Sausage Hot Pot/Casserole - Slow Cooker

[Goldberg]

Knocked this up yesterday, just whacked everything into the Slow Cooker.
It has not been taken from a Recipe but from years of cooking I dare say it wont be far off one in a book somewhere.

12 Richmond Sausages (Were on offer, do not judge)
1 Onion finely sliced
200g mushrooms - these were from Aldi in water, part of their oriental selection
4 small Sweet Potatoes, diced
1 bottle/carton passata
1 tin chick peas
Dried Rosemary
Dried Thyme
Dried Sage
Couple of tablespoons mustard powder

The plan was to quickly brown off the sausages but I never got time, I also wanted to fry off the onion, again no time.
So I literally layered this all up into the Slow Cooker. I used more Sage than the other dried herbs and I topped the whole thing off with water to make sure it was all covered.
I left if for about 2 hours on high, 4 hours on low.

Served it up with some buttered crusty bread last night and it was fantastic.
Enough for lunch today and another bowl each tonight.
To be honest I liked how the sausages were really soft so next time I would repeat the above. But I would add more sage and some black pepper, possibly a bit of salt or a stock cube and a squeeze of tomato purée.

Chick peas... I don't mind them, I always use them to add something to Chilli's/Curries etc.. but they never soften ! The sweet potato was falling apart but the chick peas stood their ground. They could withstand the end of the world I reckon.

[macmilm]

Did the same on Saturday but used real sausages.
How could you go to all that trouble and use fucking shitty richmond sausages.... processed crap (basically pate in a skin)
I always look ideally for over 90% pork.
Chick peas..... boil em hard for 10-15 mins before adding to slow cooker and they turn out nice and soft.

[Goldberg]

The wife has never had a proper sausage..

Back on topic, proper sausages will be wasted slow cooked to an inch of their life. If you are going to invest in proper tasty sausage then they deserve to be the main part of the dish served with mash and a nice gravy or in a crusty roll etc..

Richmond ones are, as you point out, just pate in a skin.

[macmilm]

The wife has never had a proper sausage..

Back on topic, proper sausages will be wasted slow cooked to an inch of their life. If you are going to invest in proper tasty sausage then they deserve to be the main part of the dish served with mash and a nice gravy or in a crusty roll etc..

Richmond ones are, as you point out, just pate in a skin.

I will have to disagree, you will still have some taste but for me a proper sausage is also about texture, e.g Real bits of meat in it and after 6 hours in a slow cooker those textures are still there.
It is also for me about the shit that they hide in those cheap sausages with low meat content. For the sake of a couple of quid I prefer to know what I am eating.

But as you say the flavours in a slow cooked one are more about the sauce/gravy and I'm with you on having a passata base.

[super mike]

I've got a load of sausages in the freezer that need using up and this seems like it will add a bit of variety to Roast Veg and Sausage. Cheers for the idea!

Regarding chick peas; I use them in chillis as you say they add a bit of bulk and a bit of a different flavour. I find they do break down, but I slow cook the hell of it on a hob (so I can reduce it and adjust temps to suit) for 6 hrs or so.