Hullo! So I spent the entire day alternating between nursing my migraine, giving an MA online lecture and preparing other lecture materials because my recordings of last week failed. Hence the migraine — that and the state of the world. Also, there’s the nightly music practice which generally happens when academic work is done (I gotta earn my keep).
Unfortunately, I’d defrosted a packet of chicken mince YESTERDAY in the fridge to make sausage rolls but had no spoons now that we are in the thick of the semester and I am so very overwhelmed (plus still hobbling with bandaged toe because new toenail is attempting to grow, post-surgery).
But! Tonight! I have made sausage rolls while exhausted and sleep-deprived! Aussie-style. SUCCESS!
My heart is always a little sad and disappointed whenever I buy a sausage roll and it has a little frankfurter inside instead of juicy, succulent sausage meat. So anyway. I’ve made this a couple of times now but today was the most successful. So succulent. I decided to be nice and share my version.
- 1.5 cup minced chicken
- sea salt to taste
- pinch of sage
- pinch of thyme
- allspice to taste
- 4 cloves garlic
- half a spanish onion (although locally it is called bawang holland), minced or diced
- half a tablespoon of dried fennel.
- grated black pepper to taste
- chicken seasoning or chicken salt (I used masterfood’s chicken salt) to taste.
- some fresh spring onions from my balcony garden (I was out of chives, which, along with fennel is traditional)
- handful of breadcrumbs.
(of note: I suddenly had the urge to add chilli flakes but I have none. If I ever have chicken mince again and chilli flakes I might give it a try — you can also add more sage and thyme. I just tend to prefer the herbs to be a light influence on the sausage meat, augmenting rather than drowning the flavour, besides you want the fennel to shine here. Let that fennel shine, I say!)
Directions: mix all of the above and set aside while you prep your pastry. I’m not super good at making puff pastry. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t, but I can point you to a good recipe here. I’m a fan of Gemma’s recipes and her blondies recipe is to die for. Today I just used the locally produced frozen puff pastry sheets, the same brand I usually use and it always surprises me with how versatile it is. Pies, sausage rolls, puffs, vol-au-vents. Why do extra work, right?
So, you basically need to massage your readymate pastry into a nice oblong shape, shape your sausagemeat in the middle of it, then carefully fold it until you get the right shape. Then you cut it into smaller oblong shapes and make incisions. I made them cocktail sized for portion control.
Then, you can use either an eggwash or some milk.
Ta da! These were damn juicy. I tried one teeny piece, saving the rest for the rest of this busy week. No pictures for now. Sleep-time. May update if I decide to take pictures tomorrow.