Recipe: Sausage & Fig Rolls

Make Mel Hutchfield's delicious homemade sausage and fig rolls for a Christmas party and watch them disappear in a flash - you can never make too many!

A combination of two childhood favourites - sounds weird but tastes fantastic! If you don’t want to make the chutney, you could buy one ready made.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack ready-made puff pastry
• 400g sausage meat (or sausages removed from their skins)
• ½ a small onion, very finely chopped
• 1 beaten egg
• Sesame seeds (optional)

For the chutney:

• 3 chopped shallots
• 5 dried figs cut into small pieces
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• ½ tsp marjoram
• 1 tsp dark muscavado
• 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp water

Method:

1. Remove the pastry from the fridge about 15mins before you start and pre-heat the oven to 180c/gas 4

2. Fry the shallot and figs on a medium heat until both have started to soften

3. Add all the other chutney ingredients except the water and continue to cook for about 10mins until the figs have really broken down

4. Remove from the heat and add the water, then blend with a stick blender until you have a smooth paste

5. Set aside and allow to cool slightly

6. In a bowl, mix the sausage meat with the onion

7. Unroll the pastry and cut it down the middle so that you end up with two long thin pieces

8. Put a liberal strip of the chutney down the middle of each piece of pastry. Make sure you leave a generous border, or you won't be able to seal it later

9. Then top the chutney with the sausage meat

10. Brush some of the egg around the pastry border then fold the pastry over to cover the filling

11. Press the edges down firmly either with your thumb or a fork. This is really important or the chutney will start to leak out as it heats up

12. Brush each of the rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle over the sesame seeds if you're using them

13. Put in the oven and cook for 20-30mins until the pastry is golden

14. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10mins - if you try to cut it while it's too hot, it will fall apart

15. Use a serrated knife to cut each large roll into individual portions - you should be able to get 10-12 from each of the rolls