behomeforT: Pork and Apple Sausage Rolls with Caraway Seeds and a Fennel and Orange Salad

I wrote before about how I dislike spending 8 dollars or more on an average takeaway lunch. That's why I always do some 'batch cooking' on Sunday so I can prepare lunches well ahead and keep them in the freezer. When I am in a hurry in the morning, the only thing I need to do is open the freezer, quickly grab my lunch and a muffin or piece of homemade banana bread, grab some fruit and I am ready for the day.

I do not like premade sausage rolls. The ones you buy at the supermarket and then heat up in the oven or even microwave (yuk!). So I made them myself. These sausage rolls are easy to make and because they contain apple, the taste is a bit different. I did not cut them in half but instead made mega sausage rolls. They are pretty big and enough for a big lunch. If you like salad, a fennel and orange salad works well.

Have you ever made homemade sausage rolls before and wonder why they are on the dry side? That's because mince by itself does not have a high enough fat content to keep the meat moist. It depends on the mince of course. Lean mince will not give you a nice moist sausage roll. However, you can choose to mix mince with the meat from some good quality sausages, which is what I have done here. Getting the meat out of the sausages is pretty gross but it will be worth the effort.

This recipe has been adapted from Taste Australia

Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 red onions, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 600 gram good quality Italian Pork Sausages (from the butcher)
- 400 gram pork mince
- 3 teaspoons caraway seeds
- a lot of Italian herbs
- 6 granny smith apples, grated and as much liquid as possible removed
- 4 sheets frozen puff pastry
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- good quality tomato chutney
- 2 oranges, segmented
- 1 baby fennel, sliced
- 1 lemon

The recipe
Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Heat oil in non stick frying pan and heat the onion and garlic for approximately 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Use scissors to cut the end from the sausages and squeeze out the meat in a bowl. Mix with the mince and a lot of salt, pepper, italian herbs and the caraway seeds. Add the apple and mix properly.

Use one pastry sheet on your work bench and cut in two. Roll a sausage out of the meat mixture and put it in the middle of the sheet. Do not make it too big as it will not fit in the pastry. Fold both sides inside and close the bottom and top. Brush with eggyolk and place with the seem side down on a baking tray with baking paper. Repeat with remaining sausages. You can also cut the sausages in two. If you prefer smaller sausage rolls.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden. Serve with a simple salad of fennel, orange segments and some lemon juice.

Review
I have used this recipe many times to make my work lunches and every time my colleagues tell me how good it smells when I reheat the sausage roll in the microwave. And it is so easy to make! Give it a go!