Partridge and mushroom sausage rolls
This recipe featured in the November edition of Hampshire Life magazine with wine matches from The knackered Mother’s Wine Club.
There’s not much that will beat a good sausage roll, hot from the oven on a crisp autumn day. This recipe takes things up a notch with seasonal partridge and mushrooms for a boost of umami richness.
You can use shop-bought puff pastry to save time, though I like the robustness of homemade flaky. If you’re not serving them hot, leave to cool completely on a wire rack before chilling in the fridge, then enjoy them cold – porkpie-style – with a decent chutney.
Makes 8
- 25 g salted butter
- 250 g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 500 g sausage meat
- 250 g partridge breasts, cut into small chunks
For the flaky pastry:
- 100 g butter, frozen
- 50 g lard, frozen
- 300 g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
- 1 egg, beaten
- First make the pastry. Coarsely grate the butter and lard into the flour, then toss together to coat. Add just enough chilled water to make a pliable, but not sticky dough (it was about 130 ml for me, but it varies each time). Knead as little as possible to get it to come together, then wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Heat the butter in a sauté pan with a splash of oil and fry the mushrooms and thyme for 10 minutes over a medium-high heat. Add the garlic, turn down the heat and stir-fry for 2 more minutes, then leave to cool completely.
- Squidge together the sausage meat, partridge chunks and mushrooms until well mixed into one big sticky mass. Chill until needed.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C (200 fan), gas 7 and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Roll out the pastry into a 40 cm square, then cut it into two rectangles. Divide the partridge mixture in half and shape a long sausage down the length of each pastry rectangle. Brush a little beaten egg down one side, then fold over the pastry and crimp with a fork to seal. Brush the tops with more beaten egg, then cut into eight large rolls.
- Transfer to the baking tray and bake for 25 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 200°C (180 fan), gas 6 and bake for a further 10 minutes or until the pastry is crisp underneath and the meat is cooked through to the middle.
Local producers:
Sausage meat – Newlyns Farm Shop
North Warnborough, Hook, Hampshire, RG29 1HA
01256 704128
Partridge breasts – Hampshire Game
Clanville, Andover, Hampshire, SP11 9JE
01264 730294
Chestnut mushrooms – New Forest Wild & Exotic Mushrooms
New Milton, Hampshire
07970 470334
Make 2 long rolls and cut each one into 4 
Modest appearance; massive flavour!
