Smokey Sausage Chowder

This smokey, chunky, milky broth is perfect for chilly autumn lunchtimes.

Start with the sausage. I found a packet in my local cornershop of Polish Small Silesian sausages, I hvaen't bought these before so they were a bit of a gamble. They are small light brown sausages, similar to the Kabanos I've bought before, but half the length and width, and a bit smokier. I used 5 from the pack of 10 and chopped them into small rounds, before frying them gently in a little oil. When the flavour was coming out I added a chopped white onion, some  black pepper and a couple of bay leaves. The temptation is to make things very chunky in a chowder, but I don't think it's ever pleasant to have massive chunks of onion - so I stick to a meduim-small rough chop (if that means anything!).

Fry the onion and sausage together gently, you don't want any colour on the onion. When the onion is soft and translucent add some chopped potatoes. I used charlottes - mainly because that's what I had, but being a waxy spud, they do retain their shape rather than turning to mush and graininess. So, mix them well and give them a few minutes with lid on to get them started before adding enough chicken stock to cover. I've avoided putting salt in as the stock and sausage are already quite salty.

I let the mixture bubble away until the potato is nearly cooked and then add a tin of sweetcorn (I use a tin because I have them, but you could use fresh, or frozen - though I would defrost frozen first so that it doesn't cool the whole mix).

Give the soup another 10 minutes with the occsional stir-about. Then add a good glug of milk and let it heat through again. The milk might not be essential but I like the creaminess it gives the soup.

So, I suppose either serve in great steaming ladlefulls, or like me, allow to cool and dolop into various tupperware vessels for lovely lunches through the week.

 I didn't manage to take a good picture of the soup - you'll have to trust me on its yumminess!