Pork & fennel sausage rolls

Beautiful parmesan and sesame crust all golden in the afternoon sun!

Ingredients

Makes roughly 24 sausage rolls

• 500g pork mince

• 1.5 tablespoons fennel seeds, lightly toasted

• 1 brown onion, finely diced

• 3 garlic cloves, crushed

• 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard

• 1 medium carrot, grated

• 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

• 1 tablespoon tomato chutney (optional)

• 3 sheets of puff pastry

• Salt & pepper (for seasoning)

• 1 egg, lightly beaten (for egg washing)

• Grated parmesan cheese (for topping)

• Sesame seeds (for topping)

  Method

  Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Ensure oven rack is in the middle of the oven.

  Take puff pastry sheets out of the freezer to defrost.

  In a dry pan (with no oil) over medium heat, lightly toast fennel seeds until fragrant (2-3 minutes roughly).

  In a large bowl, add mince, toasted fennel seeds, onion, garlic, Dijon mustard, carrot, breadcrumbs and chutney (if using). Season generously with salt and pepper. Use your hands to mix all ingredients together until well incorporated.

  Lay a puff pastry sheet out flat on work surface. With a knife, slice each puff pastry sheet into half. Roll a log of mince mixture along the long edge of each puff pastry sheet half. Roll the pastry over to create a roll - making sure to keep the mince mixture nice and snug and tight whilst rolling. Repeat until all mince is gone.

  If needed and the uncooked sausage rolls are too soft, you can place them into the freezer for 10 or so minutes now, so that they are easier to cut.

  Evenly cut each log into four sausage rolls. Place onto a lined baking tray. With a pastry brush, egg wash all sausage rolls. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and parmesan to your liking.

  Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy top and bottom.

  Cooking notes:

• If you really want to streamline things, purchase pre made sausages and de case the meat by squeezing the meat out of the sausage. You can then use this as your sausage roll filling.

• Having the oven rack in the middle of you oven helps get a crispy top and bottom as heat can penetrate the bottom of your baking tray and the top of the sausage rolls.

• You could easily make the sausage rolls in advance and pop them in your freezer uncooked for a rainy day. All you would need to do it cut, eggwash and bake!