Sausage rolls - another guilty pleasure

"at lunch, on its own, accompanied by a pint, the sausage roll is, arguably, the king of hot savoury snacks." Tony Naylor - The Guardian

The whole family are coming to lunch on Sunday - to celebrate the return or the European travellers. So I thought I would make some sausage rolls - the children are a good excuse. Ostensibly it's for them but I bet the adults get stuck into them as well. They will just be a nibble before the meal, which is only cold meats and salad anyway, because as Tony Naylor says in his article How to Eat Sausage Rolls, they really should be eaten with nothing other than a dab of sauce. And yes I shall be making that too.

I'm not really sure what it is about sausage rolls that is so good? Maybe it's that combination of pastry and filling that is the ultimate in pleasure - think pizza and pies of every shape and size. Crunch plus soft and savoury - and hot.

I'm pretty sure I have written about sausage rolls before when I couldn't find any to snack on in our local shopping centre. So forgive me if I am repeating myself.

What I found interesting when 'researching' the topic, was that, on the one hand there are the purists who either make their own pastry (flaky or puff? - the verdict seems to go to flaky), and sausage filling, or those who buy butter puff pastry and fill with the meat from good sausages. Then there are those who make fillings from just about everything - even vegan options. delicious magazine has a very good selection of these from the slightly varied to way out there - kangaroo sausage rolls anyone?

Tony Naylor disapproves of this approach - the anything goes attitude that is.

"there is endless unnecessary tinkering. From stilton worked into the pastry to mustard secreted under it, numerous potentially divisive additions are made to sausage rolls (sauces should be served on the side) that serve no purpose other than to flatter the ego of the chef who baked them or justify a recipe writer’s fee." Tony Naylor - The Guardian

He is sort of right, but I'm not really against a bit of experimentation and, as delicious says it's a good way of getting more vegetables into your children, whether the filling is entirely vegetarian or whether you sneak some vegetables into your mix. Felicity Cloake too is a bit of a purist when it comes to the filling, though she does seem to conclude that it's best to make your own pork mince and add a bit of bacon. Me - I think I shall start with some bought mince and add a bit of onion, lemon zest and a herb of some kind - fennel or sage probably, or maybe thyme. But I do have a packet of lamb mince and also some chicken mince in the freezer so I might make a couple of small batches with those too. Middle-eastern lamb, and I'm not sure what for the chicken.

I was thinking of doing some spinach and cheese filo wraps too, but I am now getting enthused about sausage rolls and will just stick to them. And they will definitely be served hot, though I'm not sure whether the tomato sauce should be hot, warm or cold. Made in advance anyway.

"Eaten straight from the oven while ostensibly helping out the hostess at a Christmas party, they are the finger food of the gods. Prised from a miserable cellophane wrapper on a garage forecourt, however, the suspiciously pink meat and flabby pastry is enough to drive anyone in the direction of vegetarianism." Felicity Cloake

English food is often derided and scorned. And sausage rolls have, over the years, become thought of as junk food. And I guess one shouldn't eat too many of them, but in and of themselves, they are not junk if made properly and with care. They are a supreme comfort food. They somehow have that umami feel.

"The sausage roll is a comfort food whose uncomplicated nature, the way it offers an all-enveloping bearhug of crowd-pleasing savoury flavours, is the essence of its appeal. Sausage rolls are not meant to challenge you. They should convey an almost narcotic sense of warmth and well-being." Tony Naylor

And Nigel Slater wrote an interesting article about comfort food - well junk food really, admitting to his occasional lapses of taste. He even admitted to the occasional need for a Big Mac for heaven's sake. Don't think I'm quite with him on that, but I am with him on the occasional guilty pleasure thing.

"All comfort food is about timing. Get it wrong – too soon, too late, too often – and it misses the point. To be truly comforted you need, briefly, to be in a bad place. That slightly out-of-body feeling of extreme tiredness, low blood sugar, lost, away from home." Nigel Slater

Now I don't think anyone on Sunday will be in a bad place - well hopefully not anyway. I'm hoping it will be a very happy occasion, but then comfort food can be a cause of celebration too. A celebration of all that is good about family.