Henry salad

Warning: This salad is not for vegetarians. 

This is Henry.

Henry (right)

 
Henry had a very happy and, for pigs destined to end up on our plate, long life (3). 

Apparently he was especially partial to custard creams. I'd like to say the sausages made from him tasted of custard creams, but they didn't. They tasted of Happy Pig. OK, they didn't, they tasted of sausages. But very, very good sausages.

Last week was the first Salad Club of the New Year. Our lovely freelancer Janey Stapes offered me some sausages made from her parent's pig, Henry. Since I've been trying to convince Salad Club of the merits of sausage and pumpkin salad for some time, this seemed like the ideal opportunity to try it out on them. 


In the end, though, we made much simpler salad, with the sausages being the only ingredient that needed cooking.  

Henry (after)

Henry Salad ingredients

Serves 12-14

• 24 Henry sausages*
• 1 jar marinated grilled mixed peppers
• 1 large punnet cherry tomatoes
• 2 cans chickpeas
• 1 bunch basil
• 2 packs feta cheese
• 1 bag baby spinach
• 1 bag rocket
• Chilli flakes, to taste
• Toasted sesame and pumpkin seeds, a sprinkle each

 *If you can't get hold of Henry sausages, use top quality butcher's sausages. That is, buy them from an actual butcher's, not a supermarket. Or even better, from someone who makes sausages. 

Cooking with Henry

Gabi adds the finishing touches

It was thought that Henry, being an old (and happy) pig, may have turned a bit sinewy, and so rather than making him into chops and joints, he was made ENTIRELY INTO SAUSAGES! If I were a pig, that's the way I'd want to go.

This meant that Henry sausages had a very high meat content. It also meant he had a higher fat content than you'd find in most sausages.To remove some of the fat, I roasted the sausages on a grill pan at about 200⁰C in the oven . After 15 minutes I pricked the sausages to let more fat drain out, then continued roasting for another 20 or so minutes. There was a lot of fat. But we all know that fat means flavour. 

If your sausages aren't of such a high meat and fat content (ie normal sausages), you probably don't need to prick them, just roast for 30-40 minutes, turning once during cooking, till most of the sausage is browned.

How to make Henry sausage salad

I normally twist my sausages into half or 3rds before baking them for salads. That way you get lots of little individual sausages, each with its own skin, to bite into. Henry was having none of that, spilling from his casing when I tried to twist the links. Instead I cooked the links whoe then cut each sausage into 2, 3 or 4 pieces, just to give some variety.


All you need to do to make this salad cut the tomatoes in half, rip the basil into small pieces, and mix everything together with the oil from the marinated peppers.

Put more dried chilli flakes out for people to help themselves, along with the toasted sesame and pumpkin seeds.

Andrea, Sausage nosed Jane, Robbie