Sausage, potato and dill pasties

I suddenly realised we were almost half way through this week and I hadn't posted a recipe. Not having done any cooking for the last few days (long story) I've had to dig out an old one but an apposite one as it's British Sausage Week.

To tell the truth I'd completely forgotten about it but I do remember it being extremely tasty. It comes from my book Sausage and Mash and was inspired by one of The Ginger Pig's butchers Paul Hughes who told me they used to make a Swedish potato sausage flavoured with dill. Apparently there wasn’t huge demand for it so they dropped it but it seemed a brilliant idea to me and one that would make a great filling for a pasty.

The pastry is really easy and well worth making from scratch. The technique comes from Delia Smith’s Cookery Course, published back in 1978.

Makes 6 pasties

For the filling
425g new potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
6 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
25g butter
400g coarsely cut traditional pork sausages, at least 85% meat
2 rounded tbsp finely chopped dill (about 5g)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pastry
200g butter
50g vegetable shortening e.g. Cookeen or Trex (I think they still do it - if not use lard)
350g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
6-8 tbsp iced water
1 medium egg, lightly beaten, for glazing

Measure out the butter and shortening for the pastry, wrap it in foil and put it in the freezer for half an hour.

Put the potatoes on to boil in boiling salted water. Cook for 7-8 minutes then drain.

Heat a large frying pan, add the oil then the butter. Fry the onion for a couple of minutes until softened then turn off the heat and roughly crush the potatoes into the pan. Season with salt and pepper and leave to cool.

When the fats are really cold, measure the flour and salt into a large bowl. Coarsely grate the semi-frozen butter and shortening into the flour, dipping each block into the flour as you go, and lightly working it in with a flat-bladed knife.

Cut the fat into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs then make a well in the centre and add about 5 tbsp of iced water. Work the pastry mix into the liquid and gradually pull the pastry together, adding as much extra liquid as you need to form a ball. Turn the pastry onto a floured board, pat into shape, put in a plastic bag and refrigerate for half an hour.

Take the sausages out of their skins, break up roughly and add to the potato mixture along with the dill. Take the pastry out of the fridge and divide into four. Roll out each portion thinly into a circle then cut round an 18cm plate or flan tin base, saving the offcuts. Pile 2 tbsp of filling into the centre of the circle and form it into a lozenge shape. Brush round the edges of the pastry with beaten egg. Bring the edges together in the middle, seal firmly then crimp to get a wavy line down the centre.

Repeat with the rest of the pastry then roll the offcuts to make two more pasties.

Refrigerate the pasties for at least 30 minutes then bake at 225°C/425°F/Gas 7 for 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5 and cook for another 30-35 minutes until the pasties are thoroughly cooked and well browned. Cool for at least half an hour before eating but don't refrigerate them.

Read more ►

Would you, should you eat a budget sausage?

Given that it’s British Sausage Week and Bonfire Night tonight you’d expect a few offers on sausages this week but few can be as cheap as the 88p that Tesco is charging for its discount brand Tulip.

Curious to see what you get for an 11p sausage I bought a pack of eight. According to the ingredients just 56% of the sausage is pork (compared to about 70-80% for mid-range sausages and 85% plus for premium ranges). The rest is accounted for by pork rind, and pork fat, water and rusk together with a whole load of additives including stablisers which are presumably needed to keep the whole soggy mixture together.

There’s a fair amount of salt (1.2g per 100g) plus a surprising amount of sugar (4.2g per 100g)which presumably accounted for the fact they browned so easily (see picture). Two sausages alone would account for over a third of the recommended 3g daily salt intake for a 4-6 year old.

When I fried them an alarming amount of fat also leached out of them - I spooned off about 7 tablespoons, but it has to be said the flavour wasn’t at all bad. They were a bit pappy and soft but I’ve eaten a lot worse in my time. You can see why they would appeal to a family on a really tight budget (not to mention the students who patronise that particular Tesco store).

I don’t know whether to feel pleased or sorry that they are not made from British pork but ‘EU’ pork which could come from anywhere from Holland to Romania. I doubt if British farmers could afford to do them for that price but given the financial plight they’re in I’m sorry that Tesco is willing to undercut them in this way. I'm pretty sure the 11p sausage doesn’t pay for fair wages or high standards of animal welfare.

Read more ►

Three cheers for chipolatas!

Frantically trying to finish the book before I go away so just a quick tip. Buy chipolatas instead of standard-sized sausages and buy them loose so you can calculate exactly how many you need.

Last week, on the infamous Waitrose expedition I'm still trying to justify, I bought four decent-sized lamb and herb chipolatas for £1.22 which we had with couscous forked through with stir-fried grated courgette and a green salad. They weren't particularly nice with that unpleasant flavour of dried mint but that's another issue. (Far better to stick to plain ones)

For some reason you feel that you're getting more for your money with chipolatas than with bigger sausages even though they're thinner. They're better for children. And they're also much quicker to cook . . .

For more money-saving tips on meat take a look at the post I've just put up on Beyond Baked Beans.

Read more ►

'Premium' sausages - worth the money?

Finding myself with a quarter of an hour to kill before an appointment yesterday I dived into Sainsbury's and had a snoop around to see if they had anything good in the way of bargain buys.(Cheap pineapples, btw)

What was more interesting (to sad anoraks like me who are obsessed with such things) was the pricing on their sausages. They had three ranges - cheap branded, their own-brand Butcher's Choice and their premium Taste the Difference.

The TTD ranges, which tend to be higher in meat at 85%-95%, were (and are regularly) on offer at two 400g packs for £4, a pretty reasonable £1 a head. Those are the ones I'd choose if I were cooking up sausages for friends but a single pack will cost you £2.25

The Butcher's Choice range however was on a BOGOF (buy one get one free) offer of two packs for £1.75. True, less meat (72%) but the traditional British banger always had a fair proportion of rusk. That's a really fantastic way to feed a hungry family.

At £1.49 for 454g Walls' sausages would have been the cheapest but for this offer but they have less meat still (63% in total though they do itemise exactly how that's made up - 44% belly, 12% shoulder and 11% pork fat. 'Meat' always includes fat in a sausage) They also have that ultra-smooth pasty texture that I imagine can only be achieved by adding a fair amount of water to the mix. Richmond (£1.80 for 454g) are similar but with even less meat (52%). I really can't see the point in buying either of those.

I hate to say it but having tasted my way through many sausages in my time (I once wrote a book called Sausage and Mash) I think that supermarket own brand sausages do have the edge over independent butchers' and meat producers. Some of the worst sausages I've tasted have been organic ones. Sad but true.

Read more ►