pork & fennel sausage rolls

Recipe

❤ Pork & Fennel Sausage Rolls 

Truth No. 7.  I had never made a sausage roll before opening at Le Petite. I’d seen far too many frozen tuck-shop and bakery chain versions. Put off to say the least. But I was missing the point (and niche) entirely. Our Gold Coast patrons sausage roll fetish quickly put me straight. They could not be silenced by citrus cakes, a french sounding name and homely fit-out.  They craved a great sausage roll - a freshly baked one made with love and quality ingredients. After I reluctantly rose to the challenge, our customers went on to buy more sausage rolls than any other product. Coffee excluded of course. The whiff and waft down the street of a fresh batch always had instant effect. I’d love to see the Bourke Street Bakery Sydney frenzy when theirs come out. Anyone been lately? Share your sausage roll experiences in comments below. My recipe is quite similar to Bourke St, minus the celery and plus a few added extras.  

Ingredients

A good splash Extra Virgin Olive Oil to coat frying pan

5 large garlic cloves, smashed & finely chopped

3 tablespoons fennel seeds, pumelled in mortar & pestle

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1 large brown onion, finely chopped

1 large celery, finely chopped

1 grated carrot

1.2 kg (2lb 10 oz) lean minced (ground) pork

2 slices of day old grain bread crumbed in processor (I use my Kitchenaid blender)

3 teaspoons sea salt

generous amount freshly cracked pepper (how much depends on if kids are having some)

good dash worcestershire sauce

⅓ cup good quality tomato relish or tomato sauce

4-5 sheets Puff Pastry

egg wash (100ml milk, pinch of salt, 1 egg - whisked together)

fennel seeds for sprinkling, or poppy seeds, or sesame seeds if you prefer

Method + Tips 

Preheat oven to moderately hot 200°C (400°F). Line a flat, large baking tray with baking paper.  

Smash and chop the garlic finely. Chop onion finely too or whiz in a processor/chopper. Peel carrot and grate coarsely. Pummel fennel and thyme in mortar and pestle.

Add a good splash of olive oil to your frying pan.  Fry off onion and garlic for less than 2 minutes - just until coated and a little translucent. Add thyme and fennel seeds - fry together until aromatic - another minute or two.

In your largest mixing bowl, combine mince and cooled ingredients from the frying pan. Also add grated carrot, breadcrumbs, sea salt, cracked pepper and sauces.  I always combine this by getting into it and using my hands, mixing for 2-3 minutes - working the protein in the meat and evenly distributing the flavours. 

Ensure your whole bench is clean and clear of any clutter. Make your egg wash and have pastry brush and seeds for topping ready. Lay out your puff pastry into a rectangle. Divide your mince into 3 or 6 evenly sized portions, depending on how wide your pastry is and if you are going to roll it vertical or horizontal. Either is fine. I buy long wide puff pastry in a roll so I normally roll mine horizontally.  Supermarket bought puff pastry sheets can be laid out along side each other in a neat row and work well.

Distribute mince along the length of the puff pastry, smoothing out with your hands an even amount of mince all along the roll. Don’t overfill them, especially if you prefer longer, thinner ones rather than shorter plump ones. Little cocktail size are nice too.

Brush the egg wash along one long edge. Pull the other edge firmly over the meat and roll to close neatly with the egg washed side down - the seam will be down too. 

Top Tip:  cut even portions of rolls, use a ruler as a guide if you want exact size, always use a serrated knife to cut as a chefs knife sticks to the pastry. Keep the blade clean for neat, consistent cuts. 

Place rolls on baking paper lined tray. Brush egg wash on top & sprinkle with fennel seeds.   I think fennel and pork is a match made in heaven but if you aren’t a fennel fan, top them with sesame or poppy seeds. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

Recipes and methods aside, the best tip I can give you for great sausage rolls is ‘get to know your local butcher’. Be sure he/she is selling and specialising in hormone and chemical free meat.  My second generation butcher in Palm Beach has been in business since 1971. For almost all that time they have cooked their naturally smoked hams & bacon on the premise.  If you buy freshly ground lean pork on the day it has been minced, before being put into its sausage bung (the skin made of animal intestine) you are already streets ahead.  Add Australian garlic, a little good relish or sauce, fresh herbs and season well - it’s a guaranteed winner. Bill Granger likes 50/50 pork & veal mince with chopped pistachio, cumin & coriander. Chicken mince with bacon or beef mince with kidney beans & chill are both yum too. Experiment, follow your heart & have fun rollin.

