Canberra: Home of the Democracy Sausage
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We’ve never wanted to know what’s inside a sausage, until now.
Adam Liaw and Poh Ling Yeow are on a mission to answer one simple question in their new series Adam & Poh’s Great Australian Bites: What is Australia’s national dish? Befitting of answering a question of national importance, the series culminates with an episode in Canberra.
“There’s so much to love about Australian food…”
Ahead of the final episode (airing 8 pm Tuesday 26 September on SBS Food), Presenter Adam Liaw says, “There’s so much to love about Australian food, but we tend to focus too much on the fancy, cheffy stuff. The heart of Australian food is in the vanilla slice, pub schnitzel, and mum’s spag bol.”
“We’re a country where everyone has their favourite laksa place, fights over where makes the best banh mi, and has a strong opinion on whether tomato sauce or barbecue goes on a bacon and egg roll. It’s about time we celebrated the food that we all know and love, and I’ve loved getting out on the road with Poh to do just that.”
During their recent trip to Canberra, Adam and Poh were able to explore the foodie corners of the city as well as some of its most memorable landmarks. They made friends along the way with a few of Canberra’s finest dishes and even tried to find a noble contender for the ‘best banh mi’ in town (psst… they tried the banh mi at Miss Vans and had only amazing things to say).
Democracy sausage
While the old adage says the two things you never want to see made are sausages and laws, Adam & Poh challenge this notion with two words uttered approximately every four years: Democracy. Sausage.
If there’s ever been a time to riddle the contents of a sausage, it’s at the helm of Adam Liaw and this all-encompassing recipe.
Author: Adam Liaw
Makes: Approx. 40 sausages
Preparation time: 40 minutes (additional chilling time)
Cooking time: Approx. 12 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 70°c
Chilling/freezing time: overnight
Level of difficulty: mid/ace
Ingredients
- 1.6 kg beef chuck, cut into chunks
- 625 g beef fat, cut into chunks (the beef should be 28% fat total)
- 32 g salt
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp ground bush tomato (kutjera)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp mild coarse Korean chilli powder
- 250 ml ice-cold water
- ¼ cup malt vinegar
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- ¼ cup roughly chopped parsley
To serve: sliced white bread, onions, sauces, tamarind chutney (Indian grocers), green chilli chutney (Indian grocers), tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, Sriracha, Australian mustard, chilli oil (lao gan ma), tabasco, chipotle, or hot sauce.
Method
- Combine the beef, fat, salt, fish sauce, bush tomato, garlic, onion, turmeric, pepper, paprika, coriander, and chilli, and mix well. Refrigerate overnight, then grind through a meat grinder. If the mixture has warmed, chill it until it is cold again and combine with the water, vinegar, sugar and fresh herbs, mixing in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on slow speed for about 2-3 minutes or until you can start to see the muscle fibres “streak.”
- Chill the mixture again and stuff into casings.
- Grill the sausages and fry the onions and serve with the white bread and a selection of sauces.
Feature image: Poh Ling Yeow and Adam Liaw with Andrew Duong, Founder of Miss Vans.
