Roll

Party food for dinner – a concept that is greeted very warmly in this household.

Every time I enjoy someone’s homemade sausage rolls – and I have tried some incredibly inventive ones: Thai chicken, turkey, pork and chive – I make a mental note to serve them as a dinner dish, then promptly forget the idea! This week however, sausage rolls mentally materialised whilst planning the weekly meal schedule, so there was some rolling and cutting to be had.

Encapsulating vegetables, meat (and plumped up with grains if you wish), there is no reason to dismiss  these little delights as inappropriate on a nutritional basis. Visiting the local butcher for sausage mince rather than the supermarket, is a must, and we are fortunate enough to have one that produces a delish mix. Don’t take the following how-to too seriously, just put in what you like, bake and enjoy.

1kg sausage mince
2 carrots, grated
1 large onion, grated
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper
any fresh herbs you happen to have on hand, finely chopped eg parsley, oregano, thyme
4 sheets puff pastry
milk for brushing pastry
sesame seeds

1. Mix together (with hands) mince, carrots, onion, egg, salt and pepper and herbs.
2. Lay out the first pastry sheet and slice in half.
3. Make two long rolls of the mince mix and lay them down the centre of each half. Brush one long edge with milk and roll the pastry over the mince and seal.
4. Brush the smooth top with more milk and scatter the sesame seeds over the top.
5. Slice each log into four pieces.
6. Repeat this process with the remaining two sheets. (If you have extra mince and pastry, keep going and make as many as you can, because after they have cooked, the sausage rolls freeze well.)
7. Bake in a 180 degree celsius oven for 15 – 20 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with condiments of your choice.

Postscript: Some serious scoffing took place here, as this batch yielded 32 and none remain standing….