As Strong As Soup

This is a simple, cheap (or cheapish), low-effort dish that's also very comforting and warming on cold, January days. I admit that many French sausages taste very strange to me but, some years ago, I came across some particularly fine sausages in the Cotentin and this is one of the ways they were being cooked. The original version of the dish contained some excellent Normandy black pudding but, if you don't fancy that or can't lay your hands on any, then do what I did here and use a little chorizo. There are some very fine beers in the north of France but the Cotentin is probably better known for cider and you could certainly replace the beer with cider in this recipe. I do think the beer adds a good contrast to the apples, though. If you can't find wheat beer, then you can substitute a light style of beer such as one of multitude of trendy pale ales that seem to be popping up everywhere lately.  You could use any sausages you fancy but I think larger sausages with a hi