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!