Merguez

2kg fatty lamb chops
30g salt
6g black pepper
3g ground fennel
20g crushed garlic
24g harissa paste
sheep casings

Merguez is a North African sausage that I enjoy at our local Algerian restaurant, Al Casbah. Merguez are very popular in France and my mother tells me that when travelling there with my father, he would eat them wherever he found they were being served.

The recipes for Merguez that I have found on the net are split between the simple North African version and the more complex French chef's version. I stuck with a simple recipe that uses harissa to give colour and most of the spice.

As usual for fresh sausage, the ingredients are simply mixed together and stuffed into sheep casings. This is my first sausage that uses sheep casings rather than hog casings. This caused no problems and gives a lovely long, thin sausage shape. The recipe uses just lamb for the meat and I chose to use chops as the fat content seem about right. And I love lamb chops. There are many cheaper cuts of lamb to use than lamb chops that would work as well if not better.

Normally, I cook my sausages in the oven, but I prefer to grill Merguez. The sausages came out well, and I hope to go back to Al Casbah soon to see how they compare.