mezze: what the sujuk!

sujuk mezze
"Have you ever had sujuk before?” Heathcliffe asked me as he prepared his glorious mezze feast. WTF? (I thought rather inelegantly). I hadn't heard of it before either. Heathcliffe was preparing a rather unprepossessing sausage. Its skin was a plastic pink colour, the flesh a "crushed raspberry" hue. If I'm honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. But I am a girl who likes her adventures in food. So I was prepared to try it, if only the once.

"OK then, Heath. Put me out of my misery. I can see that it's a sausage but you'll have to give me more information" I said firmly. 

Well it turns out it that sujuk is a semi-dry, spicy sausage which Heath had bought from a local corner shop that sold Turkish food. It is a sausage popular around the eastern Mediterranean, from Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey.

And once again, while I shouldn't sound so surprised. It was utterly delicious.

So this isn't so much of a recipe as what Heathcliffe did next.

After skinning the sausage, he cut it into slices about the thickness of a one pound coin. A quick lick of olive oil was splashed into a very hot pan and the slices were quickly fried in batches (to prevent overcrowding and to ensure that all of the surfaces met heat). The sujuk was cooked until slightly charred at the edges, but still soft inside.

These were so moreish that, well, I ate the lot, so Heathcliffe had to make another batch before his other guest arrived. Ooops. But testament to just how delicious it was. There was a hint of spice without pepperiness. I'm not sure what. I'm guessing cumin, paprika, something aniseedy and perhaps cinnamon but I could be wildly off-course. But I would urge you to track some down for perfect party nibbles!


10 comments:

heathcliffe said...

Yay sujuk. BTW, they're a classic breakfast dish. Fry them up then throw in a couple of eggs. It rocks. :) I'm kinda curious about whether I could use them in place of chorizo. Any thoughts?

Marmaduke Scarlet said...

I have still got one left from the 3 you gave me . . . I tried using it instead of chorizo and while it was nice it lacked something. Paprika I'm guessing! Or chilli. I think the sujuk is much more subtle while chorizo can batter your tastebuds into submission!

I might have a go at making sujuk sausage rolls though . . .

Marmaduke Scarlet said...

BTW I hope you don't mind but I nicked your "summer time and the mezze is easy" for a post title!

Patricia (La Chatte Gitane) said...

Mmmmmmm! Gimme some. :-)

Marmaduke Scarlet said...

Patricia - it comes highly recommended!

Kavey said...

My lovely local Aqua cafe restaurant, where I (rather TOO) regularly satiated my desperate needs for lahmacun and kookoo sabzi, also offered sujuk and best of all, you could have it on a full breakfast, a combo of Turkish and British elements such as sujuk and halloumi, fried egg, fried shrooms, beans, toast...

And in Lebanon, recently, we enjoyed a different type of sujuk, the flavours and textures a little different. I was promised a chef's secret recipe, but oh Elias, where is it where is it? :(

Marmaduke Scarlet said...

Kavey you have to get it!!!

Marmaduke Scarlet said...

BTW Kavey, what a lovely comment. Thank you!

Spoon and Chopsticks said...

I'd love to have that with a glass of beer :)

http://spoon-and-chopsticks.blogspot.com/

Little Cooking Tips said...

Hi!
Loved your article. Maybe you'll like this recipe :
http://www.littlecookingtips.com/2012/05/fantastic-baked-pasta-with-sujuk-fresh.html