The Story

Don’t Like Pig Intestine?

New Zealand sausage rolls are for you.

By Lindsay Sterling

Upon learning that I write this Immigrant Kitchens column, my new neighbor, Ursula, said, “You’ve got to call my friend from New Zealand. She brings these sausage roll things to every party, and they’re delicious.”

-- What about sausage could not be delicious? I wondered. It was the wrong question. I tried to take it back, but it was out there, twisting in the wind, the answer flying to it like bugs into bug tape. The sausage casing, which -- let’s face it -- is pig intestine, which is practically the bowel, is something about sausage that is not delicious. It’s gross! Great. Now I’m going to be sued for ending the long and prosperous sausage-eating careers of Portland Phoenix readers everywhere. But lo! There on the horizon is a farm on a hill. There, New Zealander, Briana Robillard, is going to show us all how to fix this, and we’ll all be eating sausage with glee again in no time.

New Zealand sausage rolls, a food traditionally served to sheep shearers after a hard day’s work, are basically seasoned loose sausage wrapped inside pie dough into neat little bites and baked. No intestine folks. Americans have their own version of sausage rolls -- pigs in a blanket -- but these seem to be missing the point entirely. The ground meat is doubly contained – first in Vienna sausage casing, then in dough. Who needs extraneous intestine in their diet? It’s not like we eat the intestine for the flavor. All we want is containment capability! And pie dough has it.

As ubiquitous as sausage rolls are in New Zealand, Briana Robillard had never actually made them herself before coming to the U.S. “I didn’t ever cook sausage rolls there because I never needed to. They’re everywhere. It’s like French fries are here.”  It wasn’t until she was actually sheering alpaca at a farm in Freeport that she realized that there likely would be no sausage rolls available. She thought, “You have to feed sausage rolls to shearers!” And made a mad dash for the Internet and the grocery store.

She put ground pork in a mixing bowl with egg, breadcrumbs, milk, scallion, sage, basil and salt. Then in a separate bowl mixed flour, salt, butter and water into dough with her hands. Though she wasn’t a highly trained baker, she rolled that dough out with complete confidence. She was the type of person who buys her flour in 30 pound sacks. She got some of her confidence from thirty years of farming and home cooking experience, and some from this cooking motto: “If you feed it to hungry people, it’ll be fine.” She cut the dough into a large rectangle and put the meat filling in a line down the long middle. Then she folded the dough over the meat like a business letter. Slicing across the roll turned the roll into a whole bunch of bite-sized pieces, which she placed on a greased sheet pan and baked in the oven.

Though my daughters and I sheered no sheep, Briana offered us as many of these golden little meat nuggets as we liked, right off the cooling rack. “Mm! Tastes like pot-pie!” My seven-year-old said. Nothin’ like meat in pie crust.

Then Briana proceeded to make a dessert called strawberry pavlova, which is basically a meringue raft slathered with two inches of whipped cream and topped with a mountain of sliced fresh strawberries. We’ve been saved.

copyright Lindsay Sterling 2013

See How To Do It - Sausage Rolls

Mix ground pork, egg, scallion, and breadcrumbs soaked in milk.

For the dough, it's just whole wheat flour, butter, salt and a litte water.

She mixed the flour and butter for a while with her hands so she had a course meal. Then she added just enough water to make this:

 She barely mixed it at all and poured it onto a floured counter.

With just a couple motions of her hands, she turned the unruly mass into a disc.

 Then with lots of flour on top (she used white flour for dusting the counter and top of the dough) and bottom, she patted the dough out quickly to about the length of the rolling pin.

She rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thick, maybe slightly less.

She cut off the edges and cut the dough down the middle so she had two rectangles, and brushed water along the left edge of each to encourage the rolls to stick together.

Add the filling.

Fold over one flap and paint the top with water.

Fold over the second flap and press onto the wet first flap so they stick. Do this to each so you have two complete rolls. Then slice across each roll so you have bite sized pieces and place on a greased sheet pan.

 Brush the tops with scrambled egg mixed with a little milk.

 And bake at 350 until meat is cooked and tops are golden.

Photos: Lindsay Sterling

See How to Do It - Strawberry Pavlova

Separate the egg whites for making a meringue.

 

In a separate bowl mix vinegar, corn starch, and vanilla.

Whip the egg whites by themselves with a hand beater or electric mixer. Briana said that unlike whipped cream, egg whites beat faster at room temperature.

Once soft peaks form, add the sugar, tablespoon by tablespoon, as you keep whipping.

Once you're done adding the sugar, mix in the corn starch mixture.

Pour the meringue onto a piece of wax paper on a sheet pan.

Make into a flat shape. Once hardened it will hold whipped cream and berries. I like how unfussy her version is. Seriously, like a cloud.

Cook in the oven at 250 for about an hour until the outside is hard and color is the palest tan. Then turn the oven off and  leave the meringue in the oven to cool completely. Use a metal spatula to separate wax paper. Don't worry if the meringue crackles. You'll never see it underneath all the whip cream. Right before serving, whip up some cream, slather it all over the meringue, and top with strawberries or any fresh fruit.




Photos: Lindsay Sterling

The Recipe - Sausage Rolls

New Zealand Sausage Rolls

As Briana Robillard, from New Zealand, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport Maine, June 2013

Serves: 9 as appetizers, makes 27 pieces
Cooking Time: 1 hour

For the filling:
1/3 cup breadcrumbs or matzo meal
1/3 cup milk
1 lb. ground pork
1/2 scallion
1 whole egg
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt

For the dough:
2 1/4 cup flour (she prefers King Arthur's light whole wheat flour, or 1 c. wheat, 1 1/4 c. white)
1/2 cup white flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, cubed into 1/4" pieces

For glazing each piece:
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk

1. Make the filling. Mix breadcrumbs and milk together in a small bowl. In a large bowl mix the breadcrumb/milk with ground pork, scallion, egg, sage, basil, and salt.

2. Make the dough. In a different large bowl, squeeze the light wheat flour into the butter and the butter into the flour with your hands for about five minutes until it resembles fine breadcrumbs with pea size clumps of butter. Then mix in with your ands just enough cold water (about 1/4 cup) to make the dough stick together in a damp uneven clumpy mass. Put a small handful of white flour on your work surface, and turn the dough onto that. Form the unruly mass into a disc. Cut the disc in half and set one half aside. Flatten remaining dough more or less into a shape the length of your rolling pin. Roll out, adding small handfulls of flour and spreading them on the top of the dough to keep it from sticking, until the dough is slightly less than 1/4 inch thick and about 14" wide. Trim the edges so you have a rectangle. Then cut that in half so you have two fairly long rectangles, about 6 inches wide.

3. Begin assembling the rolls.

Brush the left third (lengthwise) of both rectangles with water. Form 1/4 of the meat filling into an inch thick line down the center of the first rectangle. Form another 1/4 of the filling into a line in the center (lengthwise) of the second rectangle. Fold the wet flap of dough on top of the meat. Brush the top surface of that dough with water, and then fold the second flap over the top of the first one, pressing them gently together so they stick. Slice across each roll in 1 inch segments so you have bite-sized pieces. Grease a sheet pan, place the pieces on it.

4. Repeat the process, rolling out the reserved dough, filling it with the remaining filling, and assembling more rolls.

5. Final touch. Scramble an egg in a bowl and add in a little milk. Brush the egg mixture over each sausage roll, and bake at 350 degrees until tops are slightly golden and sausage is cooked, about 30 minutes. Let cool on cooking rack.

Serve after sheep shearing, at weddings, funerals, and pretty much any gathering.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2013