Professional bike racing has a long association with eccentric fans. Over the years we’ve seen grown men in swimming trunks, or dressed as the Devil, Elvis, and Borat. This week the Tour of Britain, which is being led by Bradley Wiggins, rolled through Caerphilly where a handcuffed comedy villain in an horizontal black line shirt and mask was being chased up a hill by a slapstick policeman whacking him over the head with a plastic truncheon; surely the greatest double act since Cannon and Ball. If prizes were given for comic supporters those Welsh boys would get my yellow jersey, chapeau.
The perfect dish for those cyclists would have to be my slow cooked sausage stew, which was made with the tomato sauce from last week’s Sand Shark recipe.
Firstly I griddled some slices of aubergine and set aside. Next I put the tomato sauce (see previous blog for recipe) in a pan and heated through to a gentle simmer. I then sliced four sausages into thirds, placed them in the pan and left them to cook on a gentle flame for 20 minutes. I plated up using the aubergine discs as the base, added the sausage, then the tomato sauce and topped with roquette dressed in olive oil and grated parmesan.
The great Mark Cavendish won a stage this week, which deserves a mention; Sir Bradley really should win the overall race. If he doesn’t he should be made to wear the nicab, and then apply for a place on the time management course at Birmingham Metropolitan College.
