Add some Caribbean sunshine to everyone's favourite winter warmer dish with my jerk sausage casserole... its got that fiery kick that we love about Jamaican food but its balanced out perfectly with the sweetness of pineapple and pork sausages. If you don't like bit of chilli heat then this probably isn't the recipe for you, but if you want to shake up your midweek meals and really warm yourself up on a cold wet day then this is for you!!
Add a little bit of cornflour at the end as a thickening agent in this recipe, just because I don't want to over reduce the cooking liquor and it becomes so intense with spice that you can taste the lovely sausages, scotch bonnets can be overpowering but when you cook them correctly they will soon become your favourite chilli.
Prep time 20 mins
Cooking time 2hrs.
8 pork sausage (The Jolly Hog are my fave)
2tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
Thumbsized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1 scotch bonnet chilli, seeds removed, roughly chopped... WARNING please use gloves when handling these chillis, and use a separate chopping board if possible.
1/2tsp salt and pepper
1tbsp brown sugar
2tsp ground allspice
1tsp grated nutmeg
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
2tbsp tomato puree
400ml chicken stock
2 bell pepper, any colour, cored and sliced
2 spring onions, roughly chopped
150g pineapple flesh, cut into chunks
Juice of half a lime
3tbsp cider vinegar
2tsp cornflour mixed with 2tbsp cold water
In a deep saucepan heat 1tbsp of olive oil and brown the sausages all over (in batches if need be) remove and set aside.
In the same saucepan add the remaining olive oil and begin to sauté the diced onion on a medium heat, this will take about 8mins. If your saucepan is brown on the bottom from the sausages just add a splash of water, this will deglaze the pan and you'll add lots more flavour.
Once the onions are nice and soft add the garlic, ginger and scotch bonnet and cook gently for 2 mins until fragrant.
Now in a mug add the salt, pepper, sugar, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon and a dash of water, stir well and now add this to the saucepan. Cook gently for at least 5 minutes, stirring often until the spices are releasing all they're aromas.
Add in the tomato puree and cook for a minute.
Add the stock, peppers, spring onions, pineapple. lime juice, cider vinegar, and sausages and turn the heat up, bring to the boil and then reduce and cover and simmer for at least an hour and a half. (You can transfer to am oven proof casserole dish with a lid and pop in the oven at 160c if you prefer, just check every now and again to make sure its not to dry)
After the cooking time, have a taste, it should have a kick but not be to over powering.
At this stage its nearly ready to dish up so if its still bit liquid add in the cornflour and water mixture, cook for another 10 mins and it should be nicely thickened
I like to serve mine with some massive jacket potato wedges, and green beans.
Always handle scotch bonnet chilli's with gloves, discard the gloves and then wash your hands just to be safe... trust me you don't want to scratch your eyes or anything else with this chilli under your nails!!
Do not mistake ground allspice for mixed spice, its not the same thing at all... allspice is a dried berry that adds a delicious authentic flavour to Caribbean dishes, mixed spice is what you dig out once a year for Christmas treats!!
