When I lived in Auckland, Sunday mornings were a standing yum-cha date with my friends. If you’ve ever been to yum-cha you know it’s one of the greatest inventions ever; tiny dumplings, fluffy bao, secret sign language and best of all, immediate gratification – if you go to a place with trolleys that is.
Looking around the table at the faces of my friends, some of them heavy with sleep and the others plastered with the kind of smug that comes with having achieved ten things before breakfast, I always felt like all was right in the world.
Or perhaps it was the Lazy Susan in the middle of the table laden with steaming morsels – for someone that has extreme FOMO (that’s Fear of Missing Out), being able to try everything without making sad-dog eyes at other people’s plates is akin to the food version of a good hair day, not to mention how all the tapping the table to say thank you for pouring tea made me feel all James Dean inscrutable or secret squirrel James Bond, depending on the day.
It had been 3 years since I’d eaten dim sum when the fabulous Catty took pity on me during my recent visit to London and marched me to a table through the hubbub that always characterises a good yum-cha place. Though there were only the two of us we managed to pack away a respectable amount of food and I left rather dazed.
I know sausage rolls aren’t dim sum but I made and photographed them a while ago but didn’t really know what to say about them. It occurred to me though, that a sausage roll is like the Pakeha version of dim sum; usually served when there’s a crowd, made of pork, in small pieces and often in a buffet which is, if you really stretch, sort of like a dim sum trolley right?
A good sausage roll is a beautiful thing which is why you should make your own; the shop bought ones tend to be fairly nasty. And if you’re from a country other than NZ or Australia you can have an Antipodes themed party and serve them garnished with a sprig of curly parsley and feel rather avant garde – old skool is the new new skool, doncha know.
Got any standing dates?
Sausage Rolls
500 grams (18 ounces) pork mince
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Cracked pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (optional)
1 small onion, diced
A packet of puff pastry (my piece was something like 30 cm x 20 cm unrolled)
1 beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon of water, to glaze
Preheat the oven to 200 celsius (395 fahrenheit).
Combine the pork mince, Worcester sauce, pepper, salt, oregano if using and diced onion in a bowl and squish together with your hands, or a fork if you’re squeamish.
Cut the pastry in half lengthways and divide the meat in half.
Form a tube with half the meat down the centre of one of the halves of pastry.
Bring one side of the pastry up, brush with fingertips dabbed in water and bring the other side to cover it.
Repeat with the remaining meat and pastry.
Turn seam side down and brush the top with the glaze and cut into pieces of desired size.
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
Serve with plenty of tomato sauce (ketchup).
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OMG I MISS sausage rolls!!! that’s my fave aussie thing, even more than pies *sigh* I didnt know they were so easy to make. I am BOOKMARKING. by the way FOMO is like being Kiasu, no? Fear of losing hehehe. I miss you.
Sorry to veer a bit off topic, but @catty, have you not tried the Ginger Pig or Farm sausage rolls! Shame on you ;) Even us Poms can do a decent one if you know where to look *taps side of nose*
Yeah, I think that FOMO is the Pakeha version of kiasu, just like sausage rolls are the Pakeha version of dim sum, specifically pork dumplings, or perhaps shu-mai.
All lovely little morsels are dim sum in a way… for me even tiny kappamaki, kampyo or takuan rolls can go on a lazy Susan alongside the momo and the veggie sausage rolls… I would not call them dim sum either if they are not all Chinese, but I share your feelings here :-)
So true. Yum-Cha is an institution best enjoyed with friends, it was a standing date for heaps of us through college…, good memories.
Love a good sausage roll & tomato sauce….., it’s where the Aussie in me comes right out to play :)
Haha I have some really fond memories of eating sausage rolls and meat pies when I was a child! I still love them I must admit! :D
Funny you should say that, I made German sausages the other day and had some mince left over and thought….hmmm, what about dumplings. And that’s what we had for dinner last night! Have to confess though I fried them ‘pot sticker’ style. yum
The place I used to work at in London, Melrose and Morgan made a really good sausage roll. They made their own filling and encased it in a wonderful all butter puff pastry. Sausage rolls are really filling though, smart move to make yours so petite!
All the better to eat them all, my dear!
