In recent weeks, I've had a hankering for comfort food. Something to sustain the body and fortify the soul. Perhaps something even a little stodgy to mark the coming of winter. I think it must be a primal urge to bunker down, get grounded, build up an extra store of fat for winter.
Did I turn to my stash of tome-like cookbooks for inspiration? The glitzy online food magazines that regularly hit my in-box? Or the glammed up pages of the Masterchef website? No.
Instead, I found myself turning to a recipe on the back of a McKenzies Soup Mix pack. The pack has been sitting in the pantry for a few months now, ignored and unloved. It hasn't been cold enough, the pulses take too long to soak. But I took it down the other day and suddenly I was compelled to make the thick vegetable soup on the back of the pack. And with the help of another McKenzies gem (Bi-carb Soda) you can soak and cook the pulses in no time at all. I collected all the starchiest vegetables I had, a few herbs, a splash of passata. Admittedly, there was a bit of creative licence taken here and there - 1950's Australia meets modern Mediterranean. Ah, the decadence of a long cooking session whilst listening to my favourite Nikos Papazoglou songs. I skimmed, it bubbled, I pottered, it bubbled some more. I added a bit more of this, a bit more of that, and it was done. And then it was time to share - I packed some off to a family member who was unwell. I popped some in the freezer for a rainy day. And we ate the rest with the family for the next few days. There is nothing like soup for comfort.
Except for sausage rolls. I really don't know what has gotten into me, but I have had a hankering for these little morsels of miscellaneous meatiness for some weeks now. And the urge just wouldn't go away. And so with the help of another packet, I drew on a recipe from the back of some ubiquitous puff pastry sheets at my local supermarket. I had asked my neighbour if she had a good recipe (she did), but sadly she was not at the supermarket with me when I was shopping for all the components that would make me some sausage rolls.
I bought the ingredients (Worcestichire sauce, barbecue sauce, and sausage meat to name a few things that don't normally grace our shopping list) and mixed it all together. My daughter, after a short lesson from me, started a sausage roll production line.
As always with fantasy, the reality doens't quite cut it. They were just as stodgy and greasy as I remembered them from my school canteen days, but the process was fun. Some made the rounds of people we were visiting that day, some graced our lunch table, and some were stashed into the freezer for times when we get another hankering for stodge.
Download Mr's Borg's Traditional Homestyle Sausage Rolls recipe. For a yummy looking (healthier) vegetarian version, check out The Adventures of a Vegan Foodie.
Welcome to the first day of winter. If you have a winter food story, by all means share it!
You aren't alone in hankering for stodgy food...it's definitely the cold! We made a massive orange cake, which smelt divine as it baked, and a big lentil soup. Something about soup, isn't there, this time of year...
Posted by: Sam | 01 June 2011 at 09:55 PM
Oh yes, Sam, you are a woman of my own heart. Soup, heartwarming soup, shared with family and friends, with big wedges of crusty bread. What more does one need? If you have a favourite recipe, be sure to send it in! Spiri.
Posted by: Spiri Tsintziras | 02 June 2011 at 10:37 AM