Siu Mai Sausage Rolls

These siu mai sausage rolls are one of the most delicious types of sausage rolls you will try! They taste just like the siu mai Chinese dumplings but are encased in a buttery puff pastry! The filling is made with pork mince, prawns and mushrooms and is easy to put together but produces such a delicious result. This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.

I was inspired to make these when I heard that Blood's Bakery were making siu mai sausage rolls. I missed out on them as they were part of a rotating menu but I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I also had some pork mince in the freezer and some frozen garlic prawns that I had bought that I needed to use and before I knew it, we were eating these delicious Chinese siu mai sausage rolls.

The filling for these sausage rolls is based on my mother's siu mai recipe. It has quite a few ingredients in it but they're all available at the supermarket even down to the shiitake mushrooms. Most of it is flavours like sesame oil, soy sauce and pepper so please don't be put off by the list of ingredients.

I recommend butter puff pastry for sausage rolls. Regular puff pastry doesn't actually contain any butter, only margarine. Butter puff pastry is more expensive but it gives the end result such a wonderful flavour.

Working with Butter Puff Pastry: butter has a much lower melting point than vegetable shortening so that means that puff pastry does tend to go softer quite quickly but that can be managed by working with one sheet at a time and keeping the other sheets in the fridge until you need them. I'd also recommend refrigerating the filled sausage rolls before baking them because puff pastry needs to be as cold as possible and then baked in a very hot oven to get that lovely puffiness and rise so desired.

I haven't made sausage rolls in a long time as I usually make them for Mr NQN when I go away travelling as they're a convenient lunch that he loves but I haven't been able to travel in so long until a couple of weeks ago where I was travelling to Uluru. I was very excited as it is one of the most magical places in Australia to visit and it had been 10 years since my last time there. The trip had been postponed three times due to COVID and when March rolled around I couldn't believe that I was finally on my way there.

I was a bit out of practice and when packing and of course I forgot one of the most important things: my laptop charger. Thankfully it was fully charged and it lasted me as long as I needed but with very sparing use. I also embarrassed myself at the airport when checking in. It was early (so you know I wasn't anywhere near my best) and we had gotten off to a rocky start. I was all set to book an Uber to get in but when Mr NQN heard how much they were because of surge pricing he said, "I'm driving you in!". He dropped me off at the terminal and he and Teddy waved goodbye.

I was part of a large contingent of writers. Because we had a group booking we were told that we couldn't check in using the kiosks and had to check in using a counter. I scanned the counters which only had "bag drop" written above them and I wasn't sure where to go. There was a Virgin attendant helping people nearby so I asked her and explained the situation.

"Can I see your ticket?" she asked and I showed her my phone. "Oh you're with Jetstar over there," she said smiling. Yup trying to check in with the wrong airline wasn't my best moment but she was very kind when I mumbled something about being half asleep and the early hour.

So tell me Dear Reader, have you started travelling again? Where was your first trip? And do you like the idea of these siu mai sausage rolls or are they not your thing?

Siu Mai Sausage Rolls

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Print Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 30 minutes chilling time

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Serves: makes 12 sausage rolls

6-8 dried or fresh shiitake mushrooms
1 carrot, cut into quarters
5 sticks green onion (white and green, trimmed)
3 garlic cloves, peeled
100g/3.5ozs water chestnuts
1 egg
400g/14ozs. garlic prawns (uncooked)
400g/14ozs. pork mince
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
4 sheets butter puff pastry
1 beaten egg for egg wash
2-3 tablespoons sesame seeds

Step 1 - First rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms if you're using the dehydrated ones. Pour boiling water over them, cover with a plate and let them rehydrate for 30 minutes.

Step 2 - Place the carrot, green onions, rehydrated or fresh shiitakes, garlic, water chestnuts and egg in a food processor and blend until fine. Then add the prawns and pulse. You don't want the prawns fully ground up but a rough chop is ideal. Add the pork mince, soy sauce, salt, sugar, sesame oil and white pepper and mix to combine well. Scoop into a bowl and place in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up.

Step 3 - Thaw the puff pastry in the fridge and take out one sheet at a time. Preheat oven to 220C/440F and line 2 trays with parchment. Place the filling in a piping bag. Cut each square of puff pastry in half and pipe and inch thick log down each slightly favouring one side. Brush with egg and seal pressing down. Then further seal it with a fork. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place in the fridge while you do the rest and chill them for 30 minutes total.