Arancia Candite - candied orange peel

Recipe

❤ Arancia Candite (Candied Orange or any citrus Peel)

A few keen readers ready to bake the Cavallucci biscuits posted below have asked me how best to candy the orange peel. This posting is the simple method I follow. This probably isn’t the traditional Italian method but you know how I like to keep things simple.  Probably in Sicily - home of the best candied desserts and citrus in the world - they use a slower more lengthy method to achieve such gorgeousness. I bought the commercial packets in Italy and it was fantastic.  Maggie Beer & Stephanie Alexander also have a more time consuming however lovely recipe (and many others) in their “Tuscan Cookbook”  They prefer leaving all the bitter white pith intact. I’ve always removed the white pith. This came originally from Maria Anello of “New Farm Deli Cookbook”  fame. I’ve used her book for years and still adore popping into the New Farm deli.

Ingredients

6-8 oranges (or whichever citrus you are using)  make it the best & brightest local citrus you can find

approximately 12 tablespoons of sugar (weigh your citrus zest and use same weight of sugar to zest) 

Method + Tips

With a small sharp paring knife, peel the skin off the citrus.  Remove the white pith too so that all you are left with is citrus zest skin. i.e orange, lemon, lime, ruby grapefruit part only.

 In a small pot, cover the peels with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 10-15 minutes. Drain the water off, rinse the peels well and place them in a tupperware bowl to soak for about an hour. Come back to your peel when you are ready.  In my case, four loads of washing and the breakfast dishes.. know what I mean?

Drain off the water and return to the pot on moderate heat with equal weight of sugar added in. Stir constantly and cook until the sugar is caramelising. This means the syrup is turning a light golden colour not dark brown.  If dark brown then you’ve taken the syrup too far to a toffee.

Lay the peel on baking paper to cool and dry. Turn and when dry both sides you can roll in castor sugar if you like. You can also dip it in melted chocolate for a treat.  Lots of lovely uses; cake toppings, icings, biscuits, ice-creams and puddings. In our humid climate, store in an airtight container in the fridge and away from little pesty sugar ants.  Keeps well for months. 

Cavallucci

Recipe

I’m keen to share with you recipes and ramblings from sunburnt Siena. My favourite Tuscan meals, backyard Pizza oven stories and lots of digital photos are open on my Mac. But sitting in my lap is a journal filled with handwritten Sienese biscuit and cake recipes. Sweet turmoil. Where to start? And the winner is ... ahh, surprise surprise. Sweet tradition.

❤ Sienese Cavallucci (Spiced cookies with candied orange and walnuts)

Ingredients

200 grams 1 cup Caster sugar

6 tablespoons good quality honey

200 grams Walnut pieces, chopped

85 grams of Candied Orange Peel, finely diced - store bought or home made

½ teaspoon freshly ground aniseed

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

500 grams 4 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

plenty of icing sugar for dusting

Makes approx. 26

Methods + Tips 

Place sugar and honey in a saucepan with ¾ cup of water. Heat gently, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.  Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 5 minutes until temperature reaches ‘thread stage’.

Remove pan from the heat. Stir in chopped walnuts and diced orange peel.  Preheat oven to moderate 180°C (350°F). 

Sift the flour with the baking powder and spices into a large bowl. Pour in walnut/peel mixture and fold into the flour with a large stainless spoon. Knead the dough just a little and roll into generous sized balls whilst still warm.  Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, until puffed and set but not browned. Dust with lots of icing sugar and serve.

These crunchy aniseed cookies are a Sienese specialty, along with Ricciarelli - a soft almond cookie and all those lovely P’s; Panforte, Panpepato, Panettone and  Pancioccolato - steeped in centuries of tradition. They are surely linked to the Palio horse race and/or the servants who worked in the stables of Italian aristocrats. 

When I arrived in Siena I didn’t know Cavalli was Italian for horses. Or that you could make anything small and cute in the Italian language by playing around with the word endings e.g ‘inni’ & ‘ucci’.

Don’t expect these to taste like a melting moment or other butter type Aussie cookie. There’s no butter here. It’s a crunchy biscuit on the outside with a soft centre that leaves a lingering fusion of citrus, aniseed and walnut in your mouth.

Traditionally these biscuits were eaten after a meal, often dunked in red wine or sweet vin santo.  I also love dunking them in a good espresso. When I make them they remind me of ‘brutti ma buoni’ another Italian biscuit that’s famous for its ugly look but great taste.

