If you love lamb and all those pungent spices of North Africa (coriander, cumin, fennel, cilantro) and you like a little heat, this recipe will blow your head off. Oh yeah, practically no carbs.
I have two secrets to making Merguez aromatic and tender. The first is to toast the spices and leave them whole. This gives you little pops of flavor in each bite. The second is to wrap the sausages in oven-safe plastic wrap and cook them at medium rare sous vide for 24 hours. That ensures the lamb is tender and already cooked before going on the grill.
I have another secret, but this is in the plating and presentation. We’re going to serve it with a ribbon of Japanese Mayonaise and chopped fresh cilantro. Cilantro is also in the sausage itself, so you might want to get a second fresh bunch of cilantro the day you serve it.
Find yourself a boneless leg of lamb that weighs about 2.5 pounds. Look for the fattiest cut you can. When comparing packaged lamb, a leaner cut will tend to be squishier than a fatty cut. You can feel the hard fat when it's been left on the top.
Slice the lamb into 1 inch slices. If you don't see this amount of fat, consider adding up to 1/2 pound of pork fat or even beef tallow. If you can find lamb fat on it's own then definitely use that, but it's hard to find unless your butcher can procure it for you.
Cut the lamb into smaller pieces, lay them on a parchment paper covered sheet pan, and place in the freezer for about 15 minutes, just enough time for them to firm up but not enough time for them to freeze solid.
While the lamb is getting cold, toast the corriander seed, fennel seed, cumin seed, and paprika in a dry cast-iron pan over medium heat just until you start to see smoke. Transfer to a room-temperature container.
Place half the lamb into a food processor with half of the spice mixture, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp of the chili flakes, and 1/2 the garlic.
Process until meat is coarsely chopped. If it doesn't grind, remove half, grind, and slowly add additional lamb (but only up to half of the sheet tray) until it's all ground.
Transfer to a large bowl and repeat with the remaining lamb, spices, salt, red pepper, and garlic. This time we're going to add cilantro. Rip off a handful of the cilantro from the top and toss it in. Again, if it doesn't grind, remove half, grind, and then add the lamb pieces one at a time until it is all ground.
Combine with the first batch and mix it by hand. This is where you might find some hard lumps of gristle or bone. Discard them. Make a small thin patty and cook with butter over medium heat for a taste test. This is your last chance to tweak the ingredients to your liking.
Using a kitchen scale measure out 4 ounces of sausage, form into a log the width of your hand, and place at the top of a square piece of oven-safe plastic wrap.
Tightly roll the sausage leaving the ends exposed.
Continue to roll until the sausage has been completely wrapped.
Twist the ends tightly and fold over.
When you're done, you should have about nine sausages. I started with 2.6 pounds of lamb, so my last one is a bit bigger.
Place five sausages in a zip-seal bag. Zip the top leaving only a small portion open. Submerge in a pot of water, and complete the seal only when bag is completely (but just) under water.
Cook in a pot with a sous vide stick (like the Anova Precision Cooker) at 134F for 24 hours. You may need to add a couple weights (like coffee cups) to keep them submerged. Make sure you top off the water every 12 hours or so.
When ready to serve, saute sausages in butter over medium heat until they develop a nice brown sear. Serve with Japanese mayonnaise and fresh cilantro.
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