I hope you had a lovely bank holiday Monday in the sunshine. I spent the late afternoon on Highbury Fields, catching the last of the spring rays, sipping champagne and munching on fresh-from-the-oven sausage rolls – not too shabby (despite my horrible and unseasonal cold)!

Since giving my boyfriend the Ginger Pig Meat Book for Christmas, I have had my eye on their famous sausage rolls recipe and the promise of a picnic provided the perfect opportunity to give them a go. I think the trick is to use really good pork mince – we picked up ours from the Barbecoa Butchery at St Paul’s – a fantastic butcher in the heart of the City underneath Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa restaurant. The restaurant serves awesome meat (think slow cooked, BBQ sauce-doused dirtiness on a plate) and the raw produce doesn’t disappoint either.

As well as tinkering about with the recipe (I just can’t help myself), I have cheated by using ready-made puff pastry so these really are ridiculously easy to make. Perfect for picnics, lunchboxes or snacks on the go, these sausage rolls are a seriously meaty treat wrapped in flaky buttery pastry and laced with fresh aromatic sage.

Sausage rolls

Makes 12

Ingredients:

– 500g pork mince
– 50g lard, room temperature, cubed
– 70g breadcrumbs
– 80ml water
– 1 1/2 tablespoons dried mixed herbs
– 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage
– seasoning
– 4 teaspoons English mustard
– 650g ready-rolled puff pastry (about 2 sheets)
– 1 egg (free-range please), beaten

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a bowl, mix together the pork mince, lard, breadcrumbs, water, herbs and seasoning with your hands until everything is evenly mixed. Tip: Form your hand into a sort of claw to mix – this will avoid mushing the mixture about too much and keep the meat’s texture in tact.

Unroll the puff pastry sheets onto your work surface. Form the mince mixture into two rolls and lay along one of the wide edges of each sheet. Brush the exposed pastry with mustard and roll over, tucking snugly as you go to avoid air gaps, and leave one inch unrolled. Brush the remaining inch with egg, seal and crimp the seams with your fingers.

Arrange seam-side down, trim the ends and cut each sheet into 6 rolls (12 in total). Brush each with egg and place on a baking tray. Bake for about 50 minutes, until puffed up and golden.

Serve warm or leave to cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Will keep for a few days.

Source: Recipe and photos by pip & little blue.