Bangers and Mash (serves four, since I sim­ply can­not cook for two, or even three)

4 large pork sausages
3 large King Edward or oth­er mash­ing potato
1/2 stick soft­ened butter
1/2 cup sin­gle cream
skim mik (to thin)
2 tsps sea salt
fresh ground pep­per to taste

Peel pota­toes and quar­ter them, then put in large saucepan and add water to cov­er (I love Lau­rie Col­win’s sto­ry of a boyfriend who, when giv­en this direc­tion, asked in con­ster­na­tion, “what cov­er?”). Boil for 30 minutes.

Mean­while, place sausages in a skil­let over medi­um heat and cov­er with a splat­ter screen. Turn them fre­quent­ly as they cook to make sure that all sur­faces are nice­ly siz­zled. The sausages will feel stiff to the poke when they are done, per­haps ten min­utes in all.

Drain the pota­toes. Mash with but­ter and cream, and some milk if they are too thick, then add salt and pep­per to taste.

With this, to salve my con­science, we had sug­ar snap peas sauteed in olive oil, and a nice sal­ad of spinach, toma­toes and avo­ca­do. Yum. The per­fect cosy din­ner for a thun­der­stormy Lon­don night.