If you have time to make your own candied citrus and pound anise seeds in your mortar and pestle - it is well worth the effort. If not, don’t stress. You will still enjoy the results immensely.

Travel Tale

If you have a recurring dream (asleep or awake) of living in a foreign country simply because you’d like to learn a new language, cuisine and culture, DO IT!  Follow your heart.   

This IS reason enough to pack up your life for a little while. Spend your hard earned savings. And be prepared - for when you get there your heart will burst and your soul will fly. 

My recurring dream was to learn Italian in bella Toscana. I chose Siena for its two great language schools; Dante Aligheri and Universita per Stanieri (The University for Foreigners)  and also because the town seemed more approachable than its much bigger sister Florence. 

The gods were watching over me as my fellow students checked-in to their Sienese family apartments in town. Meanwhile, I was directed to the outskirts of town, ‘back down the hill to the train station and continue on past the local Coop supermercato’, directions given in Italian. I didn’t understand more than ‘grazie’ and ‘buongiorno’.

Eventually I found the supermarket and a little further along 'Strada del Paradiso' (apt beyond belief) was a long cypress lined driveway. It whispered 'picture postcard Tuscany' to me. My two backpacks, one on each sore shoulder quickly became light as a feather. I strolled up the shady track, past overgrown grape vines and olive trees to a large courtyard featuring the best backyard pizza oven I had ever laid eyes on. My host welcomed me in Italiano troppo rapido and presented a key to my heart. Actually it opened a well equipped kitchen and my Tuscan bedroom, complete with antique furnishings and a frescoed ceiling! Dreams really do come true.

All settled into my ‘villa’, I headed back into town to find ‘la scuola’ my new school and go ‘in centro’ the centre to see the famous Piazza del Campo. Lying stretched out on the cobblestones of Piazza del Campo is a terracotta dream with azure lining.  Add an IPod, ear piece and the voice of Tuscan born Andrea Boccelli to the mix - sublime.

The fiercest competition and tradition in Siena is the annual Palio Festival held on the 2nd of July and 16th of August each year. Unfortunately, or fortunately however you look at it, I arrived just after the August Palio Horse Race had been run.  But there is no escaping the importance of this event and the fascinating history of the Contradas - the 17 districts into which the town of Siena is divided. 

Other sacred destinations and magic moments are never far away in Siena. Just a minute or two from Piazza del Campo is Italy’s finest (in my humble opinion) Gothic Cathedral ‘Il Duomo’. If you have visited Siena you will remember it well - the Duomo’s unique black and white licorice all-sort striped marble belltower.

Its campanille dates back to 1313, not long before they started making these lovely biscuits in the 1500’s. The mind boggles - a 500 year old biscuit recipe. More stupenda (splendid) Siena another time. A presto!

Karen's Roast Veggie Frittata

Recipe

❤ Karen’s Roast Vegetable Frittata 

This one is a clayton’s frittata. It's baked in the oven, not fried or put under the griller as per usual. However it has all the puffed flavour and simplicity of a frittata, especially when filled with fresh quality ingredients for top results.  Free range eggs, fresh herbs, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese essential.

Now living in sunny Queensland, Karen moved to Australia from NZ with her family a few years back. Luckily for us she bought along a suitcase full of terrific local recipes and an insatiable passion for fresh produce and quality coffee. She grew up on a market garden farm and was the very first bella barista/baker at our Pantry.  

Ingredients

3 Potatoes medium sized

1 Kumara/Sweet Potato large sized 

Pumpkin - half of a whole medium sized one

1 Red Onion

2 small or 1 large Red Capsicum

Baby Spinach, 3 handfuls - just enough to cover and layer the base of your tin

Australian Garlic 3 large cloves

1 cup of Balsamic Vinegar

10-12 free range eggs, depending on size (10 if jumbo)

150 mls cream

½ cup Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated

Feta Cheese, just enough to crumble on top of frittata before cooking 

rosemary sprigs and italian parsley (optional)

 

Method + Tips

Preheat oven to moderate 180°C (350°F). Grease and line with baking paper your largest round springform, regular or square cake tin. Allow overlay of paper at top edges to help lift frittata out when cooked. Be a little careful if using a springform tin - this is best for this big frittata but only use a good quality one that doesn’t leak.  Otherwise you will loose your egg mixture out of the base.

