These homemade sausage rolls with smoky eggplant and pork mince is a Cambodian inspired recipe based on the classic Cambodian dish called chha trob for short in Khmer. It consists of char-grilled eggplant with a wonderful smoky flavour and minced pork that’s been stir-fried with fermented soybeans.
This homemade sausage rolls with smoky eggplant and pork mince recipe makes a delicious Cambodian-inspired sausage roll that takes its inspiration from a classic Cambodian dish of char-grilled eggplant with minced pork that’s stir-fried with fermented soybeans, which I recently posted a recipe for as part of my series on Cambodian barbecue recipes. It’s a little funky, a little salty, and a little sweet.
Combining the eggplant with the sausage roll pork mince mixture makes a fantastic filling for a sausage roll. The original Cambodian dish is typically found on the menu of a Cambodian restaurant serving traditional food or eaten as one of an array of dishes as part of a meal at home. It’s one dish we always ordered at The Sugar Palm, one of the best Cambodian restaurants in Siem Reap.
We’re big fans of the traditional homemade Australian sausage rolls but we were delighted to find that this combination worked. We’ve been doing a lot of Cambodian cooking while we’ve been social distancing and staying at home so these Australian-Cambodian fusion experiments were perhaps a natural progression.
So far we’ve made Cambodian Saraman curried beef sausage rolls and a chunky curry beef pie, based on Cambodia’s wonderful Saraman curry, a relation of Thailand’s Massaman curry. Next up are recipes for a spicy pork minced pie filled with prahok k’tis, a rich pork mince, prahok, coconut cream, and pea eggplant dip; and a curried chicken pie recipe based on the gently-spiced Cambodian chicken curry.
Homemade Sausage Rolls with Smoky Eggplant and Pork, A Cambodian Inspired Recipe
My first tip to making this sausage rolls with smoky eggplant and pork mince recipe is to make sure that the eggplant gets super smoky. The reason we roast the eggplants first is that if you just put them on the grill, the outside would be charred before the ‘meat’ of the eggplant has a chance to soften up. They need to be really cooked out otherwise the smoky flavour will disappear when mixed with the pork mince mix.
Secondly, the ground pork mixture needs to be cooked out so that there is barely any sauce. If there’s too much sauce in the minced meat mix it might seep through the puff pastry before it’s cooked through and you’ll have soggy sausage rolls.
Thirdly, don’t be afraid to cook these sausage rolls until they are well-browned as this makes the top of the pastry more flaky – which is just what we want with a sausage roll.
Finally, we’re still not sure what sauce to settle on to have with these homemade sausage rolls with smoky eggplant and pork mince. Traditionally, we have sausage rolls with tomato sauce in Australia, but that didn’t quite work. We’re actually not even sure a sauce is needed with these sausage rolls although that somehow seems wrong.
I was wondering whether an oyster sauce and tomato sauce might work, perhaps kicked up in heat with a little Sriracha sauce. I might give it a try next time. What do you think?
Homemade Sausage Rolls with Smoky Eggplant and Pork Mince Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 eggplants large ones often called graffiti or Sicilian
- 400 g pork mince
- 3 tbsp fermented soybeans drained
- 1 ½ tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 5 pieces spring onion white part only
- 1 pinch salt to taste
- 1 pinch pepper to taste
- 1 ½ pieces puff pastry sheets
- 1 egg beaten with a little milk
Instructions
- Prick the eggplants all over with a fork. Brush the eggplants with vegetable oil and place on a wire rack in the oven on 180ËšC.
- Cook the eggplants and turn them every 10 minutes, until the skin has noticeably softened.
- Grill the eggplants still whole on a barbecue until the exterior of the eggplants are charred.
- Allow the eggplants to cool a little and while they’re cooling make the mince mixture.
- Add the oil to a wok over medium-high heat. Add the minced pork and when coloured add all the other ingredients and cook until fragrant. Check the seasoning and adjust if necessary.
- Once the eggplants have cooled, peel the eggplants and chop into 1 cm cubes. Mix in with the mince.
- More moisture will come out of the eggplant, so you can add some cornstarch to ‘tighten’ up the mixture so that there’s no noticeable sauce. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning to taste. Cool and refrigerate the mixture.
- Divide into 3 equal portions and refrigerate while preparing the pastry.
- You will need one and a half pastry sheets. Cut the pastry sheets in half. Roll the sheets to 12 x 30 cm.
- You will be making 3 sets of fillings at 200 g each.
- Roll out the filling to a sausage shape 2.5 cm in diameter and the length of the pastry (30 cm).
- Lightly beat the egg and milk together. With a pastry brush, brush one end of the pastry.
- Fold the pastry from both ends and create a light seam. Press the seam together.
- Cut the roll in half, making two 15 cm long sausage rolls.
- Place the rolls seam-side down on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Brush the top of the rolls with the egg wash.
- Refrigerate while you make the remaining rolls.
- Preheat the oven to 200ËšC and bake the rolls until they are golden brown and cooked through (internal temperature should be 71ËšC), around 10-12 minutes.
Nutrition
Do let us know if you make this homemade sausage rolls with smoky eggplant and pork mince recipe. We’ve love to know what you think.
It’s great to see these flavours being lent to the classic sausage roll. Mine turned out beautifully. I still remember eating this original dish at The Sugar Palm, it was one of our favourite dishes!
I’m going to try your other ones now. Thanks!
Hi Emma, yes, you tried the best version for sure at the Sugar Palm! Glad they turned out for you.
Try the Saraman curry ones next!
Cheers
T