Food on sticks – keeps hands clean, makes food fun! I’d like to dedicate this post to Catty who has left our shores this week for Australia and inspired me to make this recipe from her food on sticks post.

Forigve me, I’m trying to write this with the taste of soil in my mouth. I had a bit of a disaster with dinner. I picked some spring onions from the garden and boiled them with some chicken. Those spring onions tasted strongly of soil it seems and tainted my chicken with soil flavour. It was gross…so now I’m redirecting my mind to nicer foods. Deep fried food. Food on sticks.

I’ve become a bit obsessed with potato dogs…I used to get them from the village shop where my maternal grandmother lived. There was something quite pleasurable about removing the potato dog wrapped in a now-greasy paper bag from the microwave. I’ve looked on the internet, can’t find them anywhere, except one photo. I heard about these corn dogs from Family Guy and The Simpsons and looked them up. No, they weren’t the same thing. Corn dogs are coated in cornmeal batter. Potato dogs are coated in hash browns. Lovely oniony potatoey sausages. Did I mention they’re on sticks?

Can I make a recomendation? Maybe it’s because I’m totes lazy, but my food processor has a grater on it. Instead of risking boredom and taking my fingers off, I just put the potatoes and onions through the grater and it took a few seconds! I’m all about efficiency (read: lazy).

You really need to strain the grated potato and onion mixture well – or it ain’t gonna stick chicks! Strain, strain and strain some more. Then grab a small handful and see if it sticks together, if it does then you’re good to go. I added some parmigiano reggiano into the potato mix for a bit of extra flavour, y’know, just because. I also used frankfurters (wiener!) but you could use proper sausages, just cook them first!

{Makes 6}

35mins – Prep time: 20 mins – Cooking time: 15mins

Ingredients

• 6 large potatoes (I used maris piper, the starchier the better)
• 6 frankfurters
• 1 large onion
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 80g parmigiano reggiano
• 1½ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp pepper
• Kebab sticks
• Deep fat fryer

Instructions

1. Peel the potatoes and onions, then grate them. Place the mixture in a clean tea towel and make into a bag, squeezing out as much excess moisture as you can. Then squeeze some more. Leave for a couple of minutes, then try squeezing again.
2. Grate the parmigiano reggiano into the potato and onion mix, add the salt, pepper and beaten eggs. Mix well.
3. Preheat your deep fat fryer to 170°C
4. Slide your frankfurters onto the sticks. Take a handful of the mixture and gently squeeze it onto the frankfurters.Keep going until each one is covered evenly. If it doesn’t stick, you haven’t strained enough water out!
5. Depending on how big your fryer is, put in two potato dogs at a time, cooking for around 5 minutes. They’re cooked when they’re golden brown.
6. Place on a piece of kitchen roll to cool a little. Dip in a little ketchup and eat whilst still warm.

I loathe looking at the sorry excuses for scotch eggs or picnic eggs in the supermarket, with their tired, grey looking pork and similarly bad looking eggs. My mum made these a few times when I was child – quail egg’s are the perfect size for scotch eggs! I’ve been using locally sourced Debbie and Andrew’s Harrogate 97% pork sausages as my sausagemeat, it’s great quality and reasonably priced – and best of all available in Morrison’s.

{Makes 9}

Ingredients

• 9 quail’s eggs
• 400g sausagemeat
• 4 slices wholemeal bread
• 1 medium-sized egg
• 2tbsp mixed herbs
• 1tbsp vinegar
• 1/2tsp onion salt
• 1tsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C, then slice bread into small squares and drizzle with the olive oil. Place in oven for 8 minutes, until crunchy. Finely blend in a food processor to make breadcrumbs.
2. Boil eggs in boiling water plus the vinegar for 2-3 minutes for medium/hard boiled and 4 minutes for hard-boiled. Then place them in a bowl of cold water.
3. Mix the sausagemeat with the mixed herbs, onion salt and add a dash of salt and pepper.
4. Take some of the sausagemeat, make into a ball shape, then squash out flatly, placing a quail egg in the middle and wrapping the sausagemeat around it. Add more sausage meat to close the any gaps around the egg. Repeat with the other quail’s eggs.
5. Whisk the egg in a bowl, then line the quail’s eggs up on one side, and a plate of breadcrumbs on the other. Keeping one hand for egg and one for breadcrumbs, dip the sausagemeat eggs in the beaten egg and then in the breadcrumbs.
6. Fry the scotch eggs for about 10-12 minutes, moving all the time to ensure they’re evenly cooked. Alternatively, you could try baking them for about 15-20 minutes at 180°C.

Using onion salt instead of onion in the sausage meat stops the pastry going soggy. The expert who taught me the recipe for these sausage rolls (my very talented mother) showed me that adding a little water to the tray makes the puff pastry a little bit puffier. I find the supermarkets often sell low quality sausagemeat so I tend to buy their finest sausages, which have a higher meat content.

Ingredients

• 4 good quality thick pork sausages
• 2tsp finely chopped fresh sage
• 1tsp mixed herbs
• Pinch onion salt
• Pinch garlic granules
• Salt and pepper to season
• 1 ready rolled pack puff pastry
• Egg yolk
• Splash of milk

Instructions

1. Cut the sausages open and mix together with the sage, mixed herbs, onion salt and garlic granules then season the mixture with salt and pepper.
2. Lay out the puff pastry on a floured pastry mat.Leave room at the bottom of the mat to roll the sausagemeat.
3. Divide the sausagemeat out into thirds. Roll out one of the thirds into a long sausage on the floured mat, making it the same length as the pastry’s longest side.
4. Gently lift the sausagemeat roll onto the pastry and gently fold the pastry over tightly and seal the edges together with a little water.
5. Take a knife and slice close to the join, but not too close or the roll will fall open! Gently roll the sausage roll over so the join is at the top and again fold and smooth the edge down with a little water. Roll around again so the the join is at the bottom and push down.
6. Take a paring knife and slice 4cm wide slices down the roll, ensuring the knife is clean between slices.
7. Lay them out on two well greased baking trays and tidy up the sausage rolls by making them more rounded and tucking all the sausagemeat and pastry back onto the ends. Then take a pair of scissors and snip two triangles in the tops of each of the sausage rolls.
8. Mix the egg yolk and the milk together and wash over the tops of the sausage rolls with a pastry brush.
9. Drip about 1/2 tsp water onto the baking trays and run around the edges of the tin.
10. Put them in the oven at 220C then turn down to 200C after puff pastry starts to puff (about 3 minutes), and cook for a further 8 minutes until golden brown.
11. Remove from the baking tray, using a table knife to gently lift any that have stuck, and cool on a wire rack.
12. Beware of stray fingers as they taste delicious warm!

Served warm and sticky, these make a delicious Bonfire Night treat, or winter snack. The addition of ketchup gives the honey mustard glaze a little oomph.

15mins – Prep time: 5mins – Cooking time: 10mins

Ingredients

• 2tbsp runny honey
• 1tbsp tomato ketchup
• 2tsp English mustard
• 1tsp wasabi
• A couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 4tbsp sesame seeds
• 1tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Mix ketchup, wasabi and mustard together in a small bowl.
2. Warm the oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat.
3. Put the sausages in the pan and fry until gently browned, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Spoon the ketchup/wasabi/mustard mix over the sausages and stir to mix it in. Add the Worcestershire sauce.
5. Allow to cook for 1 more minute, then spoon over the honey mixture. Let the mixture bubble and reduce, so that it goes nice and sticky.
6. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little before sprinkling the sesame seeds over.
7. Serve warm or allow to cool and store them in the fridge.