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June 12, 2004

Aussie Sausage Rolls

Today we cooked up some aussie Sausage Rolls. We were both missing some good old aussie tucker so we decided to try our luck in the sausage roll making department and I think all in all it was an awsome success. We did not have access or could not find any sausage mince but i think you can cheat and just use the pork mixture from whole bought pork sausages. But we didn't think about that until later, after we had made them using beef mince. But they were delish and very healthy as we used low fat mince meat. We made a total of 24 largish sausage rolls and we pigged out big time at lunch with them. We are taking a batch to our friends house tonight for a party. Luckily there will also be home made pizza there at the party. There are some more photos of the cooking process in the Photo Gallery and the recipe is posted below

Cooking Time: 50 Minutes
Serves: makes 24 large rolls

Recipe Ingredients
1kg beef mince or sausage mince
1 to 1 and ½ medium Onion
2 cups dry bread crumbs
water
800g or 4 square sheets of Puff Pastry
2 eggs but save the yolk from egg to glaze the sausage rolls before you oven bake
1 tablespoon of dried Oregano
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
A touch of dried rosemary
2 tablespoons of bbq sauce (or to taste)
I heaped teaspoon of chicken or beef stock
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Fresh grinded Pepper to taste
Milk used to glaze the sausage rolls before you oven bake

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (or medium heat).
2. Soak bread crumbs with water, just add enough so crumbs aren't saturated.
3. Finely chop the onions, and place in a large bowl with the mince meat, soaked breadcrumbs, chicken stock, beaten whole egg and white of another egg, salt and pepper, bbq sauce, oregano and spices. Using your fingers, thoroughly to combine the ingredients.
4. 2. Roll out the pastry to a rectangle about 50cm by 40cm. Cut into two strips lengthways. Split the mince meat mixture, and spread a generous amount along the strip of pastry.
5. 3. With your fingertips, rub a little water along the opposite edges of the pastry. Starting at the sausage meat side, roll over the pastry towards the other side, until you have formed a roll with the seam at the bottom. Gently firm down.
6. Lightly tap the back of a knife along the top of the roll in both directions as to make a cross pattern. Trim the ends or excess bits of the roll.
7. Cut each long roll into about 3 smaller rolls. Brush a little of the milk and yolk mixture over each one to glaze.
8. 5. Place the sausage rolls on baking dish which has been pre-oiled or sprayed with a oil substitute . Bake for 25-30 minutes, until pastry has turned a golden brown.
9. These rolls which are 15 cm long can be further divided into 2 smaller party sausage rolls.
10. Eat hot with tomato sauce or bbq sauce.

June 11, 2004

Photos for May

I have put up some photos from May in the photo gallery. These photos include the 25th May celebrations in Plaza de Mayo and some photos from a little trip we did to the city of La Plata.

25th of May is a national holiday here in Argentina to celebrate the day of the revolution. On 25th May 1810, the people of Buenos Aires declared their independance from Spain, however this was not formalised until 6 years later on the 9th July 1816 (Independance Day).

La Plata is a small city about 55km south of Buenos Aires. Yamila had a Paleo conference to attend there so I went along one of the days to have a look around the city. We stayed overnight and attended a dinner with all the Paleontologists. La Plata is the capital of the province of Buenos Aires. There are around 400,000 people inhabiting this entirely planned city with grid pattern streets joined by diagonal streets (See photo). It can get very confusing at some intersections with streets going off in all directions. La Plata is the home to the La Plata Museum of Nartural Sciences which is quite large and home to many things including a large collection of fossils and some well preserved mummies.