29: Lamb Sausages

The first time I had lamb was in an Indian curry. I enjoyed it, so I decided to try it in restaurants whenever I got the chance. Unfortunately, my experience has always been hit or miss. I keep trying to figure out what it is that I like (or don’t like). Although I have liked it when it’s been grilled, I don’t like it when it tastes heavy or fatty – that’s about the only conclusion I can draw. Do I only like it when combined with other ingredients, or do I like it on its own? What cut do I like? How should it be cooked? The last two questions I’m not so sure about. I never know what to buy, and it’s kind of expensive to buy if I’m not sure what to do with it. I also don’t want to buy it just so that I can make something out of it that I don’t like. That’s what happened the other couple of times I’ve tried cooking it, and it’s incredibly disappointing.

When I went grocery shopping last, I found some ground lamb and decided to give it another try. I knew I had a couple of recipes for ground lamb stashed away. I actually had exactly two. So, on Saturday I tried to make Homemade Merguez from nytimes.com.

These were essentially lamb sausages, and not difficult to make. Making sausages is basically the same as making hamburger patties (and you don’t even have to shape them differently if you don’t want to). It’s a matter of mixing seasonings/spices into meat.

I shaped the meat into 9 little patties and placed them under the broiler to cook until they looked done. I may have over-cooked them a little bit because the meat was near its sell-by date and I wanted to be sure they were done. I made a bulgur pilaf with red peppers, spinach, garlic, and lemon to have as a side dish. I can see it steaming in the picture.

Merguez (lamb sausages) with a steamy bulgur pilaf

Alex definitely liked them, although they were a little spicy. These tasted good, but I wasn’t particularly into them. It definitely tasted lamby – but I wasn’t in the mood for lamb, which was a shame. It had a stronger lamb taste than I really wanted at the time (or perhaps than I really ever want). I’m looking forward to trying out lamb again, though, just so I can figure out exactly what it is I want.