Outback Lamb sausage rolls

The perfect winter pre-dinner snack with drinks for when you are having friends around. You can cut back on the harissa if you like and use a teaspoon of curry powder in its place if you're worried about the kick being too powerful. Its a great party food for kids as well, with the added bonus of a few sneaky vegetables to make you feel like you're a good mum. The best bit? Its one you prepared earlier. They only take about 25 minutes to cook and are best served straight from the oven. Recipe credit must go to Anneka Manning whose method I have shamelessly copied and who inspired me to add harissa to my own recipe.  Another short cut that I often take is to buy sausage mince straight from your butcher - its already finely minced and ready to roll. 

Over the years I have played around with this recipe.  Ben the amazing Baker at the Condo Bakery makes his own harissa paste for me and makes the sausage rolls using our own Outback Lamb.  I was inspired to revisit this recipe recently when I saw the award winning Bourke Street Bakery sausage rolls which used almonds instead of pistachios- and I've not been disappointed with the result at all.  We do a commercial version for festivals and events where we take out the veg and use almonds. So feel free to experiment with the filling, either way, I'm pretty convinced that the lamb is the real hero of this recipe.

500 gms lamb mince

1 carrot, coarsely grated

1 zucchini, coarsely grated

½ cup pistachios, chopped

2 tbsp couscous

2 tbsp currants

3 tsp harissa paste

3 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 sheets frozen ready-rolled butter puff pastry

1 egg yolk, lightly whisked with 1 tsp milk

Preheat oven to 180°C. 

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.

Lay the puff pastry sheets out and cut each in half.

Divide the lamb mixture into six equal portions and roll each into a sausage shape.

Lay one portion of the lamb mixture along a long edge of one of the pastry portions.

Brush the opposite edge of the pastry with the egg wash and then roll up the pastry to enclose the lamb mixture, pressing the edges together to seal.

Repeat with the remaining pastry and mince lamb mixture. 

Brush the sausage rolls with the egg wash, sprinkle with either sesame seeds or poppy seeds and cut to whatever size you want - we love little bite size rolls for gobbling in one mouthful!

Place the sausage rolls onto trays lined with baking paper, with a little room between each one. Bake for 25-30 minutes and serve warm.