Yo peeps how are you? Mergues is a type of a sausage that is very popular in North African countries. It is so delectable and and so tasty and many other variations of the words being more then down and outright delicious. The first time I tried merguges was the storebought one that I brought home from the zabiha halal store I go to here in Chicago.
When they do have it which is rare that you have to act fast to grab it. The store I am talking about is called Farm City. Now I had made my own that all I have to do is just buy the mince. It is 1 lb or 1 kg of mince that is needed. I used beef but you can also use goat. lamb, chicken, turkey and veal. This is a simple foolproof recipe. Firstly take frozen mince down from the freezer and place in to the refridgerator overnight in a bowl.
This way the blood will not seep out and mess up the fridge. You do not want this ugly mess to clean up. “Yucky!!!!!” Place the mince in a sieve or strainer and run it under very cold water until it runs clear. There is some blood still remaining when you buy it and also no one washes the meat before they grind it to make mince for you. This is to keep you from getting sick as well. Let the mince drain by placing the sieve over the bowl and let the remaining bit of water drain out.
On hot days you can place this in the fridge to keep the mince cool as the excess water is draining from the mince. While that is going on take a mortar and pestle and grind 1 pinch each of coriander seeds fennel seeds and cumin. Grind in to a coarse powder. Take the now drained mince that had been rinsed out of the fridge and empty the water in to the sink. Rinse the bowl and place the now clean mince in the bowl and add the contents of mortar and pestle.
Add 1 clove of garlic and 1 slice of onion chopped to mortar and pestle to grind it. Make sure they are cut very small for ease of grinding then pound away. Add this to the mince then add either 1 pinch of vegtea seasoning, pink salt, 1 bullion cube or 3 dashes of seasoned salt. Sometimes the bullion cube can be pretty hard as a rock. It helps when you put it in a mortar and pestle to grind it. I added the bullion cube.
Add 1 pinch each of red chili powder, paprika, parsley and cilantro, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, your choice of vinegar such as balsamic. malt, rice, rasberry if you have on hand, white, malt or apple cider, I added 1 tsp grapeseed oil to the now seasoned mince, Canola, corn. olive, peanut, safflower, sunflower and coconut oils can be used as well, Add 1 handful of either chaki atta which is used for chapati and other Pakistani breads, besan which is chickpea flower and rice flower which are excelent binding agents. Mix very well and cover bowl with a plastic wrap and stick it back in the fridge to marinate for 5 hours to over night.
Mostly this is a do a head a time recipe and you want the flavor and aromas to go like hey wow this is amazing.
Before you grill or pan fry take the seasond meat for mergues and shape it in to logs or small kabob size patties whichever is easy for you to do. For grilling spray with cooking spray and grill for 20 minutes and turn frequently. Note if you are using and electic grill cook at a 2, mine goes from 1 to 5 being the highest.
If you are pan frying add 3 tbs of oil to a frying pan and fry on low heat, Cover and let cook for 5 minutes and then turn and keep repeating until it is done. The finished product gets eaten with chapati yogurt and a green salad. We put a little bit of plain yogurt on some chapati then the green salad and the mergues as well.
It was very delicious btw. Enjoy!!!!!

