Hot Dog Hotpot

Since today's post involves sausages, you might like to take a look at the previous post that I have done if you have not done so already. As mentioned there, the meat content of the Basics sausages was highly similar to that found in hot dogs, and since I had the necessary ingredients available, I thought I should attempt to parody Allegra McEvedy's Hot Dog Hotpot, as shown on the first episode of BBC's Economy Gastronomy.

Meanwhile however, some major things have happened with Sainsbury's Basics line since the last time I cooked something for this blog. Notable among them are the absence of Basics cooking onions (at least at my nearest branch), and the change in packaging for the chopped tomatoes to cartons, as shown below.
Just a couple of words about the cabbage: Sizing is highly inconsistent. This might actually play out to your advantage if you can get a head of cabbage bigger than what you might get if you spent a bit more. I decided however to get a smaller head since I know I wouldn't be able to finish this on my own.

I'm going to take a few liberties with the recipe linked above, and will document these here. For a start, I decided to chop up the sausages to speed up cooking time, and also to ensure that they are thoroughly cooked. If possible, grill the sausage slices as well, to remove excess fat.

Start frying slices of onion, minced garlic, and the sausage slices until the onions are caramelised and sausages are browned.

Add mustard and vinegar and mix until combined.

Tear off a few cabbage leaves, wash and chop roughly. Add this to the pan and continue cooking until softened.

Since Sainsbury's Basics range does not include egg noodles, prepare Basics spaghetti, but halve the required cooking time. Add this to the pan, along with half a Sainsbury's Basics chicken stock cube, before adding the chopped tomatoes.

End result was acceptable. It does not help that the sausages tend to be rather bland, and all the ingredients required for the recipe are rather lacking in substance, eg. the lack of intensity in mustard.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Sausages	£0.48	8 links	+£0.49	Almost twice the meat content. Skip both and go for the more premium brands for health and culinary reasons.
Cabbage	£0.69	Variable	+£0.13	More consistent sizing
Chicken Stock Cubes	£0.10	10 x 10g	+£0.86	No palm oil