Lamb Sausage Rolls with Orange and Fennel
Confession: I’ve never made a sausage roll. Shocking, I know. (I had never made sausage before this week either, but that’s a whole other story.) Besides the obvious deterrent of the sausage-puff pastry double whammy, they always seemed heavy and greasy and far too eighties (but not in a faddish-yes that’s a word-sort of way) and why would I bother putting forth the effort? (Not that I seem to have a problem downing cheese, meat and bread with a side salad of crispy chicken skin and donuts for dessert.)
But then I was challenged to pull out the grinder attachment Mike bought me for my KitchenAid three Christmases ago and use it to make sausage from scratch, and being too lazy to head out to the butcher and pick up some pig intestine casings, I figured I’d much rather wrap the finished sausage in pastry. Good call.
But wait – I didn’t even use the grinder to make this. I had some nice ground Alberta lamb in the freezer, and squished in my add-ins as if I was making a meatloaf, and in very few minutes I was the proud momma of a batch of lamb sausage. Which I could have shaped into little patties and pan-fried, or rolled into balls and roasted, or extruded into casings. I went ahead and thawed some puff pastry – which is so charmingly rustic and forgiving, it looks fabulous no matter what you do to it – and made sausage rolls.
All you do is cut the rolled-out puff pastry into strips, make a long pile of meat on top,
pull up the pastry around it, pinch it closed, turn it seam-down and brush it with a little egg…
and cut the roll into whatever size lengths you fancy, then bake for about 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Beautiful. You could do these with any kind of sausage, but I loved the lamb-orange zest combo. They’d do well bite-sized, and you can freeze them ahead for partying later.
Lamb Sausage Rolls with Orange and Fennel
adapted from Canadian Living
1 lb (454 g) ground lamb
1 egg
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 shallot, minced (or 1/4 cup onion)
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp. crushed fennel seeds
grated zest of an orange
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
salt & pepper
1 pkg (450 g) frozen puff pastry, thawed
beaten egg, for brushing tops (optional)In large bowl, mix the lamb, egg, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, parsley, fennel seeds, orange zest, coriander, salt and pepper; set aside.
Divide pastry in half. On lightly floured surface, roll out each half into a 10″ square; cut each into 3 equal strips. Spoon the filling down the center of each strip, fold pastry over filling and press the edge to seal.
Arrange rolls, seam side down, on a rimmed cookie sheet. Cover and chill for about half an hour. Preheat the oven to 400F.
Cut each roll into 1″-2″ pieces. (Make-ahead: Layer between waxed paper in airtight container and freeze for up to 2 months.) Brush the tops with a little beaten egg and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden.
(They may need an extra 5-10 minutes if you bake them from frozen.)
March 04 2010 | appetizers and pork | 27 Comments »
