Dementia in the kitchen: A culinary adventure

Time passes swiftly when you're not watching. Another anniversary snuck up on me the other day, and it's one I'm always thinking about, so it really surprised me when I almost forgot it. In retrospect however, there were things I did which could represent a bit of an unconscience acknowledgement of the momentous occasion. Anyway, I'm not here to lament on my diminishing memory here, I'm here to guide you through the process of creating a delicious anniversary meal completely off the cuff!

I don't claim to be a culinary genius, but I can be creative enough in the kitchen to make each evening's meal a taste sensation (or complete and utter tastebud killer). In an effort to save money I've taken up preparing a great deal of our meals from scratch. On this occasion I had decided (after much indecision) on chicken sausage rolls. Anyone who has ever eaten chicken, or a sausage roll, knows that to combine the two in the exact fashion you make regular sausage rolls, can result in a rather bland dish that smells a lot like onions. If you don't, it tends to result in a rather bland dish that smells a lot like onions.

The first time I ventured down the road of the home made sausage roll resulted in a meal with about as much flavour as a piece of shoe rubber and left us with rather horrid onion breath. The kind of onion breath that could strip paint off walls. So this time I planned to try something different, and hope that it would be flavoursome.

With a plan in my head I made for the kitchen to start preparing, only to find missing ingredients. A quick trip to the shop (store) to pick up missing items ended up with me buying more than initially planned and a complete change to the recipe. So, with new ingredients I set about making dinner.

Chicken Sausage Rolls with Spinach and Fetta Cheese

1 lean chicken breast; minced
1/2 onion; finely chopped
75g frozen spinach; shaved
1/2 block of fetta cheese; thinly cubed
2 sheets puff pastry
8 whole black pepper corns
salt; to flavour
mixed herbs

Preheat oven to 180 celcius.
Allow pastry to thaw at room temperature (or however the package says you should deal with the pastry)
Mince the chicken breast. I used my hand mixer, pulsing it til the meat was minced. You can use a food processor or hand mincer or whatever you have handy. Place the meat into a bowl.
Finely chop the onion, slice the fetta and shave the spinach. Grind the pepper corns with a mortar and pestle. Add onion, spinach, fetta, herbs, salt and pepper to minced chicken. Mix together thoroughly.
To mix the filling, use your hands for the best mix, but you can also use a spoon.
Lay first sheet of puff pastry flat and spoon half of the filling onto the second quarter of the sheet. Spread the filling so that it looks 'sausage' like and reaches both edges of the pastry. Fold the shortest piece of pastry over the filling, then carefully roll until completely closed. Place on a flat oven tray. Repeat with second pastry sheet.
Cook for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serves 2 - 4 persons.

Why not try it out and see how you like it. It went down a major success here at Camp Ward, and has been requested for another meal at another time. Go on, you know you want to. Bon apetite!