Sausage rolls – with added newness !

Sausage rolls with onion, sage and chestnut stuffing

I made two small changes to my standard sausage roll recipe today. First, I added chopped cooked chestnuts, which I can luckily find in my supermarket in vacuum-sealed packs, and used the puff pastry that comes in blocks rather than sheets. It means that there is a touch of sweetness in the sausage mix, and you can control the thickness of the pastry. I think the pastry:sausage ratio with thicker pastry = the best sausage rolls I’ve made. Our maths lesson for today is brought to you by my Mother in law’s awesome sausage rolls she always bakes loads of when we visit.

Ingredients

1. 6 good quality pork sausages (or about 350g sausage meat from the butcher)
2. 1 large onion, finely diced
3. 1 handful sage leaves, chopped
4. 150g cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped
5. 1 block puff pastry, thawed at room temperature
6. 1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C/390F
2. Combine the sausage meat, onion, sage and chestnuts together in a large bowl
3. Roll out the pastry to about 1/4 inch thick
4. Place lines of the sausage meat along the length of the pastry, roll over and seal edges lightly
5. Cut into 2 inch thick slices and place on to a wire rack over a oven-proof tray and brush with the beaten egg
6. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown

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The Moomba

Iberico ham with fresh figs and crumbed brie cheese

The last time I was in The Moomba, it was 1999 and I had a looong lunch there before being proposed to !  Needless to say I have very fond memories of the restaurant, but to be honest, have not been back since.

I guess it’s testimony that it’s still around 11 years on, especially in fickle Singapore where so many restaurants have come and gone in that same time.  And I have heard only good things from my friend Christine who does business with the owner and chef.  I even got a surprise gift of some of his home-made Christmas ham from her a few years back and it was delicious.

Another friend and I went there for dinner last Wednesday to celebrate some good news.  To be honest it was our third choice – the first two, Altitude, and Sage, were fully booked on a Wednesday night – so when we walked in to Moomba at 8.00pm to find only one couple in the restaurant, we entered with a bit of apprehension.

The good news is that my doubts were unfounded.  The food was great !

Perhaps Moomba does a roaring lunch trade or perhaps with its location so close to Boat Quay it’s the place to eat on a Friday night.  However, with its shiny new competitors with their spectacular views just around the corner around the Marina area, having only two people seated at 8.00pm isn’t doing it any favours from the street.

I started with Iberico ham with fresh figs and deep-fried brie (pictured above – the pic was from my friend’s iPhone 4 as I forgot to bring my camera).  A great combination where the sweet and salt, soft and crunchy, fresh (from the rocket) and aged worked perfectly well together.

For mains I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a good old steak.  Three types of cuts were offered – I went for the recommendation of the tenderloin and it turned out to be the best on the table – definitely the most flavoursome without being overly fatty or dry.

Even desserts were good – a pecan pie and a sticky date pudding were shared, the sticky date pudding with a creme anglais rather than butterscotch sauce which lightened up the pudding to a point where everything was cleaned from the plates.

I only found out after that the entire upstairs floor is a retail wine space where you can taste and buy a huge selection of wines.

There was the requisite “roo” offered which I think it silly in a restaurant that isn’t branded “outback tucker” because the food at Moomba is sophisticated and delicious.  Is it just poor marketing ?  Is it in need of a facelift or some rebranding ?  I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

The Moomba
52 Circular Road
Tel: 6438 0141

Opening Hours
Lunch 11am – 2.30pm, Monday to Friday
Dinner 6.30pm – 10pm, Monday to Saturday
Closed on Sunday & Public Holidays

Kelly’s birthday dinner at Sage

Heard a lot about this place. And it’s the place that made me fail at my self imposed ban on eating non-ethically reared ducks for foie gras…

We ordered seven entrees between the five of us, and we devoured everything ! The lobster bisque was a bit disappointing, but the foie gras, which is meant to be chef Jusman So’s signature dish, and his mushroom soup served with scrambled eggs with truffle, won me over completely.

The foie gras to start with was the sort that you don’t often get in Singapore, where it seems to appear on every menu. The flavour was incredibly intense, and made moreso by the chef searing it till crispy on the outside, but still soft and tender on the inside. BRILLIANT. It came served on a fig, pecan and honey tart topped with poached pear puree and chocolate gastrique but to be honest, I didn’t even notice that there was anything else on the plate.

The cappuccino of wild mushrooms with truffle infused scrambled eggs, asparagus and morel cream was another intensely flavoured soup – I would rank it up there with Le Bistrot’s cream of mushroom soup which I LOVE – and served with just cooked egg in an eggshell, with specks of truffle. How would you go wrong ??

I needed a lighter main course, so had the fillet of cod, which came topped with prawn and cognac butter on salt cod brandade, caramelized lemon confit and bouillabaisse jus. The bouillabaisse was a wonderful accompaniment to the delicate flavour of the cod.

The main course winner on the table was the 300 Days Grain Fed Black Angus Ribeye – served for two and just amazing. Nothing more to be said.

The beef cheek came rather unappetisingly served as a brick that with the sauce, resembled a square sticky date pudding. The flavour was lovely and the texture was melt-in-your-mouth tender, but there was quite a lot of a very rich dish. The duck confit was also disappointing – it wasn’t bad, just wasn’t good, and for the standard of the rest of the dishes, really quite unremarkable.

Definitely a must-go-back venue.

Sage, The Restaurant
No. 7 Mohamed Sultan Road
Singapore 238957
Tel: (65) 6333 8726