Prepare all root vegetables for roasting by cutting into medium sized chunks - approximately 3cm square. Peel and bruise garlic. Slice red onions - not too thinly. Place prepared vegetables, onion and garlic in a large baking tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar generously over all the chopped vegetables. Sprinkle generously with sea salt and toss until all well coated. 

Bake for 30 minutes or until just cooked. Don’t overcook them at this stage. Lay washed and dried spinach on base of the lined tin to form a bottom layer. 

Whisk together eggs and cream lightly. Add freshly grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Mix through with a wooden spoon.

Lay roasted vegetables evenly on top of the spinach, pour over egg/cream mixture and crumble feta with your hands over the top to complete.

 

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until set firm in the centre.  Cover with baking paper or paper towel if beginning to brown too much towards the end of cooking. Top with freshly chopped Italian parsley and serve hot or cool with a salad. This is a frittata large enough for 8-12 slices. It's very high so the slices don't need to be big to fill you up. An average size family should have plenty of leftovers for another meal or tomorrows lunchboxes.

Tale

The pumpkins at the farm are problematic.  There’s never enough of them to go around!  So many delicious uses. We all love pumpkin soup variations in our family.  I enjoy the Asian-inspired coconut milk and red Thai curry paste version the best (it's in Stephanie's The Cook's Companion).  They grow wildly along an embankment near the paddock at Weka and don’t get any attention. They seem to like it that way, sun-baking in peace. Sounds ideal really.

Roasting the pumpkins and other root veggies in olive oil, sea salt and balsamic vinegar makes this dish work so well. You can scent them with sprigs of rosemary during baking too if you like. The baby spinach base and melted feta crumble top is perfect. In our first year at the Pantry I devoured a generous chunk of this Frittata for lunch most days. Gets your daily veggie intake up and really hits the spot.  

This dish is a perfect family meal or easy lunch with warm bread, greens and good store bought or home-made tomato relish.  Don’t be afraid to experiment and substitute also. I often make a Rocket, ricotta and pecorino or Chorizo, Potato and Red Pepper version.  If pushed for time just do the traditional frying pan method instead.  

grandma's salad dressing

Recipe

❤ Grandma’s Salad Dressing

The words boring and salad should never appear in the same sentence.  Creating a salad that is a superb meal in itself is really fun - perhaps a warm Thai Yum Salad inspired by Annette Fear from Spirit House Yandina or a divine Salmon Stack Salad like this one from The Deck Cafe at Currumbin Beach.

Photo courtesy of The Deck Cafe - Liz bella barista & photographer

When I want to jazz up a Green Salad, I like to fill it with fresh mint, italian parsley, sunflower sprouts and freshly picked Nasturtium from the garden. Salads can be taken from simple to sophisticated with only a little extra effort on prep and presentation.  

Try dressing your next Salad creation with this delightful, old fashioned, handmade mayonnaise. It’s the perfect addition to tangy peppery greens, baby spinach, iceberg, cos or mesclun. 

Ingredients

2 eggs

4 tablespoons of water

4 tablespoons of white vinegar

4 tablespoons of white sugar

1 heaped teaspoon of mustard powder

Method + Tips

Beat eggs lightly.  Pour into a saucepan that fits inside a larger one. The larger saucepan should be filled with boiling water about 1/3 full.  You may have a double boiler especially for the job. Otherwise just improvise with a small and larger one - that’s fine. 

Add water, vinegar and sugar to the eggs in the smaller saucepan.  Dissolve mustard powder in a little extra vinegar - just enough to take the lumps out when you stir it with a teaspoon.  Add the mustard to the ingredients.  Stir frequently in the same direction - until dressing starts to thicken. Approximately 10 minutes.  It will thicken more upon standing - when dressing has completely cooled.

Tale

This is a really popular one. I would always make it  x 10 times the recipe i.e using 20 eggs.  You can be very confident to double or triple or more, if you want plenty leftover for later in the week or next.  It keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks.

If it looks and tastes familar to you it's probably because your own Grandmother made it.  This homemade double boiler dressing was 'the dressing' of their time.

I was often asked for the recipe at the Farmers Markets & the Pantry. Hesitated to give it out though as the sugar content is quite high. Perhaps some might feel this defeats the purpose of eating salad.  I say don’t stress. A little of this dressing goes a long way and what a difference it makes. Enjoy.

On Friday I’ll post a terrific frittata recipe that's perfect served with a Salad - drizzled with Grandma’s Salad dressing. See you then.

Spirit House Cooking Class - If you haven't been to one or two yet, you must treat yourself.