Makanek

Fried whole and then the pan deglazed with pomegranate molasses, so the glaze is made in their own fat.

Beef, Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains beef, lamb, sausage casings, which are gut unless it says otherwise.

Ingredients

the sausages

• 500 g lamb shoulder, minced
• 300 g beef chuck, minced
• 150 g lamb fat, minced
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 60 g pine nuts
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• sheep casings, rinsed

to finish

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• juice of ½ lemon

Method

1. THEY ARE FRIED WHOLE AND THEN THE PAN IS DEGLAZED WITH POMEGRANATE MOLASSES, so the glaze is made in their own fat. The little sausages go into a dry pan, render their fat, brown and burst slightly; then the heat comes up, the molasses and a squeeze of lemon go in, and in thirty seconds the fat and the syrup emulsify into a dark sticky glaze that coats every sausage. Nothing is added to the pan beforehand and nothing is drained off. Served plain with molasses poured over at the table, they are good sausages with a sauce; deglazed, the glaze tastes of the meat.
2. THEY ARE SMALL -- FIVE CENTIMETRES, NO MORE. Twisted off short. The point of makanek is that they are eaten in one or two bites off a plate of them, and the proportion of browned, glazed casing to filling is the whole appeal. Full-length sausages have far too little surface for the glaze to matter.
3. THE SPICING IS WARM AND HEAVY AND SHOULD SEEM EXCESSIVE. Cinnamon, allspice, cloves and nutmeg, two teaspoons of some of them. These taste like spiced meat rather than like herbed meat, which is what separates them from every other fresh sausage, and timid spicing gives something unremarkable.
4. THE VINEGAR GOES IN THE MIX. Three tablespoons. It sharpens the fat and acts against the sweetness of the glaze that is coming, and it helps the mixture hold together.
5. THE PINE NUTS GO IN WHOLE AND RAW. Sixty grams. They soften slightly inside but keep a bite, and they are scattered through so some bites have one and some do not.
6. THE PAN STARTS DRY AND THE BUTTER GOES IN LATE. There is a hundred and fifty grams of fat in the mix and it will render out; adding butter at the start just makes them greasy. The butter goes in with the molasses, to carry the glaze.
7. The lamb, beef and lamb fat minced and mixed with all the spices, salt, vinegar and RAW pine nuts.
8. Rested in the fridge 2 HOURS.
9. Filled into the rinsed casings and twisted off SHORT, about 5 cm each.
10. Left uncovered in the fridge OVERNIGHT to dry the casings.
11. A heavy pan heated and the sausages put in DRY, no fat.
12. Fried over a medium heat 8 to 10 MINUTES, turned, until browned all over and their fat has rendered out.
13. The heat raised, the butter added, then the POMEGRANATE MOLASSES and lemon juice poured in.
14. SHAKEN for 30 SECONDS until the fat and syrup emulsify into a DARK STICKY GLAZE coating every sausage.
15. TESTED: the glaze should cling rather than pool. A thin puddle means the pan was not hot enough to emulsify it.
16. Served at once with bread and pickles.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Lebanon · All recipes