Each month a local Primrose Hill restaurant provides instructions on how to cook one of their dishes at home, this month it’s Sausages and Mash à l’Absinthe.

For the sausages:
Buy 4 of Bob’s Toulouse sausages from Barrett’s on England’s Lane.
Pierce a few holes in them, sear them in a hot pan with vegetable oil, then cook in a hot oven (200 degrees) for about 15 mins.
Rest them for 10 mins before serving.

For the mash:
500 g of Charlotte potatoes
100 g butter
salt, pepper, nutmeg
30 cl whipping cream (to taste)

Peel and rinse the potatoes.
Put them in a pan of cold water (make sure they are covered), bring to the boil and simmer till cooked.
Drain, add the butter, mash together, season to taste.
Reheat before serving, and add the cream to taste.

Mustard sauce:
25 g chopped shallots
10 g butter
2 soupspoons of Dijon or seedy mustard
400 ml veal stock
salt and pepper
15 cl whipping cream

Sweat the shallots with the butter, add the mustard, then the veal stock, reduce to half, add the cream and season to taste.

– Et voilà, enough for 4 people, you’re good to go. But if this doesn’t work, come and eat it at l’Absinthe!

L’Absinthe (all day) Brasserie
40 Chalcot Road, NW1 8LS
020 7483 4848 (more info in Market Place).

Nicolas Wine’s recommendation, to accompany this dish, is a Saint Joseph from the Rhone Valley at £15.96. It is a 100% Syrah, coloured deep garnet with ruby highlights, and with a nose of typical spices and cocoa. It offers a good balance, full-bodied, with nice elegant tannins.
Nicolas Wine, 67 Regent’s Park Road, NW1 8XA, tel. 020 7722 8576.
For opening times, see On The Hill Market Place.