Beth's Homemade Sausage Rolls

Now I LOVE sausage rolls. Specially ones from our local bakery - they are sooo good! BUT - I hate homemade ones that are made from sausage meat (in Australia sausage is not the same as the american stuff, it's pretty foul and just ground up blergh really). So earlier this year I experimented and made my own recipe up!
They do have a different texture to most sausage rolls as they have real meat not sausage meat in them, so they aren't quite as moist, but they are OH so tasty! I haven't worked out how to get them as moist, but I'd say if you added more of the sauces that would probably help. Or possibly some diced tomato if you wanted.

Ingredients:
500g beef mince (ground beef)
500g pork mince (ground pork)
1 finely grated carrot
2 stalks grated celery
1 diced onion
3 eggs
italian herbs
tomato sauce (ketchup)
worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
Puff pastry sheets - about 6 or 7 - these need to be thawed
1 egg, beaten with a fork for basting



Lightly fry up the onion till it softens and let it cool slightly.
Place the mince, eggs, carrot, onion and celery in your stand mixer (or you can mix by hand but this is much easier!) with the paddle and mix till they are nicely combined. Then add a squirt of ketchup, a slosh of worestershire, a few shakes of italian herbs and some salt and pepper. Mix again till well mixed.

Once they are all mixed in, set this aside.
Get one piece of puff pastry and slice it right down the middle so you have 2 rectangles.
Baste the middle edges with some of the egg and then put some of the meat mixture down the outside edges of the pastry.
Roll up, meat side first so that the egg helps to close and seal the gap. You don't want too much meat mixture or you won't be able to close it up properly.

Place the sausage roll, closed up side down, on a tray with baking paper and slice into as many slices as you want. 2-3 pieces will give you nice big ones, and 6 will give you nice one bite sausage rolls for party food. Baste each with a little egg on the top before you slice them up. You can prick them with a fork if you like.

Continue till all your mixture is used up.

Bake in the oven on around 160c for about 30 mins or so until they are nice and golden brown. I find that the slower oven helps them cook right through without the pastry burning.

Let them cool on a cooling rack to save for later. Can be refrigerated or frozen and then reheated. Otherwise, serve hot with a dollop of tomato ketchup!

YUM!!!

I'll try to post a photo tomorrow.

Spaghetti a la Chittara

Dad found this recipe once in some Italian pasta cookbook - it isn't really called Spaghetti a la Chittara, it has a much much longer name, but that's what we call it (because I think the chittara bit is really just... pasta).
Anyways, it's simple and delicious!

You need:
500g pork mince
1 or 2 tins diced tomatoes
1tsp minced chilli (or to taste)
1 large or 2 small onions
3tbsp tomato paste
spaghetti

Dice the onions and saute in a little olive oil. Add the mince and cook until browned and the lumps have come out. Then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15-20 mins until it's well cooked.
Serve with regular spaghetti pasta and some fresh parmesan or romano cheese if you like it.
I think the more onion in it, the better, so experiment! I would normally use 2 largish onions, not just one, but it's up to you really. As for the tinned tomatoes, start with 1 tin, you may need a 2nd one if the mixture is too dry.
Oh! My idea of a tablespoon, for the tomato paste, well my tablespoons are rather... erm... large. 3 gobs of it will do fine. :p

So easy, but really delicious! It is one of our family favourites, although I haven't made it in a LONG time... I think it will be on the books this week or next. :)

Sang Choy Bow

My friend Mon asked me for recipe ideas tonight and this is what I came up with, and possibly will make it tomorrow. It is from the CSIRO cookbook however I will be changing a couple of things.

1 iceberg lettuce
2tbsp oyster sauce
1tbsp soy sauce
1tsp sesame oil
1tbsp cornflour
1/2 small red chilli or 1/2 tsp minced chilli (or not if you don't like chilli)
1 beaten egg
2tbsp olive oil
8 shiitake mushrooms (or regular button mushrooms as I will be using)
2 cloves garlic/2tsp minced garlic
2cm of ginger /2tsp minced ginger
400g minced/ground pork
6 water chestnuts finely chopped which I will not be putting in
50g dried rice noodles, soaked in water then chopped
2.5tbsp hoisin sauce
4 spring onions, finely diced.


Carefully cut whole leaves of the lettuce and rinse, trim them to be cup shaped.
Mix oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornflour, chilli and egg in a bowl.
Heat oil in frying pan, high heat, add mushrooms, garlic, ginger and cook for a minute, stirring. Add pork and cook, stir well to break up mince lumps. Cook 8-10 mins. Drain off excess liquid.
Return to heat then add chestnuts and noodles and cook 4 mins. Stir in the sauce mixture and cook another 10 mins until sauce thickens. Allow it to cool a little.

Place lettuce leaves on serving plates and divide meat between them. Drizzle hoisin sauce over the top and sprinkle with spring onions.
Serve with steamed greens.

I think I'll be putting the spring onions in the mixture when I'm cooking as I don't really like them raw.

Fortunately I won't have to do much shopping tomorrow, I'll just need to get lettuce, meat, mushrooms and spring onions.