Giant Tex-Mex Sauage Roll

I saw this recipe on BBC Good Food in the week, and knew right away I had to try it. It's so simple, but OH MY DAYS it tastes so good! It was definitely a crowd-pleaser in our household! What's more, it makes a great dinner served with spicy wedges and salad, or it can be eaten cold as part of a picnic or lunch buffet.



Ingredients:
One batch of rough puff pastry
450g sausage meat, or sausages that have been skinned
2 tbsp chilli paste
2 fresh chillies, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
A small bunch of spring onions, roughly chopped
The zest and juice of one lime
Pinch of black pepper
Pinch of chilli powder
One tin of kidney beans, washed and drained
1 egg, beaten
Pinch of dried thyme

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and get a baking tray out ready.

Roll the puff pastry out on a sheet of greaseproof paper - this makes it easier to move it to the baking tray later.  Roll it out to approximately 5mm thick and rectangular in shape, the same kind of size as your baking tray.

In a large mixing bowl combine the sausage meat, chilli paste, fresh chillies, garlic, spring onions, lime juice and zest, black pepper and chilli powder, and use your hands to squeeze it all together. Add the kidney beans and carefully squish these into the mix too.

Still using your hands, shape the meat concoction into a long sausage down the centre of the pastry sheet.
Use a sharp knife to cut the sides of the pastry into diagonal strips; you'll need the same amount of strips on both sides. Brush them lightly with the beaten egg, and then take the strips, alternating from both sides, and bring them to meet in the middle.Do this for the whole length of the sausage roll to get a plaited look.*

*If this sounds a little complicated, firstly I apologise for not explaining it very well, and secondly, you can just roll the pastry around the meat, sticking the two edges together with beaten egg. If you do this, just slash a few diagonal lines down the length of the sausage roll to help let the steam out.

Brush the top of the sausage roll with more egg and sprinkle on the thyme and a little more black pepper.

Use the greaseproof paper to lift the sausage roll onto your baking tray, then cook for 40 minutes until the pastry is golden and flaky, and the meat is cooked through. 

Enjoy!