Recipe 38: Grilled Sausages with Caramelized Onions and Apples

After a very successful friend Thanksgiving, I had a short week before thanksgiving, but I still needed to feed myself.  So I chose to make a dish that I have had on my list a very long time but never attempted.

This dish was very German kind of, with sausages and apples and onions, or at least it reminded me a bit of Oktoberfest and also of Fall.

Here is a picture of the final result:

And here is the recipe that I used: (Link)

Ingredients

• 8 sausages
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 medium onions, halved and sliced
• 3 large apples - peeled, cored, and cut into thin wedges
• 2 tablespoons apple cider or red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Prepare grill for high heat.
2. With a fork, poke sausages several times. Place in a pot, cover with water, and simmer over medium-high heat until cooked through, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Warm butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onions, and cook until soft and translucent. Stir in apples, vinegar, and brown sugar; cook, stirring gently, until caramelized, about 10 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Meanwhile, place sausages on grill (or under broiler), and cook until well browned. Serve on a mound of caramelized apples and onions.

Changes

I made several changes to this recipe:

The first is that instead of cooking the sausage in water I instead used two bottles of beer.  I am not sure how much of an effect this had, but I really enjoyed it.

The second change was that I also made mashed potatoes to go with this dish.  I used this recipe (Link), which was pretty simple and used red potatoes which I like.  One thing to note about that recipe is that it is for 100 servings.  I obviously did not make that much.  I believe I made 2 servings and it was fine with this dish. 

The final change is that I did not have a grill around to cook the sausage on.  Instead I used the broiler for just a few minutes.

The Process

  I started by first preparing the potatoes.  I added them to a pot of water.

At this point, Sprinks walked in and stared at me.  

At the same time I started preparing the sausages.  Here you can see one sausage lifted out of the beer.  I almost forgot this when I was making it, but don't forget to poke holes in the sausage it makes a large difference it the flavors they soak up.

While both of those were cooking I prepared the apples and the onions.  Here you can see the carnage of coring and slicing apples. I am not the neatest corer in the world, but it got the job done.

By this time the sausages were done, so I set them aside and  begin working on the onions and apple mix.

I then prepared a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place the sausages on it, to prepare for the broiler.

 With the onions and apples cooking, I begin to mash the potatoes, here you can see the butter, garlic and romano cheese added.

Soon the onions and apples were ready.  I didn't add a whole lot of salt and pepper to this, but you certainly could if desired.

I then finished mashing the potatoes.

Finally, I placed the sausages in the broiler.  I only broiled them for about a minute or 2 on each side, you definitely don't want to leave them in too long.

You can't really see this in the picture below, but I put the mashed potatoes down first, then on top of that I put the onions and apples and finally topped it off with the sausage.

I really liked this dish.  I know that I basically say that about everything that I make.... so I guess I am not sure how much that means.  But I thought this was great.  Definitely not very green or veggie oriented, so it wouldn't hurt to add a side salad to this dish.  But in terms of quantity of food this was more than enough for me.