Home-made sausage rolls

(makes 36-42 pieces)

Once upon a time (until 3-4 years ago) i was under the impression that party pies and sausage rolls were just for kids parties - a quick and easy way to feed hungry children. Then I started helping out at church morning tea and realised that there is a small (or big!) part of everybody that never really grows up or grows out of loving juicy fatty meat wrapped in crunchy buttery pastry... i guess i shouldn't be so surprised!

As Paul says, we are here to feed the masses, and even if it's somewhat against my principles to be serving up fatty food, sometimes you have to give the crowd what they want. The least i could do was make it a bit more gourmet with real meat and some vegetables! 

We decided to experiment with two different styles of home-made sausage rolls - not a competition this time though. Paul's use of cranberries (because we ran out of sultanas) was a pleasant juicy sweet surprise, definitely a winner! I am yet to work out my secret sausage roll recipe, but am open to ideas!

Prep time: 30 min
Cooking time: 30-60 min (depending if you can fit more than one tray in at a time!)

Ingredients
800g sausage mince
400g lean pork mince
6 sheets puff pastry

Traditional
1 carrot
1/2 brown onion
1/2 spanish onion
5 sprigs parsley or other fresh herb (e.g. lemon thyme)
1 egg
2 tsp salt
1.5 T tomato sauce
1.5 T BBQ sauce
1T worcestshire sauce

South american
5g tarragon
1 C black olives, pitted and sliced
1 T caster sugar
1 C cranberries
1/2 brown onion
1/2 spanish onion
1 egg
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chicken stock
salt
pepper

To brush;
1 egg, beaten
handful of sesame seeds

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Remove the puff pastry from the freezer to thaw.
For the traditional;
2. Finely grate the carrot and squeeze out excess juice
NB. This is vital otherwise the liquid seeps out during cooking and leads to soggy sausage roll base.
3. Finely dice both the onions and the parsley/thyme.
4. Combine the meat with the vegetables, egg and stir in with the salt, tomato and BBQ sauce for seasoning.

For the south american version;
5. In a frypan on medium heat, sauté the olives, tarragon with the sugar in 1 tsp oil.
6. Add the olives, cranberries, onion, egg, cumin and chicken stock to the meat and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Cut the puff pastry into half. In each half, place a few tablespoons of mixture along the middle of the strip approx 2cm high. Fold the pastry over and roll and squeeze gently to ensure it binds together.
NB. Don't over-fill it otherwise it won't close!

8. Repeat on all halves. Place the rolls onto a tray lined with baking paper. Brush with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds on top. Gently cut and divide the sausage roll into sixths.
NB. This makes it easier to cut afterwards as it gives room for the puff pastry to crust up and separate the rolls.

9. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown. Cool for 5-10 minutes, then cut up before serving with ketchup!