Spicy Sausage Rolls at the Underground Market

Our “ruby murray” stall – photo by Kerstin Rogers

Flaky, delicate pastry with a spicy thwack of chillified filling, my spicy sausage rolls were a bit of a hit on Saturday and turned out to be just the thing for bonfire night.

I literally had no idea what to expect from Ms Marmite Lover’s underground market. I’d never been to one, let alone run a stall there, but her latest was a fantastic, gloriously surreal festival-like shebang. Although I didn’t actually get a chance to see everything, as we were too busy serving food, I met an almost endless stream of genuinely lovely people. I particularly enjoyed the spirit of camaraderie amongst the stallholders, and was really touched by some of the comments about our food.

Quantities had been a bit of a question mark. I had absolutely no idea how much to make, despite having spent the previous few days frantically exchanging emails with Helen from Food Stories and Kerstin trying to work this out. So I was super chuffed and much-surprised at our popularity – we managed to sell out of pretty much everything in the few hours we were open. I’ve always relished the idea of feeding people the food I love to eat at home, you know, the stuff you never really come across in restaurants. Seeing the delighted look on people’s faces after taking an initial bite was an incredible buzz, and some of the nicest feedback came from people who seemed gobsmacked that I didn’t sell my food regularly and demanded that I immediately rectify this.

Huge thanks to Kerstin for inviting us and organising such a terrific event.

INGREDIENTS

8 sausages, slit down the middle and liberated from their casings (I made half a batch with Quorn sausages and half with beef)

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

2-3 fresh green chillies

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 inch ginger, peeled

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp brown mustard seeds

2-3 tsp mustard oil

All butter puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

METHOD

• Blitz the onion, ginger, garlic and chillies in a spice grinder/coffee mill
• Heat the mustard oil and when it’s hot add the mustard seeds, which should sizzle immediately.
• Introduce the onion mixture and fry until golden.
• Once this has cooled, mix into the sausage meat, along with the curry powder and a pinch of salt.
• Roll out the pastry and fill with the sausage meat. Seal and brush liberally with the beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes at 200C/gas mark 6 or until golden brown and cooked through.