With party season in full swing, why not make this simple sausage wreath that can be made in a matter of minutes. Served with a pot of cranberry and port, with a generous side of mushroom gravy to dip into. This wreath can be served hot or cold and is easy for guests to "tear and share". You can even tweak this basic recipe to make your own invention.
INGREDIENTS
- 800g Sausage Meat
- 500g Puff Pasty Block
- Angus and Oink "Honey Chilli"
- Fig Conserve
- Sesame Seeds
- 1 Egg
METHOD
Allow sausage meat and pastry to come up to room temperature before proceeding. Dust your prep area with all-purpose flour and lay out your puff pastry block and roll it out in a rectangle while whilst trying to keep the pastry to around 1.5mm thick.
In a bowl, place the sausage meat and add a level tablespoon of Angus & Oink "Honey Chilli" and mix together. Now, we cannot taste if this is going to be the right amount, so what I do here is smell the mixture. If I can still smell the pork with a hint of seasoning, I consider that to be a good amount that won't overpower the rest of the ingredients.
Onto the puff pastry, take the fig conserve and spoon it out onto the pastry across the whole width of the rectangle where the sausage meat will be placed. I try to do this at about 2/3 of the height of the rectangle. You don't need too much of the conserve, about 4 heaped teaspoons will suffice. Place the sausage meat in a continuous line on top of the fig conserve. Carefully pull the top 3rd of the pastry over the sausage meat and roll it towards yourself and stop once you have covered the sausage meat. You will now have the bottom 3rd of the pastry visible with nothing on it. This is where you beat an egg and brush it onto the pastry and then finally finish rolling the sausage mixture into one giant sausage roll. Take some baking parchment and place the roll onto that.
Take a knife and trim off the ends that have no filling in them. To create the wreath will require some measuring. Measure the length of your creation and take a knife and make a cut in the roll right down to the work surface in the middle. You are going to make a cut that will leave a 3rd of the roll in tact like a comb. Measure 3 to 4cm away from the centre cut and make another clean cut... and repeat the process. You should now be able to shape it into a circle with what will look like tabs all the way around the outside like a gear.
Here is the fun bit: set your oven to 180o fan (you may need to operate your oven at a higher/lower temperature if you know it well enough and trust it). You can now carefully hold one of the "tabs" that are on the outside of your wreath and carefully rotate them 90o to create a twist in the pastry and lay it on the parchment. This will expose the pastry and the filling for an even cook. Complete this all the way around the wreath and you are nearly there. Give the exposed pastry an egg-wash with the beaten egg and give it all a sprinkle with sesame seeds and then pop it in the oven. Times may vary but you are looking for around 35 to 40 minutes cooking time.
The trick here is to get the temperature just right so that your pastry cooks, the sausage meat cooks, and the fig conserve becomes slightly caramelised and chewy. I serve this with a rich mushroom gravy and a pot of cranberry with port, and it is a sure fire party hit with friends and family.
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Honey Chilli Heady with Chinese aromatic spices, red pepper and chilli for an authentic flavour. |