Cajun Sausage Sliders with Mozzarella – From the Surreptitious Chef

Pin It We stayed with friends near Bergerac in Dordogne earlier this summer. The sky was a strange blue colour not often seen by Irish people and there was a big golden disc high up in the atmosphere. That’s the Sun, my friends said, seeing my puzzled expression. They explained that it was an object of worship. I was introduced to a ceremony which locals call Le Pique-Nique - a form of Sun worship. Apparently people in Dordogne regularly practice this form of reverence which involves dining al fresco while basking in a warm glow called Sunshine - also unheard of in Ireland.

Cajun Sausage Sliders ... the surprise hit from the Surreptitious Chef!

“Let’s have a gourmet Pique-Nique!” my beloved announced with the zeal of the newly converted. “Everyone must produce a dish.”

“Groan,” said the other men in the party, greeting his suggestion with great enthusiasm.

Recipe for a gourmet Pique-Nique: Great food, great company, perfect location

The menu included prawns and scallops to be cooked on site, bacon-wrapped asparagus, Caprese salad, salty-sweet Parma-wrapped Charantais melon, egg mayo, the obligatory potato salad, plenty of local rosé and a stunning lakeside location. From the man’s man, the bloke’s bloke, the guy’s guy of the party, came a surprise hit – these spicy sausage sliders with a melting cheesy centre.

Sizzle...

I asked this surreptitious chef if I could feature his idea on my blog. “Sure,” he said, “just so long as you don’t tell anyone who I am. You’ll destroy my street cred!”

Don’t worry - your secret is safe with me, Trevor. Ooops!

For 10 sliders you will need...

Cajun Spice Mix

1 small clove garlic

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

500g good quality meaty sausages (pork, lamb, beef – your choice)

100g Mozzarella, divided into 10 even pieces

A little olive oil or sunflower oil for cooking

Cajun Spice Mix - some like it hot!

1                    Using a pestle and mortar, pound all the spice mix ingredients together until the garlic is reduced to pulp and mixed to a damp powder with the herbs and spices – a food processor will do the trick too.

2                    Remove the sausages from their skins and place in a bowl. Mix until the meat forms a ball (hands are best for this job). Divide the mixture into 10 portions and form each into a ball. Make a dent in the centre of each portion and press a piece of mozzarella into each. Cover over with the meat, sealing the cheese inside. Flatten each portion into a patty. Sprinkle the spice mix over the patties, turning to ensure an even coating. Chill until ready to use.

3                    Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a gentle heat and cook the patties for about 4 minutes each side. You want a gentle sizzle going on so that the inside is cooked through long before the outside even thinks about burning.

4                    Sandwich between mini-burger buns, or mini pita rounds, or ciabatta as I’ve done with these. Serve with your favourite slider accompaniments.

My Cajun spice mix has a bit of a kick. If you can’t stand the heat, take it down a notch by reducing the amount of white pepper and cayenne.

Pin It

When Life Gives You Sausages, Make Sausage Rolls

Pin It

Sausage rolls - when they are good, they are very, very good... 

A couple of years ago, I was on my way to South Ann’s Street Post Office to mail an entry form for a competition. I was only about a hundred metres from my destination when I was stopped in my tracks by an almighty bang as a delivery lorry backed into one of the beautifully decorative street lamps.

The cast metal pole shattered on impact. The entire structure keeled over like a felled tree and I could feel the breeze as the whole weight of it whistled past about a metre from my face. Luckier still, it buried its massive lantern in a huge municipal flowerpot, which cushioned the impact and absorbed the glass as it shattered into smithereens. The driver leaned out the window, asked “Alright luv?”, and drove off at speed when he could see that he hadn’t flattened me. I think a whole lot of my good fortune was used up in one go as an astonishingly lucky streak came to an end for a couple of years.

I seem to be back on form now though. I entered a competition recently with a very attractive top prize of €3,000. All you had to do was come up with an idea for a new sausage to commemorate 30 years of stunningly good sausages from Irish supermarket, Superquinn. I came up with the all-in-one breakfast sausage, containing three important components of the legendary Full Irish Breakfast: black pudding, white pudding, and of course excellent sausage meat.

Can you believe it? I was the lucky winner of ... a year’s supply of sausages. Well when life gives you sausages, make sausage rolls.

For 12 delicious rolls you will need

... to pre-heat the oven to 180°C when you reach step 4

Pastry

165g (5oz) plain flour

a pinch of salt

75g (3oz) butter, from the fridge

75mls (3 fl oz) iced water

A small bowl of cold water for sealing the pastry

Egg wash

A little beaten egg mixed with a pinch of salt

Filling

12 good-quality pork sausages (chipolatas)

6 slices of air dried ham such as Prosciutto, Serano or Bayonne

Ready to rock and roll...

1    First make the pastry: put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and grate in the butter. Rub the fat into the flour by lifting large pinches of the mixture and rub quickly between your thumbs and fingertips fingers, letting the mixture fall back into the bowl. You want to end up with a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs. (This can be done in a flash using a food processor or food mixer if you prefer, and in fact can give better results as warm hands can melt the fat resulting in a tough pastry.)

2.   Add the water a little at a time until the mixture comes together in a ball, leaving the sides of the bowl clean. Flatten the ball of pastry into a flat disc and wrap in clingfilm or a ziplock bag and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes while you make the filling.

3    Meanwhile prepare the filling: Cut each slice of ham into 2 long strips and wrap a strip around each sausage. Place in the fridge until the pastry has been chilled.

4.   When the pastry has been in the fridge for 30 minutes, place it on a lightly floured work surface and using a rolling pin, roll into a rectangle about the width of 3 sausages laid end to end, about 40cm in length and about 3mm thick - roughly the thickness of a euro coin. Now cut the pastry into 3 long even strips. Divide each of the strips into 4 equal pieces.

The Fall collection for the well dressed sausage...

5.   Taking one pastry piece, place a ham-wrapped sausage on the end nearest you, about 4cm from the edge of the pastry. Fold the nearest edge over the sausage and moisten the along the top with a little cold water. Roll the pastry over the sausage to enclose it and transfer to a non-stick baking tray, with the pastry join underneath. Repeat until you have used up all the sausages.

6.   Brush with beaten egg. Using a sharp knife, slash two or three diagonal cuts into the top of each roll.

7.   Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before serving.

Tip

Leave the backing paper on the air dried ham and use a scissors to cut it into strips. Peel the backing paper off before wrapping the sausage in the ham.

If you like, you can freeze the sausage rolls once they have been assembled but before you have egg-washed them. When you want to use them, simple pre-heat the oven. Place the frozen sausage rolls on a baking tray and proceed from Step 6

Variation

For bite sized sausage rolls, cut each into 2 pieces before baking.

Replace the short-crust with a good-quality all-butter frozen puff pastry. Remove it from the freezer about 30 minutes before you need it.

Spread a ½ teaspoon of good quality tomato chutney underneath each sausage before enclosing in the pastry for a little added zing.

That’s a dozen sausages taken care of. Now for the other 820 ... anyone any bright ideas?

Pin It