Sichuan Sausage Sangas

From Chinese-ish by Rosheen Kaul and Joanna Hu Serves 4 I love a ‘sausage sizzle’, as we call them in Australia, where you can grab a barbecued, slightly singed snag (sausage) wrapped in soft white bread, in exchange for a gold coin. This recipe keeps the sizzle, the sausage and the white bread, but the similarities end there. Instead, a flavourful, juicy, Sichuan peppercorn-spiced pork sausage is studded with guanciale, smeared with Japanese mayonnaise and refreshed with lime juice. Definitely not your average sausage sanga. 450 g (1 lb) pork mince (ground pork)
50 g (1 ¾ oz) guanciale or pancetta, finely chopped
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons caster (superfine) sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour (cornstarch)
1 teaspoon iced water
Vegetable oil, for shallow frying Spice mix 3 teaspoons Sichuan or Korean chilli flakes
2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon ground turmeric To assemble 4 slices white bread
Coriander (cilantro) leaves
Mint leaves
Kewpie mayonnaise
Lime wedges Place the pork mince in the freezer for 30 minutes before using. To make the spice mix, place all of the ingredients in a small frying pan and toast over low heat until very fragrant, taking care not to burn the chilli flakes. If they turn too dark, start again. Set aside to cool, then blitz into a fine powder using a food processor. Add the chilled pork mince, guanciale, ginger, fish sauce, light soy sauce, Dijon mustard, sugar, cornflour and iced water to the spice mix and pulse until combined. The mixture should bounce back when pressed. Refrigerate the sausage mixture for 2 hours. Using wet hands, roll the sausage mixture into four 2 cm x 10 cm (3/4 inch x 4 inch) logs and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add enough vegetable oil to evenly coat the base of the pan. Cook the sausages until they are a deep golden-brown, rolling them around continuously for about 10 minutes. To assemble, wrap the sausages in white bread with a generous handful of fresh herbs, a decent smear of mayonnaise and a good squeeze of lime juice. Images and text from Chinese-ish by Rosheen Kaul and Joanna Hu, photography by Armelle Habib. Murdoch Books RRP $39.99.’