RCP: Merguez Sausage

[Jenise]

Dinner club is doing Morroccan night on Saturday, and one of the dishes I'm doing--or trying to do, no recipe exists--is a replication of the best Morroccan dish I can remember having. It involved shrimp, charmoula sauce and black oil cured olives. I'm going to make it even more my own by adding merguez meatballs to the mixture. (No one else has introduced that element, and I just can't imagine it not being somwhere on the table, so....) Merguez hereabouts is nonexistent, however, so I made my own. I'm so happy with the result (I purposefully made mine a little lighter on salt and cumin than most commercial merguez I've had) that I'm posting the recipe for my own reference in the future. Feel free to ignore.

Merguez Sausage

1.5 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
4 cloves garlic, fork-pureed
2 tblsp harissa (having none I substituted Lan Chi--GREAT!)
2 lb ground lamb
1 tblsp olive oil

Combine salt and fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle, crush the seeds. Add to a bowl with the dry spices, harissa, garlic and olive oil. Mix well and then blend with the meat. Cover and refrigerate overnight before cooking.

Looks awfully tasty to ignore. I hope you'll post the recipe that involves this with the shrimp and such as that sounds great as well.

[Jenise]

Looks awfully tasty to ignore. I hope you'll post the recipe that involves this with the shrimp and such as that sounds great as well.

It should work in the same way that Portugese pork and clams work, at least I'm hoping, especially with a home-made sausage that's a bit more balanced in complexity and doesn't over-emphasize certain flavors.

Jenise,
I am curious to understand how you think about using cinnamon in savory dishes. I look at 1 T and think "yikes, that's a lot" . I always use less that the recipe calls for especially when the cooking time is short but I haven't got the feel for fine tuning the balance when cooking savory with cinnamon.

The LanChi is an inspired adaptation. I've been trying out different harissa recipes the last several months and can see how it would work. Have not found THE one yet but trying to get closer to the LanChi texture will be my next trial run. Have been disappointed with ancho chile as the base as well. Disappointed in my green harissa trial also....just anemic is the only way to describe them. Need to amp the heat and complexity

[Jenise]

Jenise,
I am curious to understand how you think about using cinnamon in savory dishes. I look at 1 T and think "yikes, that's a lot" . I always use less that the recipe calls for especially when the cooking time is short but I haven't got the feel for fine tuning the balance when cooking savory with cinnamon.

The LanChi is an inspired adaptation. I've been trying out different harissa recipes the last several months and can see how it would work. Have not found THE one yet but trying to get closer to the LanChi texture will be my next trial run. Have been disappointed with ancho chile as the base as well. Disappointed in my green harissa trial also....just anemic is the only way to describe them. Need to amp the heat and complexity

You and I think alike. (Btw, your napkin holder/lid rack is on its way to you.) I chose two of many recipes I looked at for merguez, and then averaged them and started low with the spices for 1 lb of meat where I in fact was using 2 lbs. My primary concern was over-doing the cumin as mentioned, but my 2nd and only other concern was not overdoing the cinnamon. I then added more spices a bit at a time to get where I wanted to be and was actually surprised that I wanted to add as much additional cinnamon as everything else--it never made the mix taste of cinnamon at all, just more complexed and balanced and about where it would have been if I'd just used double what the average of the recipes for 1 lb called for. Mind you, I haven't retasted or cooked the sausage yet, but I'm thinking I've got it right (for my tastes).

I made a batch of this sausage on Sunday and had grilled merguez sausage patties for dinner last night. What a delicious spice combination, and in such excellent balance!

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, thank you!

I need to post the whole recipe for the merguez meatballs with shrimp in the charmoula-roasted tomato sauce. It was a killer dish.

Just threw together a batch of this, though I had no turmeric and subbed charnushka instead. Also yummy, maybe a little more floral and a little less earthy. Still happy.

[Jenise]

Thanks for reminding me that I stored this recipe here, I completely forgot I had. I've kind of been wanting to resurrect the whole dish I describe here, I only made it once. But wow was it fantastic. I may have a picture of it....

I am curious to understand how you think about using cinnamon in savory dishes. I look at 1 T and think "yikes, that's a lot" . I always use less that the recipe calls for especially when the cooking time is short but I haven't got the feel for fine tuning the balance when cooking savory with cinnamon.

This recipe calls for one teaspoon (tsp) of cinnamon, not one tablespoon.

Cinnamon is not an uncommon ingredient in Indian and Chinese savory dishes, but always in the background and in combination with other spices.

-Paul W.