Sucuk

A While ago I put up a post about a wedding and promised to follow it up with some recipes. Especially the one for Sucuk.

Sucuk is a middle eastern sausage made with beef and garlic and is traditionally cooked at breakfast time with eggs (in Egypt) or mixed with haricot beans.

I had never tried Sucuk until the bride specifically requested it at her wedding dinner and I really enjoyed it. It is not something you can eat too often of as it does have quite a high fat content but it has wonderfully strong flavours and works so well as part of a meze selection. 

It is quite a spicy and salty sausage so I decided to serve is with some mildly spiced cumin roasted vegetables.

Roughly chop some red and yellow peppers, onion and tomatoes into large shapes. Arrange the vegetables in an oven proof dish. Sprinkle with some olive oil and a teaspoon of ground cumin. Do not season with salt as the Sucuk will provide enough salt later. Bake uncovered in the top of a hot oven while you prepare the sausage.

Slice the sausage in half and remove the thick outer skin. I then sliced each half into large diamond shaped chunks. Heat a heavy griddle pan on the stove and griddle the sausage chunks on each side so you get some nice dark lines across the meat.

Add the sausage to the pan with the vegetables and sprinkle with a handful of sesame seeds. Continue to bake in the oven until the sausage is cooked through (they will swell slightly when done). Sprinkle the dish with some fresh parsley and serve. 

I served the sucuk with rice, salad, homous, tzatziki and falafel. Here is a great recipe for homemade falafel that makes roughly 20 small falafel:

1 Can Chickpeas, mashed

1 medium onion

1tbsp garlic

2 tbsp parsley

1 tsp ground corinader

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp plain flour

                          

Blend the onion, parsley, garlic and spices together in a mini blender or chop finely by hand. Mix into the chickpeas with the flour and salt. I like to mash my chickpeas quite coarsely to make a more crispy and rustic finish. Form into small balls and deep fry for 5 minutes or until the outsides are crispy and dark brown.