sausage rolls

i was talking about vultures on twitter which led to an australian sausage roll challenge. why? because that's twitter for you. australian sausage rolls are coarse ground sausage meat wrapped in puff pastry; i have never actually eaten one previous to this, but i like a challenge, and frankly mister shankly, these did not seem like they'd be challenging to eat.

timing was great, too, as it is was australia day; coincidentally, also robbie burns night, so there was a chance i would have made y'all a haggis sausage roll. unfortunately, i did not have sheep heart, liver, tongue, and stomach on hand. so sorry. i remembered that susan at immaeatchu made homemade merguez sausage corndogs because she is just so awesome like that. i am not, but the idea was enough to get me to try making merguez--a spicy lamb or beef sausage from northern africa--at home. the sausage was easy enough with the aid of a food processor; i'm sure someone will considered it heretical as it probably tears up the meat as opposed to lovingly grinding it into fluffy clouds of fat and protein, but for this recipe, i think it worked out fine. i used this nytimes.com recipe as a guide, but as i was missing a couple of the spices, i compensated with a couple tablespoonfuls of harissa, a hot pepper paste that also incorporates roasted red sweet peppers, a little tomato, coriander, cumin and paprika.

for the puff pastry, i used chef ludo lefebvre's recipe. it's worth the price of his cookbook, but you can use the frozen stuff or any recipe you prefer.

so, here's the deal: preheat oven to 400°F. roll out some puff pastry dough (10 oz if you are making it at home. may i just note that if you are making it at home, wth are you doing wasting it on this recipe??) into a 12"x15" sheet, or something like it, then cut it in three even pieces. take your favourite sausage recipe, or just squoosh your fave pre-made stuff out of that crazy casing, roll it into 1 to 1 1/2" thick logs and center onto puff pastry. roll pastry around sausage, cut into manageable-sized chunks, put seam side down on parchment lined pan. brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

i think they taste better cold, the next day.