Australian Italian Sausage Rolls

Remember back in July when I made Aussie bacon n sausage rolls for you? And do you remember that I said they aren't the traditional style of Aussie sausage rolls? Well, this one is much more the traditional way as it uses bulk sausage meat instead of formed sausages.

Just go back to the July post, have a quick squizz at it then come on back here. I'll wait, no worries.

You're back already? That was quick.

Just to let you know, I didn't measure anything for this, which is coincidentally another Aussie tradition! And I Slape n Sons sausage meat. Made locally here in Adelaide, very tasty, and inexpensive.

Australian Italian Sausage Rolls

What you need:
About 500 grams bulk sausage meat
1 tsp (or thereabouts) ground white pepper
1 tbsp (or so) fennel seeds
small handful of finely minced onion
3 sheets of puff pastry

What you do:

I could very easily describe this in one rather short paragraph but that wouldn't be fair to you as it's been a wee will since I posted anything here. So how about I string it out for a bit using ten (10) pretty pictures? Yes, how about I do that.

Firstly, make sure you have everything needed at hand:




Next mince up the onion and half-grind the fennel seeds in your mortar. Add that plus the white pepper to a large bowl.




And then plop in your sausage meat.

*plop*


Now mix it all together thoroughly. Just use your hand and start squeezin' till it looks like this:




Toss it into your freshly seasoned and brand new thin-walled, polished, cast-iron 15 inch wide wok and light a fire under it. Make sure you break apart the sausage as it cooks, but you probably woulda guessed that part. Here it is halfway cooked:




And here it is fully cooked.




Make sure you drain the meat well.




Take a thawed pastry sheet and cut it into fourths. Put some of the drained meat onto one quarter...




...and then roll it up. I ended up with 13 rolls from one pound of sausage meat. Here's one tray filled with 8 of them.




Bake em in a hot oven till they look like this:

These were cooked at 190 C in a fan-forced, gas oven for around 25 minutes.

Let them cool, bag em up, toss in the freezer. Tada! Sausage rolls for the week. Enjoy.

Australian Sausage Rolls --With BACON!

Cus, like, seriously folks: Doesn't bacon just make any food that much better? I can picture it now... bacon flavoured ice cream... Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Ok, enough of that.

Sausage rolls are very Australian. Like SERIOUSLY Australian! If you are in the US then think of things like this:

mom & apple pie

baseball & hot dogs

nachos & beer

hot dogs & beer

football & beer

burgers, fries & beer

beer & beer

TV & beer gut

Ok, you all sorta get the message! Sausage rolls & Aussies just go together like any perfect combination you can think of.

What is an Aussie sausage roll? Did you know there's this thingy called "google"? They even have an image search function! I suggest you try it!

My homemade sausage rolls are a bit different from the norm (just like me) in the fact that mine include BACON! Bacon, sausage, and puff pastry! Can't beat that!

Here's what you need:

6 thin Aussie sausages (snags or bangers)
6 slices of Aussie bacon (12 if you use tiny US bacon slices)
3 sheets of puff pastry

Nice, short list of ingredients, eh?

What you do:

You first need to half-cook your sausages. If you are using hot dogs (BAD!!!!) then you can omit this step. Here's what a plate of half-cooked aussie sausages look like:





If you are curious, I use Slape n Sons sausages. Tasty, local, fresh.

Let the half-cooked sausages cool, and then wrap each one with a slice of bacon. If you use Aussie bacon, then you'll only need one slice per snag. If you use US bacon, then you'll need 2 bacon slices per snag. Here's why:

Just make sure you trim the rind (skin) off.

Don't forget to make fried worms with the bacon rinds!

Here's what your plate should now be looking like:

Don't worry if the bacon isn't tightly wrapped around the snags. Why? Cus bacon shrinks whilst cookin', doncha know.

Cook the bacon-wrapped, semi-cooked snags on 2 sides till they look something like this:




Let them cool and drain them of cooked bacon/snag fat. Just make sure you keep the drained fat for future use, of course. Once they are cool you get to break out the puff pastry sheets! Wee-Hoo!







Just peel off 3 sheets and put the rest back in the freezer, no worries.




Obviously, let the puff pastry sheets thaw. {insert serious DUH factor here} It shouldn't take long for them to thaw, 30 mins maybe. by the time they are thawed, the 3/4 cooked, bacon-wrapped, Aussie sausages should be cool enough to handle with no worries.

Cut a pastry sheet in half. I use a pizza cutter, BTW. Wrap the half sheet around one of the snags. You'll find there's around about 2 inches you'll need to trim after wrapping the sausage.




Continue till they are all wrapped. Place them some sort of baking sheet or tray.




Do you remember the trimmed off-cuts of the puff pastry that you trimmed after wrapping the 3/4 cooked, bacon-wrapped, Aussie sausages? You should have a nice pile looking something like this:



DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Heat some oil up and toss them in the hot oil. 30 to 40 seconds a side. You'll find the puff up HUGELY! A very tasty side snack, they do make.

Put the rolls in a hot oven (220 C or 440 F) until they look like this:




At this point you can just pick one up and eat it --let it cool a bit as they really hold their heat-- or you can put em in the fridge or freezer for later, no worries.

And they taste ohhhhhhh so good!