Glamorgan Sausages
Welsh leek-and-cheese sausages, breadcrumb-coated and fried until crisp. The "sausage" is a misnomer - there's no meat, no skin, just a tightly bound mixture of caerphilly, leeks and sage rolled and shallow-fried. A 19th-century Glamorgan classic.
Overview
The Welsh vegetarian sausage, named after the south Wales county of Glamorgan and traditionally made with caerphilly, the crumbly slightly-acidic white Welsh cheese. You soften leeks in butter (slowly, until they're pale gold and sweet), then mix them with grated caerphilly (or mature cheddar if caerphilly is hard to find), breadcrumbs, mustard, sage and beaten egg. The mixture chills in the fridge for an hour to firm up, then rolls into sausage shapes, gets a flour-egg-breadcrumb coat, and fries until deep gold and crisp on the outside. Eaten with chutney and mashed potato, or sliced into a roll with a bit of salad for lunch. A wartime substitute for meat sausages that became a permanent fixture of the Welsh table.
Ingredients
- 2 leeks (medium, white and pale green only, very finely chopped)
- 30 g unsalted butter
- 200 g caerphilly cheese (or mature cheddar; grated)
- 200 g fresh white breadcrumbs (plus 100 g for coating)
- 2 tablespoons fresh sage (chopped) or 1 teaspoon dried
- 1 tablespoon English mustard
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 2 eggs (large, 1 for binding, 1 beaten for coating)
- 50 g plain flour (for coating)
- salt
- pepper
- 4 tablespoons sunflower oil (or vegetable oil, for frying)
Method
Stage 1 - Leeks
- Melt the butter in a pan over medium-low heat; cook the leeks 8-10 minutes until soft and silky but not coloured. Cool fully.
Stage 2 - Mix
- Combine the cooled leeks, cheese, 200 g of the breadcrumbs, sage, thyme, mustard, 1 egg, salt and plenty of black pepper. Mix until cohesive - should hold its shape when pressed.
- Cover and chill 30 minutes (firms the mix; makes shaping easier).
Stage 3 - Shape and coat
- Divide the mixture into 8 equal portions. Roll each into a sausage shape about 8 cm long.
- Set up a coating station: flour, beaten egg, remaining breadcrumbs.
- Roll each sausage in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.
Stage 4 - Fry
- Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
- Fry the sausages 6-8 minutes, turning to colour all sides. The breadcrumb coat should be deep golden and crisp; the centre warm and just-set.
Notes
- Caerphilly is traditional: A crumbly, tangy Welsh cheese. Mature cheddar works; Lancashire and Wensleydale also good substitutes.
- Don't skip the chill: Warm mixture cracks while shaping and falls apart in the pan.
- Serve with: A sharp chutney, mustard, or mashed potatoes.
Storage
- Keeps 3 days refrigerated; reheat in a hot oven (180°C) for 8 minutes to re-crisp.
- Freeze raw or cooked for 2 months.
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