Get Your Grill On

Want something easy and good looking for your next barbeque? A bit better looking than a plain old meat patty?A few years ago, there was a butcher shop near where I lived, called Hansa Butchers. They were continental style butchers with a German flavour to their smallgoods and were justly famous for their bratwurst sausages. Because their smallgoods were so good and in constant demand from caterers and restaurants, that side of the business grew, whilst demand for fresh meat remained somewhat static.

What Hansa did was to move to another site to continue with smallgoods manufacturing and sold the butcher shop, which kept trading, but dropped some of the old product lines. One of the casualties of this was a hamburger like creation called slavinks, which we loved. I’ve tried to track down a recipe or some references to slavinks, but the only thing I can find seems to suggest they are Dutch, but no recipe.

The other day I was pondering how we might be able to get our hands on some more when I thought to contact Hansa and ask if they still supply these somewhere. The guy on the end of the phone laughed and said they were really easy to make and sure, they look simple, but the filling wasn’t plain ground beef, which I mentioned. It was then the secret of slavinks fell in my lap. He told me that the filling was their spicy bratwurst sausage mixture, which I knew where to get, simply wrapped around with two slices of kaiserfleisch.

Is it a bit sad that finding out information like this makes me really happy? Well, it did, and it’s going to make you happy too.

The thing is, it doesn’t have to be a spicy bratwurst mixture, good and all as it is. It can be any sausage mixture at all. What could be better than your your favourite sausage skinned and wrapped with two slices of bacon and guess what? It doesn’t have to be wrapped in bacon either, it could be a couple of slices of prosciutto, or to hell with the bank manager, a couple of slices of jamon Iberico wrapped around some spicy fresh chorizo. That would bring some class to your next barbeque.

Slavinks

For each one:
2 slices of kaiserfleisch, streaky bacon or prosciutto
1 fat spicy bratwurst or other sausage

Lay one slice of kaiserfleisch on a work surface and lay the other slice across it at 90 degrees, to form a cross. Skin the sausage and make the meat into a hamburger shape and lay in the centre of the kaiserfleisch. Fold the ends of the kaiserfleisch over to enclose the filling, then grill or fry until cooked.