It’s a long way to the shop,if you want a Sausage Roll

Normally I would try to reach into my memory to share with you something about the food we are cooking and my first memories of it.  In this case though I think the modern day story is a little bit more hilarious….and totally self-inflicted!!

I had read a post on Sausage Rolls back in March by Lea & Jay and it instantly made me think of my childhood, of how much we used to love Mum making these for us for our birthday parties.  They were such a treat because I don’t remember them being made at any other time for us, so they remained something of a particular special birthday food.

Fast forward to 2012 and I requested this recipe from Mum so that I could try my hand at whipping up my own version.

Enter the confused cook…. for some reason in my mind I decided that I had to find lamb mince to be able to make these babies….and believe me when you are looking for something in particular its always when it is most likely to elude you.  Checking supermarkets on my weekly shop, trying to organise myself to get to a butcher and never quite making it during opening hours….it was a mission and I was determined that I was going to make the sausage rolls happen faithful to Mum’s recipe.

After almost two months of hunting for lamb mince to no avail, I became determined to make sausage rolls whilst Mum and Dad were in town, visiting us. It’s safe to say at this point, around the time we were shopping for the mince, that the penny dropped…..Mum was confused as to why I needed lamb mince specifically when it was sausage mince that was required for the recipe……….um um….

So, lesson learnt, read your recipe properly Leah and the sausage rolls could have been mine far earlier in the year.

Well the lamb mince I’d purchased finally went on to become some super tasty Shepperd’s Pie, and the sausage rolls finally made their debut in my kitchen last night.  And let me tell you they were well worth the wait!  Quick and simple, a great Friday night couch treat that is likely to show up on the menu a little bit more often than just birthday parties.  The thing I loved most was that they were easy to make in a large batch, and I now have a freezer filled with ready to go morsels when ever the mood strikes for some home-made fast food.

Sandra’s Sausage Rolls

500g good quality sausage mince (not from the supermarket)
1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped, then minced
1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped then minced
small bunch parsley, washed then minced
2 small sticks celery, strings removed, roughly chopped then minced
1 packet commercial frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
1 egg yolk beaten with a little cold water

tip here from Leah, if you can’t get sausage mince on its own, buy your favourite sausage and then just remove them from the skins and you have the perfect meat for this recipe.

Process the vegetables until they form a slurry. Knead them into the sausage mince. Fill a piping bag with the meat, no need to fit a nozzle.  I didn’t have a piping bag, so I used a spoon and placed an even amount along the pastry, it was messy but just as effective)

With the pastry very cold, cut the sheets in half.

Pipe a line of sausage mince along a long edge, brush the opposite edge with egg was and then roll the pastry sheet. The egg wash will glue the edges together. Continue until all the meat and or pastry is used.

At this point you can cut the sausage rolls into lengths and either refreeze for baking later or chill for an hour or two. Alternately if you want to bake them immediately, put them into the freezer while the oven preheats.

Preheat the oven to 400C. Place either frozen or chilled sausage rolls on a greased oven tray. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds, then immediately place in the oven. Bake until pastry well puffed and browned….by the time the pastry is done the meat will be cooked too. The sausage rolls will take approx 20 – 30 minutes.

About Leah

Australian Artist, painting with Gouache and Oil Pastel on Paper. Lover of lines, curves, colour and texture. Born and bred in Melbourne, Australia, I've spent most of my adult life travelling, time living in Sweden and Adelaide and have settled in Brisbane with my little family. I'm creative by nature and find inspiration in many different corners of this world, some just under my nose, others a life time away. I blog because I love to share what I discover, and to inspire myself. You'll find my blogging about my paintings and artwork on: createdbyleahgay.com and about my cooking adventures on sharingthefoodwelove.wordpress.com

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