Vegetarian recipe : Cheesy Leek Glamorgan Sausages

I tried this for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I was convinced by the flavour but not by the quantities in the recipe I used. Having looked around online, this is a traditional Welsh recipe so I've looked at the version on the Visit Wales website that looks like it would work better. If you want a vegetarian option, it's ideal, but if you (or your husband, if he's like mine !) is a total carnivore, it's lovely served with bacon and fried tomatoes.

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You can see the original recipe on the Visit Wales website here. Click through to see what they should look like because they look much better than mine !

Glamorgan Sausages

Ingredients

makes 16 small sausages 225g/8oz fresh breadcrumbs

125g/5oz grated cheese

3 medium size free-range eggs

A little milk

Salt and white pepper

1/4 tsp dry mustard175g/6oz leek shredded finely

and sautéed in a little butter for 2 minutes

1 heaped tablespoon of fresh, chopped parsley 

Coating 100g/4oz fresh breadcrumbs

1 medium size free-range egg

4tbsp milk

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Place the breadcrumbs, cheese, seasoning, mustard, leek and parsley into a mixing bowl, mix well. Beat together the eggs, and add to the ingredients. Mix the ingredients to form a firm dough, you may need a little milk if the mixture is a little dry. Divide the mixture into 16, and form each portion into a sausage shape.

Coating the sausages is optional, however this does give a wonderful crispy texture to the sausages. Beat the egg and add the milk. Place the breadcrumbs on a plate and season lightly. Take each sausage and roll it in the egg mixture, drain a little, then roll in the breadcrumbs. Repeat until all the sausages are coated, chill for 30 minutes.

Heat a heavy base frying pan, add a little oil, add the sausages a few at a time and cook over a medium-low heat until golden all over. The sausages should fry gently, if the heat is too high they will brown too quickly and not be cooked through.

These sausages are delicious served with a tomato salad. Use ripe tomatoes, sliced together with a little red onion. Dress with olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, freshly ground black pepper.

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As you can see in the picture, our cheese was far too crumbly to grate properly but that didn't seem to matter in the slightest.

I couldn't take any photos during the mixing stage because my hands were covered in cheesy-eggy-leeky goo, but I wasn't convinced they were going to work to begin with. I stress that this wasn't using the recipe above. The proportions in my recipe weren't great, it was far too wet so wouldn't hold it's shape and it didn't have enough egg or breadcrumbs in it to hold it all together. When I saw the mess in the frying pan, I almost transformed it into leeky scrambled eggs !

Here's how ours turned out in the end. Not bad at all but I'd class it as a work in progress that needs lots of tweaking ! If you try the version above, I'd love to know how you got on - and I'll keep you posted when I get around to trying it out myself !

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