Picnic food

After a rather long and unscheduled break, I thought is was time to get back into the kitchen, and what better to make on a rainy weekend than picnic food, in the hope for some picnic weather.

The weather never came, so what was picnic food turned into lunch at work food.

I was inspired to make pastry goods after a trip to the Malton Farmers' Market on our last trip over to North Yorkshire. We came across a stall from a Farm in Claxton where the lady was selling a range of gluten-free goods, alongside her normal sausages and pies etc. We bought a minced beef pie, chicken pie and mini sausage rolls. She explained that someone in her family needed gluten-free so she decided to make everything herself. She also makes a range for people who can eat gluten, but not wheat.

My first attempt (actually that's a lie, my first attempt in recent years) into making gluten-free pastry started with homemade sausage rolls. Seems simple enough, but to have gluten-free sausagemeat without forking out for gluten-free sausages to split, meant making my own.

For both the recipes for sausagemeat and the pastry I turned to the ever-reliable Leiths Techniques Bible.

I used their basic sausagemeat recipe and their rich shortcrust pastry recipe.

Sausagemeat

450g minced fatty pork

1 medium onion, very finely chopped (optional - I used it)

4 slices of white bread, crumbed (I used one gluten-free roll)

1 egg, beaten

fresh sage leaves, chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Mix together the pork and onion

2. Stir the breadcrumbs into the mixture with the egg and sage (I added some extra dried sage and some extra thyme as I like my sausage meat herby!)

3. Add plenty of salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Fry a little of the mixture to check the seasoning.

Rich shortcrust pastry

170g plain flour

100g butter

1 egg yolk (white reserved for glazing the sausage rolls)

2 tablespoons ice cold water.

I didn't follow their method exactly as I used a food processor to rub in the butter to the flour, but then followed it by sprinkling on the water mixed with the egg yolk. And then chilling in the fridge.

After chilling the pastry, it became difficult to handle, so I added a little more water and a little more flour to get it to a roll-able consistency.

After rolling out, I put a sausage shaped length of sausagemeat along the pastry.

I brushed on some of the reserved egg white to act as glue and carefully rolled over the pastry. The pastry did crack a little, but nothing major.

I then chopped up the roll to create mini sausage rolls (admittedly, not the prettiest), all ready for baking. After a brush of egg white, they went into the oven at Gas 7/ 220C for around half an hour until golden.

The sausage rolls were excellent. The pastry was tasty, but a little dry. But to be expected from gluten-free flour really. But the sausagemeat was moist, and very very tasty. They lasted most of the week for lunches. Next time, maybe cheese and onion rolls, and hopefully we'll make it out on that picnic.

Sausage Pot



Sausage Pot with sweet potato mash and broccoli

We have been meaning to post about this dish for a while.  It is a classic simple dish for the slow cooker and has served us (Tim anyway) well for lunches.  It is also a very economical dish unless you have to use gluten-free sausages which on this occasion we did.
This recipe is taken from the instruction booklet we got with the slow-cooker itself and this recipe was the 1st thing we tried when we got it as a present last Christmas.  The booklet is quite old-fashioned and I wouldn't be surprised to see soup for instance listed as a single ingredient.  I suppose this should be frowned upon by the cooks among us but I think it is OK sometimes to cheat a little, especially when cooking comfort food like this.

Back then Fran wasn't eating gluten-free and it was quite easy to buy 750g of sausages as the recipe suggests.  These days however it isn't that easy.  We have had some sausages in the freezer for a few weeks after buying them at Marple Food and Drink Festival.  These were gluten-free and cost about £4 for 350g so we decided we would take a chance with the consistency on this occasion and keep all the other quantities the same except there was about half the meat.  This worked OK but we now have sauce left which we will try and incorporate into another dish at a later date.

Ingredients (as it should be)

750g of Sausages which is about 12.  (We used 350g of gluten-free)
2 Leeks (finely chopped)
2 Onions (finely chopped)
400ml Beef stock (We used Knorr gluten-free)
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce (We used gluten-free)
3 Tablespoons Chutney
3 Tablespoon of Plain Flour (We used gluten-free)
Oil
Salt and Pepper

What to do

In one large pan soften the onions and leeks on a medium heat in a little oil.  At the same time begin browning the sausages in a frying pan.   You may need to do this in batches if cooking the full 750g.

Then combine the sausages and veg in the large pan.  Add flour and stir until it has soaked up all the oil. 

Then gradually add the beef stock and keep stirring.  Add the Worcestershire sauce, chutney and season a little.  Transfer everything to the slow cooker and cook on low for about 8 hours.






As you can see from the (not very appetizing) picture at the start of the post we served it as a proper meal with sweet potato mash and broccoli.  This is a great dish for the freezer though and if you use the 750g of sausages as the recipe says you would make about 6 portions.  One lesson learned from previous attempts is not to use the cheapest sausages available as they tend to fall about in the slow-cook process.  We found own-brand but not value to be just about right.  To vary the dish slightly you could even experiment with different kinds of chutney.