Jean’s sausage surprise
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 4
In celebration of EastEnders' 40th anniversary, Jean brings you her signature dish, the sausage surprise. The dish has evolved over the years, and Jean sometimes serves it without the mash, baking the sausages in the casserole. This makes it more transportable, too.
You will need a 25cm/10inch deep casserole dish for this recipe.
By Jean Slater
Ingredients
For the mash
For the filling
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 8 pork sausages
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 400g tin baked beans in tomato sauce
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp mustard
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce or brown sauce
- 1 tbsp treacle
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.
Put the potatoes in a large pan of salted water, bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes or until soft.
Drain the potatoes in a sieve. Melt the butter and milk in the pan and add the potatoes. Mash until smooth. Stir in half the grated cheddar and set aside.
Meanwhile, add the oil to a frying pan and fry the onion, pepper and carrot over a medium heat for 10 minutes until the vegetables are softened and starting to brown a bit.
Add the tin of tomatoes, beans, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and treacle. Stir and simmer together for 5 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a deep ovenproof casserole dish. Spoon the mash over the top to cover.
Put the casserole on a baking tray and pop into the oven for 20 minutes.
Preheat the grill to high. Add the sausages to the grill pan and grill for 15 minutes, turning often, until the sausages are browned all over.
Remove the casserole from the oven and poke the sausages in so they are jumping out of the mash saying “surprise!”. Cover the mash with the remaining grated cheese.
Bake for a further 15 minutes until the mash is crispy and golden and the beans are bubbling.
Recipe tips
You can make the sausage surprise without mash, just pop the grilled sausages in the beans and bake for 30 minutes. The casserole can be frozen before baking for a month. Defrost completely and top with the cheese mash, then bake as above until piping hot before serving.
