sausage Archives - Time for a coffee

June 6, 2026June 5, 2026

Greek Sausage

I was at the Designer Outlet East Midlands charging my car and I had time for some dinner. There is a food court with a choice of options about what to eat. I was drawn to Kouzina.

I have watched with interest the increase in Greek style fast food outlets. There have been Greek (and Turkish) fast food joints for decades, but what we have seen over recent years are Green style outlets in shopping centres, food courts and places like the Designer Outlet East Midlands.

There was a lot of choice on the menu, more about presentation than anything else. You could order wraps, pittas, salad bowls, boxes, as well as additional sides.

They had a special offer on the box, so I went with the Greek sausage box. This took a while to arrive as they had to cook some fresh sausage for me. I was quite happy with that, I also needed to kill time whilst the car was charging. The box arrived. In there was two sausages, chips, pitta bread, greek salad and a pot of hummus.

The sausage was nice, but nowhere near the level of tasty sausage I once had at The Real Greek. I was though pleased it had been cooked to order just for me. I enjoyed the rest of the box as well. The salad was nice, the hummus was good and I did like the addition of the bread as well.

Overall a nice box of food.

June 19, 2025

Duck with lentils and sausages

Duck and lentils

When I was in France back in March I stocked up with some cans of what I would call cassoulet but actually were a variety of tins with duck or sausages, some with lentils, some with beans. One of these was a tin of Saucisses de Montbéliard et lentilles cuisinées.

Saucisses de Montbéliard is a traditional French smoked sausage, which I suspect tastes even better if it was cooked from fresh, and didn’t come from a tin! However, I just had the tin, so didn’t really have a choice.

The duck legs I had cooked earlier that week, so was just heating them up in the oven. I think the “proper” way to cook these would be to confit them, but I didn’t have the time, and more importantly I am not actually sure how to confit. Must look that up at some point. I heated up the contents of the can in a pan for around five minutes.

I put the lentils in a large bowl and added the duck legs.

The duck was not as tender as I would have liked, but they were still tasty. I really enjoyed the lentils, and the sausages were actually quite good. I think, when I go back to France, I will get some more of these.

May 21, 2025May 19, 2025

Schupfnudeln with Smoked Sausage

I mentioned previously that I quite like the themed weeks that Lidl does, recently they had an Alps style week with their Alpenfest style range of products. I got some classic smoked sausages and some German style potato dumplings, schupfnudeln. I cooked them first just in the pan, the next time I cooked them in a different way.

This time I sliced the smoked sausage and cooked it in the frying pan with some onions. When the onions were soft I added some mushrooms.

I pan fried the dumplings in a separate pan. I did add some butter to the schupfnudeln towards the end of cooking to add some colour.

I then combined the two pans with some crème fraîche and parmesan cheese.

Tasty and different to what I had done before.

May 19, 2025

Schupfnudeln with Smoked Sausage

I quite like the themed weeks that Lidl does, recently they had an Alps style week with their Alpenfest style range of products.

I got some classic smoked sausages and some German style potato dumplings, schupfnudeln.

They were easy to prepare, and I pan fried the sausage and dumplings in separate pans. I did add some butter to the schupfnudeln towards the end of cooking to add some colour. The schupfnudeln reminded me of fried gnocchi.

This was a really tasty meal, and I served mine with some salad on the side.

May 17, 2024

Calabrian Spicy Sausages

I have seen these sausages in M&S quite a few times, but have never bought them until this weekend, where they were reduced by 35%.

The suino bianco pigs are outdoor bred by the Madeo family in the hills of San Demetrio Corone in Calabria, Italy to the highest welfare standards. The suino bianco naturally has marbled meat and its diet of cereals such as barley, corn and flax seed add to its characteristic delicate flavour. Made from Calabrian pork blended with aromatic spices.

I cut them in half and cooked them on the barbecue.

They were quite spicy, but I wasn’t that impressed with them. They had a kick, but I felt like they lacked flavour, the chilli took over what every that characteristic delicate flavour was that the pork was supposed to have. They were still nice, but I don’t think I would buy them again.

October 25, 2023

Homemade bean dish

I originally called this dish a cassoulet. However I didn’t think it was an authentic cassoulet, so checked for a definition of what a cassoulet is.

Cassoulet is a rich, slow-cooked stew originating in southern France. The food writer Elizabeth David described it as “that sumptuous amalgamation of haricot beans, sausage, pork, mutton and preserved goose, aromatically spiced with garlic and herbs”.

