Cocktail Party Hawaiian Sausage Rolls With Pineapple Relish!

The entertaining or party season is coming up fast and let me arm you Dear Reader with a fantastic party snack. These Hawaiian sausage rolls have a mouth watering filling made up of pork and bacon as well as a secret weapon: pineapple relish. These are an all in one cocktail party snack that you can eat while standing. It might be your new favourite sausage roll flavour!

I read recently that Americans have just discovered the humble sausage roll via a New York Times recipe. For Australians it is something that we grew up eating and it is also one of my favourite snacks - see sausage roll challenge for evidence of this mania. For me, nothing conjures up nostalgic food memories better than a pork sausage filling mixed with herbs and spices encased in a buttery dough. I am also of the firm belief that you can never have too many types of sausage rolls and just recently I decided to make a new flavour - a Hawaiian sausage roll with pork, bacon (or ham) and a delectable pineapple relish.

You see I wanted to serve something to friends at parties that they could eat with one hand and hold a glass with another. So I put two sauces and all the filling inside and made these tiny, bite sized beauties (okay two bites if you're being dainty about things). According to the NYT article, Brits eat sausage rolls around Christmas time and on Boxing Day (December 26th) but Australians wait for no such ceremony or timing. Any day is a good one for a sausage roll and some small talk with friends now that Christmas season is coming up.

Speaking of catching up with friends, we haven't seen our friend The Wizard for a while. He has changed jobs and with his new job comes more responsibility and best behaviour for the first while. But Mr NQN did manage to meet up with him for a coffee before he moved offices and in that short time he managed to get a hold of The Wizard's phone and set his Tinder preferences to "gay".

That evening The Wizard was at home and noticed that the setting had changed because there were only men on his feed. Curiosity got the better of him and so he started chatting to a few of them. Conversation was initially small talk about their days and then the men would suddenly segue into more meaty matters.

"Do you want to get a beer and ^&**?" they asked him, usually within a few messages. And this repeated itself until The Wizard could take no more and switched back to the straight setting. I think he finally got a taste of what it is like to be a straight girl on Tinder too!

In any case, catching up with friends or just playing on your Tinder, these delectable little morsels are the perfect party or picnic food. The pineapple relish is sweet and salty at the same time and aromatic in star anise and I always thought that you needed to dip a sausage roll into sauce but adding the sauce inside is just as good.

So tell me Dear Reader, are there any overseas foods that you've heard of but never tried? In terms of American food I've yet to try a candy corn or as I call them "Halloween triangles"! :P And are you "on holidays" yet or when do you finish work this year?

Cocktail Party Hawaiian Sausage Rolls With Pineapple Relish!

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes plus 25 minutes

• 1 large golden eschallot, finely chopped
• 350g/12.36ozs. pork mince
• 250g/8.83ozs. bacon or ham, finely minced
• 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs (I used brioche crumbs)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup tomato sauce or ketchup
• 1/3 cup pineapple relish* recipe below
• 3 sheets puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten to glaze

Pineapple relish (idea: double or triple this and gift it to friends - it's delicious!!)

• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 large golden eschallot, finely chopped
• 500g/1.1pounds pineapple pieces, diced finely
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 star anise
• 2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (depending on taste)
• 1 teaspoon salt

Step 1 - First make the relish as you will put some of it inside the sausage roll (or you can leave it out to leave people to dip it but I find it tastes like an all in one offering if you put the pineapple relish inside). Heat a saucepan on medium heat without any oil and add the mustard seeds and wait until they start popping and turn brown. Add the oil and eschallot and cook until golden and fragrant.

Step 2 - Add the pineapple pieces, brown sugar, water, star anise, apple cider vinegar and salt and turn up to a simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes and then remove the lid and allow it to become syrupy - about another 10-15 minutes or so. Place in a serving jar reserving 1/3 cup for the sausage rolls.

Step 3 - Line two baking trays with parchment. Thaw the puff pastry. In a bowl add the eschallot, pork mince, bacon or ham, breadcrumbs, egg and tomato sauce/ketchup and mix to combine.

Step 4 - Cut each puff pastry square sheet in half to get two rectangles per sheet. Brush with the egg glaze on the vertical side and shape the pork filling and place down the centre of the pastry. Spoon a little relish alongside the pork filling and roll up the sides to create a long roll. Place on the prepared trays and refrigerate for about 30-60 minutes. This will make the pastry crisper and puffier when you bake them.

Step 5 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F and glaze the sausage rolls. Cut into desired sizes. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Serve with extra pineapple relish.