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I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls

We like to enjoy a bit of seafood around Christmas, and I usually buy just a few of the cheaper varieties....Economically, I see the value in buying a kilo bag of frozen prawn meat. The bag comes with the prawns snap frozen, so you can take out and defrost the amount you need to defrost....No one big lump, which is good. I buy my prawn meat at the local seafood shop....they have it defrosted ready for you to use, and also frozen in the 1kg bags. My prawn meat costs me $20 but there is no waste, no scraps, but all meat.

Here is what I have done with this lot of Prawn meat.......

My Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls.

From left to right in the photo below....mince your chicken mince...then without rinsing the whizzer, mince your prawn meat....add both to a large bowl.....You can use what ever amounts you wish....it all depends on what you have. In this recipe, I used 1 kg of both Prawn meat and 1 kg of Chicken breasts.

So....Left to Right:
Minced Chicken breast, finely chopped Chillie, bruised Lemon Thyme with cracked pepper,
My  Universal Herb & Garlic Mix,  2 egg yolks, Minced Prawn meat.........

Blend it all together.....

Now fry a spoon full, to test for seasoning and flavour....This is a big help before you start wrapping the mix in pastry.....

After tasting the sample....I decided the seasoning and flavour were fine...but I thought they were a little heavy....so instead of saving those egg whites for something else...I whipped them up and folded them into the mix......
Fry to taste again.......much better......yummmmmmm

Now, I used to spoon my mix onto the pastry, but finally lashed out for the real thing last Christmas...and Oh...it is sooooo much easier to use a piping bag.....If you plan on buying one, buy the best quality you can afford.
As in the photo, fold the top half of the bag down over your hand and fill the bag with the mix....Only half fill the piping bag, or it will be too hard to manage.


Twist the top of the bag tight...and begin piping onto the pastry.
Each sheet of pastry needs to be cut in half.............


Use an egg wash as glue...by using on egg, a little water, and a pinch of salt...the water and the salt helps break down the white of the egg..........


Score the tops of the pastry once rolled with a sharp knife...only very shallow though, as you are not trying to cut slits into the tops...it is purely decoration. Then paint each with the egg wash.


To cut each roll into three, first dip your knife into a cup of flour, do this for each cut, and your cuts and edges of your rolls with be much neater.
I was able to fit twelve rolls on a biscuit tray for the oven...in a very hot oven of 240 degrees celcius...bake the sausage rolls for 20 minutes or until golden brown depending on your oven.

Repeat making them until you run out of the meat mixture.....
Both Mum and I enjoyed a few each for lunch, but the rest went into the freezer to be used as a meal for while Hubby is home......

Do you have left over pastry? I had a 12 sheet pack of pastry, and only used 9 1/2...so what did I do to use up the rest of the pastry?......

Fruit Strudel of course.....
In this mix I used....
Left over peaches off our dwarf peach tree
Two green apples, peeled and grated
Strawberries from the garden
Sultanas
Blueberries from the freezer
1 pear grated
a sprinkle of brown sugar


I had enough to make two large ones, and two smaller ones......so into the freezer they went
a yummy dessert fit for a king.....and My King...is home for a few days.




Background: Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls
Foreground: Mixed Fruit Strudel
Hubby and the rest of the family are going to love these......
What have you been baking for the Christmas break?

8 comments:

  1. How amazing! I never would have made prawn/patties...

    And your dessert resourcefulness-I am sure was delicious!

    Jennifer

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  2. they look delish, I will def be trying them out.

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  3. l love your blog, l have really got into the world of blogs. So far l have made anzac biscuts which are nearly gone, mini christmas cakes and l want to do some other things, fruit tarts, ginger cookies amoung a few. l also want to try your soup starter next week, looks good, how long does it keep in the fridge?

    Cheers Gail(poodle lover)

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  4. I love those frozen 1kg bags of prawns too Narelle but mine are around $8.99 from my seafood coop. They're great to throw in a fried rice or anything. Do you use frozen puff pastry to line a pie dish and finish up with the off cuts? I do and what I do is wrap those offcuts around a banana and bake in the oven until pastry has browned. Serve with caramel or chocolate sauce and some ice cream. (You probably already do this because you're such a whizz in the kitchen. xx)

    Anne xx

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  5. Ok I have decided your blog is a danger to my diet.
    Nah that was allways in danger for the love of good food.
    I need to exercise more;)

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  6. My word, those look delicious!!

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  7. Narelle, my stomach is GROWLING looking those!!!!! Can I come for Christmas at your house???? YUMMY.

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  8. If your hubby is reading your blog while away I am am sure his mouth is drooling..... Everything looks delicious.

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