Yup, what I cooked wasn’t a cassoulet. I didn’t use haricot beans, mutton or goose, and didn’t slow cook it either. Maybe something to try at another time.

I did though make a dish with beans, pork belly, and Polish sausage.

In a large deep frying pan, I have a lovely large pan I got at IKEA which is ideal for this.

I added a splash of olive oil to which I added some pancetta. After cooking this for a while I added chopped garlic, with diced red onion, peppers and mushrooms.

I cooked the pancetta, onions, peppers, and mushrooms until the onions and pepper were softened. I then added some flour, stock, and some tomato puree. I cooked this for a while (ten minutes) before adding some sliced Polish sausage and some cooked pork belly chunks. The pork belly I had slow roasted in the oven for an hour.

After ten more minute I added two packs of beans, one cannellini, and one borlotti. As they are already cooked I was just warming the beans through.

I served this with some roasted potatoes and cooked vegetables.

October 4, 2023

Mixed Grill at the Gardens

We were on holiday at the Cerro Mar Gardens in Albufeira in Portugal we made a couple of visits to the hotel restaurant. On my first visit I had an excellent swordfish dish.

On our second visit, I was tempted by the cataplana, but it was for two, and everyone else was choosing different dishes. I even considered just having the cataplana to myself.

Cataplana is a traditional Algarvian dish cooked in a special copper pot of the same name. The ingredients typically include onion, red and green peppers, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, tarragon, parsley, white wine, and a variety of meat or seafood, such as cubed pork, chouriço sausage, chicken, fish, prawns, clams, or other shellfish.

In the end I went with the mixed grill. This was steak, lamb, chicken, sausage, and two kinds of pork. It was served with fries and a tiny salad.

I thought the swordfish was excellent, this dish, not so much. I was rather disappointed. Maybe it was too simple, but the cuts of meat were rather thin and were overcooked and slightly dry. I would like to have had more salad. The fries were okay. That really though sums up the whole dish, it was okay, nothing special.

I wish now I had ordered the cataplana.

August 5, 2023

Salad, Sausage and Chips

This was a meal I threw together from what we had in the fridge. We had a couple of the Greek Tzoumagias-Style Sausages from Lidl. These I cooked and served with a salad and some French fries.

The tomatoes were homegrown. I also used lettuce, cucumber, red pepper, and pomegranate. I also had some olives and pulses, which I added to the salad.

The French fries were from M&S, these are easy to cook, crispy, and importantly gluten free.

We enjoyed the meal.

December 6, 2022December 6, 2022

Time for a German Breakfast

I was staying in Berlin for a few days attending a conference. The last time I had been to Germany was in 1985 staying for a couple of days in Munich on the way back from a camp in Yugoslavia. This was my first visit to Berlin and the first visit to a unified Germany. I was staying at the NH Collection Mitte ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ in the heart of what was East Berlin.

I had breakfast in the hotel and I did find it interesting what was on offer and what I could have. I had never had breakfast before at a German hotel.

So once I got my coffee and a (disappointing) orange juice, I headed to the service area to choose something for breakfast.

There was a kitchen that cooked omelettes and fried eggs to order. On the hot plates were Nuremberg sausage or Nürnberger Rostbratwurst. These were small grilled sausages with a distinctive flavour. There was also scrambled egg, which was nothing to shout about. I quite liked the cheese covered grilled tomato, the cheese certainly enhanced that tomato. The streaky bacon was overcooked for my liking. I guess if you like crispy bacon then you would enjoy this streaky bacon, personally I prefer my bacon cooked, but still soft. Though initially a little apprehensive, I did quite enjoy the mushrooms in a cream sauce.

There was a wide range of breakfast items available. I did expect to see cheeses and cold meats, but was a little surprised to see fresh salad alongside. That felt a lot more like lunch than breakfast. Next to the salad was a lovely selection of fresh fruit. Elsewhere there was yoghurts and cereal.

I really loved the bread selection, as well as a range of bread rolls, there was a great range of loaves which you could cut slices from. There was white bread, seeded bread and wholemeal bread. Along with the bread was pastries and croissant.

There was also a pancake machine, which you could use to make your own pancakes, to which you could add maple syrup.

This was a splendid selection of breakfast items and I really enjoyed eating breakfast at the hotel.

August 4, 2022January 31, 2023