February 2006 - Chicken Sausages with Nectarines, Chickpeas and Redcurrant Sauce

The picture of the Easy Paella on the front cover of Issue #46 looks so very enticing. I would have loved to have made it but the recipe was for 4 - 6 servings and from initial appearances it looked a bit difficult to divide up. I would have been possible of course but I would have been left with half a can of this and half a can of that and bits and pieces of a bunch of other stuff. Sometimes it is just better to resign yourself to the fact that it will be easier to make something else so that you are not eating the same thing for a week.

There was a few other recipes that I considered, the Mykonos Fruit Cup caught my eye as basically fruit salad with boozy yoghurt topped with a berry puree. I had picked out another dessert to make from a later magazine. Although with this one full of fruit and yoghurt I did think long and hard about it since it wasn't full of sugar, fat and cream. My next consideration was Creamy Lemon Curd Mousse, this was full of sugar, fat and creme fraiche so it too was discarded. The next option was tomato & sweet pickled pepper salad however I couldn't find any sweet pickled peppers (the available at selected supermarkets apparently doesn't include mine.) I settled on Nancy Duran's Chicken Sausages with Nectarines, Chickpeas and Redcurrant Sauce. This was oh so simple but so very good. I baked the sausages instead of bbqing but I followed the rest of the recipe. The redcurrant sauce was great and I will use the rest of it on some thing else. I did soak and boil my own chickpeas instead of using tinned.

Chicken Sausages with Nectarines, Chickpeas and Redcurrant Sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 750 g thin reduced-fat chicken sausages
• 400 g canned chickpeas, rinsed, drained
  
• 3 small nectarines, cut into wedges
• 1 1/2 c. loosely packed cups baby basil leaves
  
• 1 loosely packed cup parsley leaves

Redcurrant sauce

• 1 small eschalot, finely chopped
• 1/3 c (80 ml) red wine vinegar
• 2/3 c (160 ml) chicken stock
  
• 1/4 c redcurrant jam (I used Baxter's Redcurrant Jelly)
  

Method

• Bake sausages in the oven on a rack in a roasting pan at 190 C for 40 minutes or until cooked through then slice into pieces.
  
• For sauce: put eschalot and red wine vinegar into a small saucepan and bring to a boil and simmer until vinegar is almost gone.
  
• Add stock and simmer until reduced by half.
  
• Add jam and stir until melted and boil until reduced and thickened.
  
• Combine chickpeas, nectarines and herbs. Place on plates, top with sliced sausages and drizzle with the sauce.