In Greece when we say sausage rolls we are being quite literal and we actually put small sausages inside the pastry :) I love that with these you can make a large roll and just cut it into pieces.
Magda
I love the idea of a themed party complete with sausage rolls! And I can kinda see the dim sum connection… I went to Chinatown for Dim Sum yesterday and I’m still full of pork stuffed bites of things.
Love the idea of Sausage Roll as gwailo dim sum! Does that leave room for cocktail sausages, pineapple and cheese impaled on a stick and mini salmon tartlets too? Perhaps we should all open a Western Dim Sum join in HK to see if it would succeed ;)
Great recipe, it’s something i had never thought of making and now my mind is spinning… pig-in-blanket sausage rolls, sausage and cheddar rolls – the list is endless… Yum.
Grubworm, I like ya thunking – pigs-in-blankets sausage rolls would, undoubtedly be a taste sensation.
As for food dates, my Mum always makes a Burmese curry for us to eat on Christmas Eve, every single year. And when living in Melbourne, my friend Erykah and I always met up, sometime on a Friday, over coffee and a humongous slice of cake. Mmmmm, happy memories.
Burmese curry, yum! My friend Mimi of Meemalee’s Kitchen just did a Burmese pop-up restaurant – she’s planning another in London so if you are interested, let me know and I’ll email you the details when I hear of them.
Mmm, I can’t resist sausage rolls, what a great idea. Your photos, especially the last ones are so lovely with the blueish tones and great composition. I’m ashamed to say I’m too lazy for that. As for food dates, I relish getting all kinds of harder cheeses I miss out on like cheshire, red leicester etc. whenever I go to the UK, as well as salt and vinegar crisps, double cream and mince pies at Christmas. Suddenly, this all comes over as very greedy!
Nonsense, your photos are always beautiful…And greedy, well, you’re in good company here ^_^
yum! old skool is the new new skool – fo sho. Working some hours at a fruit shop – and I’m getting the feeling that curly parsley is making a come back – garnish pref.
Bops at the fruiterers! Awesome. You should totally push the parsley, it’s full of iron too.
Good Sausage Rolls are an under rated taste sensation. The unfortunate thing is that there are too many abominations of my beloved fave food.
Great idea for dim sum though. I think in HK they would be a hit.
These look so tasty! I love puff pastry in any incarnation:) In Serbia we would combine the ground meat and onions with phyllo dough, but the rolls are much wider. I can just imagine serving this as a quick appetizer.
Don’t care which country they come from – sausage rolls are one of my fave treats!
These look like an ideal snack – tasty and bite-size.
I’ve never had a sausage roll, before, but these look delicious.
I’ll be honest, I’ve always been a little bit afraid of dim-sum. There are a few really good places in L.A., but in general, those are the places where nobody speaks English. I remember a little bit of Mandarin from my two years of classes, but I have a debilitating fear of accidentally picking out a bunch of things that I don’t like. My natural desire to a) be polite and b) clear my plate would leave me a nervous wreck.
I love dumplings and bao though. I guess I just need to take a deep breath and dive in.
now that you mention it, I’m seeing the connection!! And sure thing, like dim sum, it’s yum! I love em as finger food for parties. We’re never without those or pigs in a blanket. :)
I’ve never made Sausage Rolls, but I’ve definitely had them. Yours look delicious!
Oh this looks so good! And it looks easy with the puff pastry too!
I’ve got to try this!
Reading just this post made me want to follow your blog forever. Dim sum is really the only brunch item I crave on Sundays, and the only type of meal that’s impossible to pull off at home (I mean, who would push the cart, anyway?). I’ll have to try the sausage rolls sometime my family does appetizer night.
I love a good sausage roll but I never buy them at bakeries. Not because I don’t like them, but because when faced with pie or sausage roll, pie always seems to win. I used to buy the frozen ones from the supermarket but it’s pretty easy just to make them too. And if you make them, you can get a bit fancy and like apple with pork or cheese, tomato relish and beef. I made a lamb sausage roll with rosemary one a while back. Hey, you could have lots of different kinds sausage rolls and sample them all in one sitting. Just like eating a whole lot of slightly varied dumplings at yum cha.
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