Hey guess what? It’s Lollipop Tuesday! In case you missed the first installment of the Lollipop Tuesday series, you can catch up on the deal here.
So today’s new adventure? Bangers ‘n’ Mash. That’s right: Bangers ‘n’ Mash – a classy dish for a classy dame. With pictures!
Last night, trapped indoors by an incredibly inconvenient bacterial infection monster (let’s call him Gary), I resorted to my two brand spankin’ new cookbooks I got for Christmas. I handed them over to Dave and told him to pick something ridiculous. For some reason, he kept picking things that had “Big Beef” in the title. Like I said… he’s a man’s man.
After repeating the recipe for “Big Beef Balls” with Something-or-Other and giggling, he finally pointed out the winner: Rachael Ray’s recipe for “Fancypants Bangers ‘n’ Mash” from her “365: No Repeats” book (I couldn’t help myself). It just so happens that yesterday at noon, the teaser was released for the short film I directed this summer, Code Monkey. Given that it features a song called “Fancypants,” I couldn’t help but make the big sausage and potato mess in celebration. (Check out the teaser here if you just can’t live with the curiosity).
I sent Dave to the store for the necessitites and prepped the kitchen. In the duration of his absence, he managed to call me 3 separate times with very specific questions regarding my needs. Turns out “bangers” isn’t really an American term. Apparently it’s not the kind of thing you can just walk into a grocery store and ask for. Not even the butcher knew what the hell he was talking about.
I googled it and found that “bangers” is a term for “British bangers” and is just a type of white sausage.
Mmm... Bubbling Pork Butt
After telling Dave I had no idea and just get something that had pig butt in it, he came home to find that Rachael Ray had made a note in the side comments that any sort of sausage would do.
Let it be known: there are times in this world when reading a book is actually more efficient than googling something.
And so Dave returned with the goods I began my journey into the sloppy world of onions, mashed potatoes, and pig butt. Delicious.
Gary, the bacterial infection monster, kept me lightheaded the entire time and zapped my sense of taste and smell. I had to enlist two hungry boys for their expert opinions and actually got some pretty rave reviews.
Final Analysis: Fancypants Bangers ‘n’ Mash: a stupid name for a recipe that tastes far better than it looks. ♣
Thanks to this cool cat taking the time to lay it out on her recipesfromkari blog, you can check out Rachael Ray’s Bangers ‘n’ Mash here and give it a go yourself. I recommend playing with the pig butt before cooking it. It’s mushy and mysterious and will occupy at least three solid minutes of your time.
The Jackie Blog 
Fantastic. Thanks for the laughs before bed
LikeLike
Now I understand David’s frantic phone call, which I didn’t hear until it was much too late! The bangers we have each year at our New Year’s “Pork-a-Palooza” are from Whole Foods, where they identify them as “Bangers”! Because we’ve hosted 4 or 5 Irish over the last several years, we became quite familiar with bangers and mash.
LikeLike
Ha! I entirely forgot that he called you to ask! It’s because when I was eyeing the sausagefest (but not that kind) at your house, I saw one of the pots labeled “bangers” and told him to get something that looked like what we ate there 🙂 Now that I know I can get some good ones at Whole Foods, I will surely head there for my future pig butt needs.
LikeLike