on dinner since breakfast. I had not managed to get out for a forage at the weekend and this was adding to my restlessness. It got to 5:30 and I snuck out of the office and jumped into my car… I have a 40 minute window and I know.. I think I know, where there might be some St Georges Mushrooms.
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Wild Boar Sausages with Garlic Mustard Polenta and St George's Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients:
300g polenta
500 ml Chicken Stock (or Organic Stock Cubes)
Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 Thick Wild Boar Sausages
4 Large St Georges mushrooms, sliced
A good handful of Garlic Mustard Leaves
2 tbsp Marsala wine or sweet sherry
100ml double cream
Maldon Salt
Black Pepper
From the garden:
Small bunch of Thyme
This dish does not take long to prepare and is perfect for two. You will need a frying pan and a medium sized saucepan.
Get the sausages frying in a little Olive Oil. My Wild Boar sausages were a little delicate so required a medium temperature so they didn’t explode! Keep turning the sausages as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
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In the saucepan place your chicken stock and bring it to the boil. I didn’t but you could quite easily add a few flavourings to the stock at this point. Chop you Thyme and pluck your Garlic Mustard leaves from their stalks removing the little piece of stem that holds the leaf to the stalk – place the leaves on top of each other and roll into a cigar and then finely chop.
When your Wild Boar Sausages are cooked place them on a warm plate and prepare for the rush that is serving.
Get your plates warm.
In the frying pan that you cooked the sausages in add your mushrooms and Thyme if there is to much fat in the pan remove some, or don’t, it's up to you!).
Your saucepan of stock should now be boiling, pour in the Polenta steadily but not all at once and stir continuously. We want the Polenta to cook for 5 minutes or so to become a hard Polenta but you don’t want it so hard that it is dry and burns on the bottom of the pan - just solid. Half way through the cooking add 3/4 ‘s of the Garlic Mustard, the Butter a good glug of Olive Oil and a very generous amount of Salt and Pepper. Polenta isn’t anything but texture without flavourings.
(Note: This recipe works really well with Wild Garlic too!)
The frying St Georges Mushrooms should now be nicely browned. Add the Marsala wine and reduce, driving the Alcohol from the the liquid and scraping the flavour from the bottom of the pan. Add seasoning and when sufficiently reduced add the double cream.
Check the seasoning of the sauce and Polenta and we are ready to plate up..
Simply take a large serving spoon and place a good sized portion (a giant quenelle if you can) in the middle of each plate. Take your rested Wild Boar sausages and cut into four diagonal pieces each. Pile these in the centre of each plate on top of the Polenta. Now cover each portion of the sausage with the umptuous rich creamy sauce and then garnish with the remaining Garlic Mustard leaves.
Rich juicy Wild Boar sausage with the creamy sweet sauce served on a mildly garlic and truly delicious soft Polenta… What could be better!
Not bad for a late in the day forage!!
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