October is apple pressing month. On a (hopefully) dry weekend, we gather a jumble of eating and cooking apples from the orchard to transform into a year's supply of apple juice, cider, and vinegar. The geese usually waddle after us, motivated both by their love of apples and compulsion for wheelbarrow chasing. Part-way through washing, scrattering, pressing, bottling, and pasteurising, we break for lunch: piping hot sausage rolls, various pickles, and, of course, a glass of freshly pressed apple juice.
Sausage Rolls with Pear, Stilton and Sage
Welcome the start of autumn with this recipe for pear, stilton and sage sausage rolls
Makes 8-10
Published: September 15, 2021 at 6:53 am
Ingredients
- 350g Pork sausages, removed from casing
- 2 Firm pears, peeled, cored and chopped into very small cubes
- 6 Sage leaves, finely chopped
- 75g Blue Stilton cheese
- 375g Ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry sheet (approx.40cm x 25cm)
- 1 Egg, lightly beaten
- ½tsp Poppy seeds
Method
Step 1
Put the sausage meat, pear and sage in a large bowl, crumble in the Stilton, and use your hands to mix and squash everything together until combined.
Step 2
Open out the pastry sheet on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and cut it in half lengthways. Divide the sausage mixture in half and arrange it on top of the pastry so that it runs down the centre of each pastry half, shaping it into a rough sausage shape as you do so. Brush one side of each of the pastry sheet halves with beaten egg. Then, for one half of the pastry, fold one side of the pastry over the top of the sausage mix, join it to the opposite side and press down to seal. Press a fork along the edge to pattern and to strengthen the seal. Repeat for the second pastry half. Brush the tops and sides of sausage rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle over the poppy seeds.
Step 3
Pop the filled pastry in the oven at 200°C for around 20 minutes until puffed up, golden brown and the Stilton and pear juices have puddled and caramelised. Slice the rolls into 8 evenly sized portions and serve hot.
The Seaonal Table
Kathy and Tom combine running their Somerset smallholding with full-time jobs, and also find time to write a blog called The Seasonal Table – a journal of slow food and slow living.
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Kathy Bishop and Tom Crowford
