Australian Blogevent: Sausage Rolls & Party Pies

Tonight I had to do some speed cooking: a few days ago I stumpled upon a (German) blogevent on the topic of Australian cooking. For those of you who know me will know that Australia plays a very big role in my life! 

For those of you who don't know me so well, I had the chance to live down under for three and a half years due to my job. I spent the first year and a half in Hobart, Tasmania and then moved to Melbourne, where I spent another two years. As Tasmania only has very few Germans I made a lot of great Australian friends who showed the Australian way of live! The friends I made down there are some of the closest I have, even though they are to far away! But I still try to fly down for a visit once a year.

But now about my Australian dishes. I had to think for a few moments before I knew what to make. My best friend didn't only give me the best home-made cookbook with all her recipes but also gave me a Donna Hay subsripction for my iPad this year for my birthday. But that's not all I had to chose from! When I moved back to Germany probably half my boxes were full of cookbooks. Just kidding, probably not quite as many, but there were quite a few boxes! Anyway, there is something Australian that I usually tried to make each one of my visitors to eat, for me it's as Australian as kangaroos, koalas, thongs or TimTams. I'm talking about mince pies, party pies in particular. I love them. I can eat them at any time of day, for breakfast, lunch, dinner or after a night out. 

Another very Australian thing are sausage rolls. I'm not really fond of the sausage rolls you get at bakeries but I really like home made ones!

But now enough raving about Australia, here are the recipes I used:

Mini Meat Pies or Party Pies

Oil

500g minced beef

1/2 onion, finely dices

2 cloves of garlic, finely diced

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp chopped coriander

a little bit of nutmeg

25g powdered gravy

250ml boiling water

6 tbsp tomato sauce

2 sheets of puff pastry (25 x 25 cm)

1 egg

Muffin tin

Heat the oil in a fry pan, add the onion and garlic, cook until soft.Then add the mince and turn with a wodden spoon to break up any bigger pieces. Once the meat has been cooked through add the grated carrot.

Meanwhile, place gravy powder in a heat resistent jug and mix with boiling water, stir until combined. Add to the mince mixture and leave on the stove for about two minutes or until it starts thickening. Take of the stove and add tomato sauce, herbs and nutmeg.

Let the mixture cool for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200°C, cut the puff pastry in smaller and bigger circles using a small bowl and a wineglass. Place the bigger circles in the muffin tin and fill with about 2 tablespoons of the mixture each. Use the smaller circles to top the cases. Press the edges together to seal them. Poke two little holes in the top to allow for the steam to come out. Brush the surface with lightly whisked egg.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Let the pies cool a bit before removing them. Serve them with tomato sauce.

Sausage Rolls

300g minced beef

1/2 onion, finely diced

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 egg

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp chopped coriander

1 tsp dried italian herbs

5 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce (optional, you can also use BBQ Sauce or any other kind of sauce)

Cracked pepper

1 sheet of puff pastry

1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 220°C, line baking tray with parchment paper.

Mix mince, onion, carrot, egg and herbs in a bowl until well combined.

Shape mixture into a sausage about the length of the puff pastry. Roll up pastry to enclose mince mixture. Brush the with a little bit of milk where the "seam" will be. Cut the pastry. Now cut the long sausage roll into smaller, bite sized pieces.

Place sausage rolls with the seam down on the baking tray, brush tops with milk. 

Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden and puffed. Let the sausage rolls cool a little before serving them warm. Serve with tomato sauce.

Tipp: Sausage Rolls freeze very well, if you want to freeze them, don't bake them for quite so long, so you can bake them again when you thaw them and before serving.