Bit of background: I'm a 24yr old British ex-pat who has been living in Texas for the last year. People ask me all the time what I miss from England and the answer is always "SAUSAGES!!!!!!!". The desire for them has gotten so strong lately that I've decided to try and make my own. So, here I am! I have spent hours obsessively scouring the forums for recipes (currently looking for a skinless sausage recipe that would work well for toad in the hole) and I am now pricing up the equipment I need to make all of this happen. My family think I'm crazy, but I'm the woman who would only eat sausages and nothing else for the first 4yrs of my life so this is serious business
I'm not a terrible cook at all, but I'm certainly no Heston Blumenthal. The recipe below was something I created from three different recipes I found on Google. I did cheat and use pre-made puff pastry, but only because a) I had some in the freezer and b) I didn't have the ingredients on hand to make my own. I apologise in advance for the terrible photos and how shoddy my presentation skills are. The plus side is these were absolutely DELICIOUS and I almost cried from joy after my first bite.
I've rambled enough. Onto the recipe!
Makes: 6 x 1ft long sausage rolls (told ya they were super sized!)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
1 red onion, chopped finely (I use a food blender)
Fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped (I used 8 leaves)
500g / 1lb of pork mince (I don't have a mincer yet so bought pre-made mince)
Fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped (I used 1/4 tsp of leaves)
Nutmeg, grated (I used 1/4 tsp)
2 tbsp Breadcrumbs (I part-toasted 1 slice of bread, cut off the crusts and whizzed in the blender)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1 pack of pre-made puff pastry sheets (there should be 2 sheets per pack)
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
Directions
1. Melt butter in a pan, add the red onion and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the sage leaves to the pan with the butter/onion and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl add the pork mince, thyme, nutmeg, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and the cooked red onion/sage mixture.
4. Mix until everything has been fully incorporated. I then put into this all into a food processor, but that is optional, I just prefer the texture.
5. Spread out your two sheets of pastry and cut them into 3 rectangles. You should have 6 even sized rectangles around 10-12 inches each in length.
6. Grab small handfuls of your mince mixture, shape roughly into a sausage the same sized as your puff pastry sheets and put into the center of each rectangle.
7. Mix your egg and milk together in another bowl and brush on the edges of the puffy pastry. Take one side, pull it over and join with the other edge. You have now sandwiched the minced meat, pinch the edges together and use a fork to seal them tight.
8. Do this for all 6 sheets, put 3 onto a greased baking tray and 3 on another. Brush them all with the remainder of the egg mixture.
9. Cook for 35 minutes at 350F (180C / Gas mark 4). They should turn a nice golden colour and you can check the internal temp if you want, it should be at 170.
10. Enjoy! These really are huge, I ate one and that was it for me! You can cut them to whatever size you want pre-baking, but sod it, who doesn't want a big fat sausage for dinner, hmm?
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