Lamb sausage roll with fennel, Jerusalem artichoke and dates

Sometimes all you want is a little bit of nostalgia as a snack. This sausage roll recipe comes from chef Soren Lascelles and it takes this humble little icon and gives it a bit of a nudge (to great effect). Perfect for picnics, a quick lunch, or scoffing over the sink at home, alone.

 

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Lamb sausage roll with fennel, Jerusalem artichoke and dates

Ingredients

500g lamb mince
150g chicken liver, diced into small cubes
70g pork back fat, diced into small cubes
5 slices bread, soaked in milk then squeezed out
4 eschallots
4 cloves garlic
3 sprigs thyme & 3 sprigs rosemary
60g dates
Juice of 1 orange
25ml water
25ml sugar
25ml brandy
100g peeled Jerusalem artichoke, peeled and diced 1 cm
25g butter
Salt & pepper
2 sheets of puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
10g fennel seeds

Method

1.  Sauté the Jerusalem artichoke until just cooked. Soak the dates in sugar, water, brandy, and orange juice. Chop.

2.  Sweat off the eschallots and garlic in the butter until soft.

3.  Pick the herbs off the stems then chop. Sauté fennel seeds in a dry pan.

4.  Add all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.

5.  Place the sheets of puff pastry on a chopping board and spoon the meat mixture down the middle. Roll the pastry over the mix and seal the two sides of pastry together, use a fork to press the pastry together and for presentation, and then trim the edges to tidy it up.

6.  Using a pastry brush, brush it with egg wash then bake at 180ºC for about twenty minutes.