A stir fry of Sausage & Potatoes

Wow! It’s been close to 2 weeks since I came back here. All my brothers and sisters and with them my nieces and nephew came home to visit. They are all settled abroad and it’s their school summer holidays. And now that they have all gone back, I miss them all so much! 😦  Which is why it took so long to get back to writing these recipes down. Sighh.. muaah my babies.. 🙂

I’m not someone who likes her sausages in the traditional way, which is mostly just tossing them in butter and salt and pepper. I find it just a tad bit too bland. Some time ago, I’d found this ‘Italianized’ version to flavor sausages. It was a good change and packed a punch as i like to say.

The original recipe only used potatoes and calls for roasting them in an oven. I wanted to add some greens to it and added some blanched spinach and just went ahead and roasted them in my pan over the stove. I also added a good measure of left over spaghetti noodles to get them loaded and make it a complete one bowl meal that can be enjoyed for lunch or dinner. (Might get a bit too heavy for breakfast! 😉 )

To make this simple stir-fry you nee the following:

• A pack of Chicken sausages cut into bite sizes. (One pack usually contains about 6 or 8 sausages. Also, you can use turkey or even pork varieties if you so fancy)
• 2 large half boiled potatoes cubed (half boiled so that it cooks through faster on the pan/skillet)
• A bunch of baby spinach leaves.
• 1 medium Onion (roughly cubed)
• A pack of spaghetti which has been cooked according to package instructions and set aside to cool down.
• 1 tsp of Oregano
• 1 tsp of dried Basil
• 1 tsp of Chives (you may substitute with thyme or rosemary… any Italian flavoring you like…)
• 1 – 2 tsps of vinegar
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of cumin powder
• 1tsp of pepper powder
• 1/2th tsp of paprika/kashmiri chili powder
• Salt as required
• Oil as required (if you don’t have olive oil, you can use any regular refined, vegetable or sunflower oil.)
• Soy sauce (optional) 

The way I made it:

• Blanch the baby spinach leaves in boiling water for just about 2 minutes and strain them into a bowl of cold water. (Otherwise it will continue cooking in the residual heat and loose it’s flavor.)
• Heat a pan/skillet and pour about 2 – 3 tablespoons of Olive oil. Add the onions right away. Stir them till they start to sizzle and then tip in all the potatoes. Stir them for about a minute on high and then turn to low and cover. Let the potatoes cook through. This will take about 5 – 8 minutes. Stir occasionally so that all the potato cubes hit the heat. (Do not add water… )
• Once the potatoes a cooked, add the sausages. (Test using a skewer or a fork, if it goes through and out without resistance, it’s done. ) Add one more tablespoon of oil just it case it looks too dry. Turn the heat back up to high. Keep stirring for about a minute, till the sausages and potatoes and onions are equally distributed.
• Set the heat to a medium high. Stir for 30 seconds, leave them on the heat for a minute. Then stir again for 30 seconds and let them rest on the heat for a minute. Continue doing this, till they slowly start forming a nice roast crust over them.
• At this point add half of the baby spinach into the pan. Continue the stirring. Once the stir-fried potatoes and sausages have a dark brown sear on them, add, the oregano, basil, chives, vinegar, cumin powder, pepper powder, paprika and salt.
• Turn off the heat and add the rest of the baby spinach and stir well.
• You may flavor the cooked spaghetti with a teaspoon or two of soy sauce as I have, and then top it with the sausages and potatoes.

You can totally eliminate the spaghetti noodles and maybe add some scrambled eggs to the mix and THAT can be a good Sunday morning breakfast. The flavoring is totally up to you, You can increase or decrease the amount of Italian seasonings as per your taste.