Chipolatas with chocolate glaze and Hasselback potatoes (#UnileverHalloween)

After a long walk at Cogges earlier today we had a quick platter lunch - just sandwiches and fruit. For dinner I wanted to try a recipe for sausages with chocolate glaze. An original recipe appeared in one of those seasonal Waitrose booklets a year or two ago. I have snipped a page out of the booklet, and recently came across it, while sorting through my magazine clippings. I couldn't find any venison sausages, and got beef chipolatas instead. I have also slightly adapted the recipe, by changing some ingredients, and also served the sausages with Hasselback potatoes. I have added juniper berries, Knorr beef stock pot and a dash of red wine.

Chipolatas with chocolate glaze and Hasselback potatoes
Ingredients:
a pack of beef chipolatas (340g)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
a pinch of caster sugar
1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
2tbsp balsamic vinegar (I used Maille balsamic vinegar)
1 Knorr beef stock pot
15 dried juniper berries
a dash of red wine
1 1/2 tbsp grated dark chocolate (like Lindt dark cooking chocolate)
for potatoes:
2 medium potatoes
2tbsp olive oil
1/2 Mexican flavour pot


Start by slicing the potatoes thinly across without going all the way down. The potatoes should still hold together. Mix olive oil with the Mexican seasoning and using hands, smear the mix all over the potatoes. Put the potatoes in a small ceramic dish or roasting tin, and in the oven preheated to 200C. Cook for about 40+ minutes. Check with a wooden skewer if they're cooked.

Fry the chipolatas in the oil, turning frequently until evenly browned on all sides. Transfer them to a plate. Slice an onion in half, and then slice thinly each half. Cook in the oil left from sausages. Add a pinch of caster sugar and cinnamon, stir for about 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and juniper berries, stir well and cook for another 5 minutes. Dissolve the beef stock pot in 120ml of boiling water. Pour over the onion, add the sausages and simmer for 5 minutes. Grate the chocolate and sprinkle over the sausages, stir well. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Don't worry about chocolate making the sausages sweet. As it is a dark chocolate, it only adds richness and depth to the glaze. These sausages will be lovely served on the Bonfire night.

In this recipe I used two Knorr products: Beef Stock Pot and Mexican Flavour Pot. Mexican Flavour Pot is a new product from Knorr range of flavour pots. This is a seasoning paste made from red pepper, herbs (oregano, coriander), cayenne pepper, smoked chili powder, garlic, onion, cumin, black and white pepper and other ingredients.

For two potatoes I used 1/2 pot, and that was quite hot for us. If you enjoy spicy hot food, you might want to use the whole pot, but for me that was quite enough. The flavours of Mexican seasoning work very well with roasted potatoes. I think it would be lovely with roast vegetables like sweet peppers, fennel, tomatoes and other.

This is my second recipe for #UnileverHalloween culinary challenge.
I received a hamper of Unilever products to create a recipe suitable for Halloween and Bonfire.

See my Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes for Halloween.