Potato and Sausage Chowder

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 400  sausages, any flavour (6 sausages)
• 1  onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 2  carrots, diced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 0 teaspoons dried thyme
• 3 tablespoons plain/all purpose flour
• 1 litre/4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 2  bay leaves
• 100  wild rice, 1/2 cup
• 3  potatoes, medium, peeled and cut into chunks
• 375  single/light cream or half and half, 1 1/2 cups
•   salt, to taste
•   fresh parsley, chopped, for serving

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a soup pot. Remove the sausage from the casing, add to the pot, break up the sausage with a spatula and fry until golden on the outside and cooked all the way through, then remove to a separate plate. (If your sausage is very fatty, remove the excess fat but leave 2 tbsp in the pot)

2. To the same pot, add the chopped onion, celery and sliced carrot and cook for 10 minutes over low heat, then add minced garlic and thyme, cook for 30 seconds longer. Sprinkle the flour all over and combine with the fat until it turns into a paste, continue cooking for a couple of minutes, then bring the sausage back in.

3. Pour a bit of the chicken stock in and stir until well combined with the roux, then pour in the rest, add 2 bay leaves and wild rice. Bring to a simmer and cook over low to medium heat for 30 minutes, then add the cubed potatoes and cook for 15 minutes longer until the wild rice and the potatoes are cooked. Then pour in the cream and season with salt and pepper, allow the cream to warm through, then take off the heat. Serve with chopped fresh parsley.