My Favourite Fruits

Madhur Jaffrey’s Anglo-Indian sausage patties

Around lunchtime at work on Wednesday, my mate Al and I were talking about food (not an uncommon occurrence) for we were both hungry, and Mr L had found the most recent edition of Gourmet Traveller in our mailbox that morning, which was open on my desk. The January edition of Gourmet Traveller boasts two attention grabbing articles about burgers: one about making them and the other about eating them. We were both drooling over pics of the fantastic wagyu burgers from Neil Perry’s Rockpool Bar and Grill, while I was trying to explain to Al how worth their $22 they were. Talk of burgers led him to recall a book that he’d received for Christmas (and was quite excited about) with recipes from Madhur Jaffrey. He said the book contained loads of excellent, easy curry recipes and one other recipe had caught his eye: Madhur Jaffrey’s Anglo-Indian sausage patties. Within seconds, he’d found the recipe on the Telegraph UK’s website, and I hatched a plan to make them for dinner the next night.

Making patties early Thursday morning

On Wednesday night, I went to the shops and procured all the materials I needed to make the patties. The recipe calls for them to be refrigerated overnight or for at least a couple of hours, so I decided I’d make them the next morning and went to bed, dreaming of pork and wagyu.

Next morning, I bounced out of bed into the kitchen and made the patty mix. It only took about 10-15 minutes all up, and I separated a bit of the mix and wrapped it separately to take to work for Al (who’d not yet had the chance to make them himself) so that he could cook and try the patties at home that night. I then got myself ready for work, feeling unusually prepared – all that was left for me to do was the shaping and cooking of the patties and to make a raita and other Indian-style accompaniments after work that night.

Al’s single patty – cling wrapped and ready for delivery

An unfortunate turn of events, resulting in a somewhat random dinner

A short time after, I left the house carrying a chiller bag (containing the patty and ice bricks), my handbag, keys and a one litre glass bottle, filled with chilled water. Somehow, at the top of our stairs, I lost my footing and stacked my way down ten concrete stairs to the bottom, breaking the glass bottle on the way and giving myself a dreadful shock. Stunned and in slow motion, I picked myself up from the bottom of the stairs and took in the damage: my left arm was bleeding all over the place; egg sized bruises were quickly rising on various parts of my body and broken glass and water was strewn all down the stairs. It was quite a sight to behold.

At that point, our very lovely neighbour poked his head out of his door as he’d heard the commotion. He caught sight of me, the blood, the broken glass and the strewn luggage and told me to go and clean myself up and that he would sort out the rest. I did as I was told, picked up the rest of my belongings and went back inside, still shocked, suddenly very tired and now with a thumping headache! (Thank you Rob, I’m so grateful.)

I knew that all was not right with me at this point. I cleaned and bandaged myself as best I could, got changed and then got in the car and went to work, perfectly intact patty in-hand! I saw Mr L on the way who gave me lots of hugs and made me feel better, but told me to get my computer and work from home – very good advice, for later in the day wearing my body got to be even more uncomfortable as the swelling rose and I got more tired.

I dropped Al’s patty off, picked up my laptop and went home. Of course, I hadn’t had the time to get the other bits and pieces for dinner, but figured I could make do with what we had, so we ended up with a very healthy, but slightly random dinner, with one of our favourite dinner companions, PC, who we’d booked in earlier that week.

Anyway, wrapping up, if you make these patties (and I’d recommend you do), you might like to serve them with something like this:

- Rice
- Raita (cucumber, natural yoghurt and mint)
- Carrot and sultana salad
- Papadums and
- Mango chutney

We had ours with salad and papadums, which was about the best I could muster, avoiding walking and driving in my bleary-eyed, sore muscled state. I think the patty-salad combo worked okay – nobody complained, so it can’t have been too bad! Madhur Jaffrey also suggests serving them in pita pockets with eggs for breakfast, or adding them into curries – both entirely doable ideas that I will be putting in the memory bank meals down the track.

Everyone enjoyed Madhur Jaffrey’s Anglo-Indian sausage patties, including Al, who’d texted me that night, asking how I was and confirming he’d cooked and consumed his patty with delight. If you like coriander and enjoy Indian spices, then consider this recipe for a quick and easy dinner. As no breadcrumbs are required, these patties are gluten free and since my patties were made of lean pork mince, they’re a healthy burger experience, so they get the double thumbs up from me!

By the way, I’m still a bit bruised, but am otherwise fine now – will pay more attention when descending the stairs in future!

Madhur Jaffrey’s Anglo-Indian sausage patties (from Melissa Whitworth’s article, published in Telegraph.co.uk on 2 September 2010)

Note: make these the night before you plan to cook them

Ingredients

450g minced pork, preferably a bit fatty (I used lean pork mince and it worked well)
3 tbsp shallots or red onions, peeled and finely chopped
100g fresh coriander, chopped
½-¾ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garam masala, preferably home-made but shop-bought will do
2 tsp olive or rapeseed oil

1. 1. Put the pork in a bowl. Add the shallots, coriander, cayenne pepper, garam masala, a teaspoon of salt and lots of black pepper. Mix thoroughly, making sure to pick up and integrate all the shallots and coriander. Shape into a loaf, wrap in cling film and refrigerate, ideally overnight, but for one to two hours if you are rushed.

1. 2. Divide into eight equal pieces and roll into balls. Flatten with the palm of your hand to make eight smooth patties about 7.5cm in diameter.

1. 3. Put the oil in a non-stick frying-pan and set over a medium-high heat. Put in the patties, as many as will fit easily, and brown on both sides, turning frequently. This will take four to five minutes. Make sure that they are cooked through.

1. 4. Make all the patties in this way. Remove with a slotted spatula and serve whichever way takes your fancy!

January 21, 2011 at 8:10 pm Leave a comment