The Tale of the Mystery Sausage.

I’ve had a liking for a number of years for Chinese Plum Sausages. I don’t know why but mercifully for some reason I’ve always been able to stumble across at least one butcher that’s easily gotten to that will make Chinese Plum Sausages.
I’ve only really found them here in Australia, I think maybe it might in part relate to the same kind of reasoning used to explain the presence of things like pineapple and beetroot in hamburgers here, we like a little sweet with our meat. Actually in reading over that I realize that me talking about butchers who are easily gotten to makes me sound like I’m a member of some heavy handed sausage mafia. Fear not dear readers, I’m no thug, I was talking about physically getting to them by either walking or catching public transport. No butchers were harmed in the making of this dish. Though some might deserve it.
My latest source of Plum Sausage is again the Preston Market. There in the meat section there is a butcher that I go to regularly to get my meat on weeks where I’m feeling too poor to splurge on the absolutely impeccable meat that they sell at Belmore Biodynamic Meats on Miller st in Preston. The name of my Preston Market butcher escapes me but I think it might be something like Joe’s Gourmet Meats or something we’ll call them that anyway. I tend not to look at the signs I just look at the trays and if nothing catches my eye I move on.
I had started going to Joe’s after a couple of years of going to the markets and trying nearly all the butchers. When I try out a butcher I want the quality of the meat to be good as well as the people behind the counter being nice, they don’t have to go overboard or anything but I want to be able to know that if I ever need something cut a certain way I can ask. Joe’s are the best on balance for everything I found, they have pretty good quality meat, the people behind the counter are always friendly and quick to serve you when you get to the counter and they have two counters side by side, one that does you’re straight forward unadorned cuts of meat like steaks and chops and roasts and the other that does all the convenience stuff like pre crumbed schnitzels, marinated kebabs, lamb back straps and ribs and also the gourmet sausages under which my Chinese Plum ones apparently fall. That’s where the gourmet comes into the name it would seem. The lamb back straps too are particularly good they come in this tangy barbeque/tomato marinade thing and are always really tender. They go really well with some salad greens, little pan fried new potatoes and a little balsamic reduced to a syrup.
In the last month or so I think they’ve gotten a new sales girl at the counter because I don’t recall seeing her before and she has that air of confusion that can usually be explained by inexperience. I went there for my usual staples including the Chinese Plum Sausages, as I always do, about a month and a half ago, when she served me at the counter for the first time.
It was a busyish Friday night and I had to wait a while before she got around to me but that was ok, like I say they’re always normally pretty good. She got me the other stuff I asked for and then at the end I asked for a couple of the Plum sausages because I felt like a little treat and they were right over in the very corner of the display counters furthest away from the counter staff as they usually are, I don’t know why they’re there, maybe I’m the only one that likes them. Usually they get out this log rod thing to pull them in closer but she looked around confused for a bit and couldn’t find it so she went to the cool room to get some more presumably and then came back with a couple of sausages and started to wrap them up.
They didn’t look like my sausages normally do but it was busy and she was new and I didn’t want to be all whiney about it so I took my sausages and went on with my life.

I got them home and a day or so later when I decided to cook them I got them out of the freezer and I’m looking at them thinking these are so not my sausages; there is basil in them for a start. Nothing that could even be vaguely referred to as Chinese (and in Australia that’s a pretty broad umbrella) has basil in it. They looked different, they smelled different, they were mystery sausages.

I decided to cook them anyway, why not. They were fantastic, not Chinese plum but bloody good, some kind of sun dried tomato and basil thing I’m guessing.
It was a shaky moment there for my relationship with my Preston Market Meat butcher but the mystery sausages were still great so I was prepared to forgive them.
I went back last night for the first time since then and she was there to serve me again. She seemed a little more world weary on this visit, I think she’s getting over the job, either that or they are getting over her coz there was a sign on the wall behind her advertising for a new counter person. I asked for my sausages and she went to the fridge again, I kinda like this game you never know what you’re going to get, she comes out with the sausages, they aren’t the ones like last time but they aren’t the Chinese plum ones either. I take them home unpack all my stuff and start studying for a test I have to take in the next couple of weeks –its math, I’m terrible at math. I decide to knock up some of the sausages for a lateish dinner with some beans because I couldn’t really be bothered doing a hell of a lot of cooking and it inspired me to put the recipe up here.
It might not be pretty but there’s a lot to be said for a little bit of comforting late night sausage and beans, my naturopath told me to “eat like a pauper” in the evenings “like a king” in the mornings and “like a prince” at lunch, I know sausage and beans isn’t what she’s talking about but I like to pretend that she does so if she asks I can say “what, that’s peasant food”

Sausage and beans.

Look you can dress this up or dress it down either way its going to be good and it’s a one pan dish. Get your sausages, if you find the sausages you’re getting are a little fatty boil them for a bit in unsalted water first, that will cook them most of the way and remove a lot of the fat and then you can just finish them off in the pan to give them colour. For the beans you can be as basic as just getting some baked beans from a tin and throwing them in to heat through or if you have a little time you can still use something like tinned canellini beans dice a little onion and sauté it, throw in the beans and then add some nice skinned chopped tomatoes a touch of brown sugar some balsamic vinegar, chopped oregano, a little crushed garlic and let everything reduce on a low heat for a bit.

I’m not giving you a photo of this one either, where would the mystery be in that.