The Cheap Domestic Goddess

Since G was born, my life has changed drastically - just as I expected it to before some of you start screaming "I told you so"! I've become a bit of a domestic goddess, in a small way. Finally, 22 years beyond my graduation, I no longer live like a student, washing a dish as I run out.

But with the cost of living skyrocketing, I have to find imaginative ways of cooking interesting things for G that we are prepared to eat too, so that I'm not cooking twice and that if she decides she doesn't like it, I don't end up throwing it away. I'm also finding ways of hiding vegetables into things - not because she doesn't like vegetables, because she does as long as they're cooked into it, but because as she gets older, we like to be out and about and it's useful to be able to take a healthy lunch with us. Just read the nutritional value of a McDonalds Happy Meal, and you'll never buy one for your kids again!

So, as I've been cooking tonight, I'll share with you my Austerity Sausage Rolls.

Ingredients:
1 pack pre-rolled puff pastry, because life is too short to make puff pastry
500g diced casserole beef - I buy the Basic stuff
2 medium onions
2 or 3 small carrots
Ground black pepper
Italian seasoning, or herbs of your choice
2 large eggs

I have a food processor to do most of my cooking. Again, life is too short to cut up everything as small as it needs to be as far as I am concerned, but you can cut it up by hand if you wish. You can also use a blender, but work in tiny quantities because you want things chopped, not puréed.

Method:
1. Peel the onions and carrots. Using the knife blade in the processor, blitz until finely chopped.
2. Transfer into a mixing bowl and do the same with the carrots and put them in the same bowl as the onions.
3. Set the processor going and drop about half of the beef into the bowl until it is finely minced. Put into the bowl with the onions and carrots and repeat for the other half of the meat. Add it to the bowl when done.
4. Break one egg into the bowl and add the black pepper and herbs. Mix thoroughly.
5. Break the other egg into a mug and beat well.
6. Cut the sheet of pastry in half and set aside. Dust your bench with a little flour and roll the pastry out to about 18x18cm, and cut in half. Repeat for the other half.
7. Take one strip of pastry and visually divide into three sections lengthwise.
8. Scoop 1/4 of the filling out of the bowl bit by bit and lay it down the centre third of the strip.
9. Paint one of the side strips with the beaten egg.
10. Roll the other side of the pastry over the mixture and continue to rollit over the egg washed third so you have a roll.
11. Paint the beaten egg along the top of the sausage roll.
12. Prick the length of the sausage roll with a fork and cut into 6.
13. Repeat for the remaining strips.
14. Place on a greased baking sheet (or use a non-stick baking sheet) and cook at 180°c for 25-30 minutes until the top of the pastry is golden brown.
15. Once cooked, place sausage rolls on a wire rack to cool.

There are a variety of other fillings that you can play with:

Pork shoulder with onion, sage, celery, and peppers
Chicken thighs with tarragon, onion, celery, peppers and mushrooms
Turkey with chicken livers, onions, chestnuts and maybe a little cranberry sauce
And for the vegetarians: Butternut squash, potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers and rosemary, with breadcrumbs (roast the squash and potatoes rather than chopping finely).

Basically, a good filling requires a central ingredient that has enough fat to cope with the mincing process. If it doesn't, the finished roll will taste incredibly dry. Cheaper cuts are better for this as they are usually higher in fat than the better cuts. I had to add butter to the turkey filling, but any fat would have done the job and I had to remove the skin from the chicken for the chicken filling as it just goes stringy rather than mincing.

Secondly, too much raw vegetable will make the filling too liquid when it cooks and the rolls will collapse. For a meat sausage roll, a 60/40 ratio works best. For a vegetable roll, mix in a largish quantity of breadcrumbs so that they absorb that liquid during cooking.

And G's verdict "I love Mummy's sausage rolls". That's enough.