Cavalock and The Beer Soaked Sausages

It's all about being creative and that about sums up why I enjoy cooking. When previously I used to follow every recipe right down to the last damn milligram ingredient, I now like to 'wing it' once I have scanned through various online recipes or books. Adding my own spin on stuff has been something I have always enjoyed doing since I was a kid, I guess that's one of the main reasons why I went into the creative/media industry.

Anyway, I figured it's about time I posted some home cooked goodness, a dinner-for-one again as usual. :) I got me some bratwurst sausages, peas and cherry tomatoes lying in the fridge so let's try to put something together.

Now why not some sausages with mushy peas and roasted tomatoes? Instead of plowing through all them food magazines I downloaded or books I bought, I decided to just Google "cooking sausages", "cooking tomatoes" etc. well, you get the idea.

Mushy peas are easy. Place them in a saucepan with water and some butter, boil them till they are soft, then mash them while adding some lemon juice (I used yuzu instead) and little more butter. The roasted tomatoes, just drizzle some olive oil and grill them in a pan. Real simple and they taste great! I poached the sausages first in a 1/2 beer, 1/2 water saucepan for about 20 minutes then grill them till they are nice and done.

Couple things that made it work ... first was how I didn't use any salt at all. The sausages were savory enough and with the natural sweetness of those little roasted tomatoes complementing them, I think it all came together.

If you bake or if you really like your desserts, here's something to try. Green tea liqueur! The real made-in-Japan stuff by Suntory and its at our local Isetan supermarket. Lots of possibilities here from green tea tiramisu to green tea vodka.