Picnic Basket, Sausage Rolls, Smoked Salmon & Cucumber Pinwheels
John and Lisa have some fabulous picnic inspiration in their Weekend Kitchen today. Lisa's fun Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Pinwheels and John's tasty Sausage Rolls.
Picnic Basket, Sausage Rolls, Smoked Salmon & Cucumber Pinwheels
Makes 24
Ingredients
Sausage rolls
1 clove garlic, peeled
500g sausage meat.
350g puff pastry,
Marmite, for brushing
Block of mozzarella, grated
1 egg
Sesame seeds, for sprinkling
Salt and black pepper
Pinwheel sandwiches
8 slices of bread
8 slices of smoked salmon
1 cucumber cut into long strips with a peeler
Cream cheese, to spread
Optional: a few sprigs dill
Black pepper
Other ideas for your basket
Put together a ploughman’s, with little gherkins, pickled onions and a pickle fork. Crusty bread, a selection of cheese with biscuits or crackers and some crunchy snacks.
For colder days add a lovely warm flask of your favourite soup or pop in some sticks of celery and a flask of bloody Mary and another filled with ice or Flask of Bullshot with lots of Sherry.
Tip: These are better if made the night before.
Method
Sausage rolls
1. Preheat the oven 220ºc or 200ºc fan.
3. Place the sausage meat in a food processor, grate in the garlic, pour in 50mls cold water and season with salt and pepper. Blitz until well combined.
4. On a flour dusted surface, roll out the pastry about ½ cm thick and brush each end of the pastry lengthwise with a good amount of marmite, sprinkle grated mozzarella over it.
5. Add the sausage mix to a piping bag. Cut the pastry in half lengthwise then pipe along a line of the mixture on each piece, don't pipe the mixture too wide, brush the exposed pastry with egg wash and fold over pressing gently to seal. You can also use a fork to do this. Place in the fridge for 5 minutes before cutting them. Cut each long sausage roll into 3 equal pieces then cut each of those into 3 so you end up with 24 individual sausage rolls.
6. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and place onto the baking sheet leaving a gap in between each one.
7. Beat the egg, brush over the sausage rolls and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. With a small knife make a small hole in the top of each of the rolls.
8. Place in the oven and cook for around 25 minutes. Remove and eat hot or cold with tomato sauce.
Pinwheel sandwiches
1. Take the bread and remove the crusts.
2. Roll out the bread so it is really thin.
3. Spread each piece with a very thin layer of cream cheese, pick over a few dill leaves if using and then lay over the salmon and the cucumber, keeping it as thin as you can and a final sprinkle of pepper.
4. Place each piece on a separate piece of greaseproof paper. Using the paper, roll up the bread lengthways and twist the ends to seal tightly and place in the fridge. Take in your basket and when ready to serve, slice each into 4 or 6.
There are plenty of fillings you can use but just keep it as thin as you can but soggy things like tomatoes don’t work so well.