Curried Sausage Patties

This mixture may be easy and inexpensive, but it is also very popular and tasty! What's more, it makes a surprisingly large amount, expanding as it cooks! We like this mixture served on brown rice (previously cooked in the slow cooker then frozen or refrigerated), with green beans or a green salad.

(Serves 4)

Ingredients 

• 500g sausage-meat or skinned sausages
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 2 Tbsp dark brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp flour (preferably wholemeal)
• 1 x 400g can diced apple
• or 1 x 350g can apple sauce
• or 2 large apples, grated
• salt, pepper, and ground cumin, if desired
• 1 - 2 cups chopped ripe red tomatoes
• or 1 x 400g can tomatoes
• chopped parsley

Turn a 3 or 4 litre capacity slow cooker on to HIGH and coat the bowl with non-stick spray.

Form the sausage-meat into 8 balls with wet hands. (To skin sausages, snip the casing from one end of a sausage to the other, then hold the sausage under a gently running tap and the casing will lift off.)

Measure the curry powder, sugar and flour into a round flat-bottomed bowl or dish, mixing it well with dry fingers or a whisk.

Drop 3 or 4 of the damp sausage-meat balls into the bowl with the curry powder mixture and rotate the bowl on the flat surface until all surfaces of the sausage-meat balls are well coated. Put the coated balls in the slow cooker. Coat the remaining balls in the same way, then place in the slow cooker too.

Arrange whichever apple mixture you are using on top of the sausage-meat balls, sprinkle the remaining curry mixture and the other seasonings over it, then spread the chopped raw tomatoes (cut in 2cm cubes) or the can contents (with the tomatoes roughly chopped through the juice) on top.

Put on the lid and cook on HIGH for 3 - 4 hours or on LOW for 6 - 8 hours. Turn the contents gently to combine them, then sprinkle with chopped parsley just before serving. Serve on or with white or brown rice with a green cooked vegetable or a side salad.

HIGH for 3 - 4 hours, or LOW for 6 - 8 hours.