Potato pancakes with house-made sausage gravy

From Fable Diner chef Josef Driemel.

• 1.5 cup A.P flour
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1/4 cup oil (grapeseed or similar)
• 1 egg (separated)
• 1 cup cooked potato
• 1/2 cup cauliflower
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar
• 1/4 green onion sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt

Gravy:

• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 12 oz sausage
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1L of chicken of veg stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 1 tablespoon sherry vin
• 1 tablespoon grainy mustard
• 2.5 teaspoons of salt

Starting with the gravy. take a large sauce pan and allow to heat up on a medium heat. while our pan heats we will quickly dice our onions, celery and garlic. in a dry pan crumble you sausage in. disperse it evenly so everybody has room to brown without interfering with the rest. leave it for a minute or two until juices start to collect on top and you can see it start to cook up the sides give it a toss or move it around with a spoon. once we start to get a bit of fat in the pan throw in our veg. add the bay leaf as it will need extra time to re hydrate and spread it aroma. cook for a couple minute to soften the vegetables. at this point we will add our butter and salt let the butter melt and again allow to cook for a minute. next add your flour and mix it with you spoon. everything will start to clump up and its important to keep it moving around the pan as we cook out the flour because this is prime-time for sticking and burning. now we will slowly add our stock about a quarter at a time. each time allow it to fully blend with the roux (flour and fat mixture) before adding the next portion. once all of our stock is in we will let it reduce for about 5 minutes. get your final ingredients ready at this point. (mustard vinegar and thyme.) as soon as the gray thickly coats the spoon take it off the heat and thrown in our mustard vinegar and thyme. its good practice to add these right at the end to avoid cooking off the sharpness of the vinegar or the delicate aromatics of the thyme. now just fish out you bay leaf and you are ready to serve.

for the pancake; have your potato cooked and cooled. it is important to make sure we are not introducing any extra moisture to the mix. if possible allow to cool over night in the fridge uncovered. next we will mix our dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. once combined we will turn to our wet mix. add milk oil and separate your egg. add the yolk to the milk mixture and beat the white until we reach soft peaks. (it will crease when you fold it over itself.) mix our wet and dry loosely careful not to over mix as it will result in a tough flat pancake. once loosely mixed we will fold in our whipped white. at this point we can fold through our cheese and veg mix. again careful not to over work just fold them through until everyone is coated. to cook get a pan with about two table spoons of oil in it on medium heat add you mix in about 200ml sized pancake will be sufficient. cook two to three minute on the first side. until bubbles start to form on the top of our pancake. flip and cook it on the other side for another 2 minutes.

poaching the eggs; 3L of water in of medium pot add 1/4 white vinegar. bring your water to a slow simmer. bubbles just reaching the surface. take you eggs. (i advise to cook and extra one or two just encase) in a fine strainer crack your egg in and allow the loose white to run off (will give you a tighter egg and look more impressive 😉) gently stir the water to create a slow vortex in the center of the pot and gently drop your egg in. try and coax the whites around the yolk but you can also just leave it and it will cook just fine. gently poke the egg around so it doesn’t get stuck on the bottom of the pot and cook unevenly. should take about 4 minutes. take you slotted spoon and pull it up. if the white sag as it comes out of the water put it back in and check again in a minute. once cooked the egg with have a soft spring to it when you pull it out. for medium eggs just leave another minute and you are looking for more spring than a soft.