Merguez Spiced Sausage Patties

This is a terrible picture but - in my defense - there was grease popping and I was assembling the last minute touches on my brunch as I snapped this. These merguez spiced sausage patties are really good and worth ignoring the photo and heading straight to the grocery store for your favorite ground meat.

My son's girlfriend's father is a hunter and this winter very kindly filled my freezer with a variety of venison cuts. You could also make this recipe with ground pork, or with meatloaf mix from the grocery store if you do not have access to game, or if you saw Bambi as a child and were traumatized.

Venison needs a heavy hand with spices but, if using this spice mix for pork or beef, you may want to adjust quantities and play around with the mixture. Because venison is lean, I added the ice water and gelatin for mouthfeel - feel free to omit though it really adds to the end result.

This recipe is for one pound of ground venison. And I would like to add the disclaimer that I am working with the spices I have on hand and that this is therefore not strictly authentic, but certainly fits the flavor profile.

1 Tbsp ground cumin

2 tsps sweet paprika

1 tsp ground fennel seed

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp hot red pepper (cayenne, Aleppo, Espelette, whatever you have on hand)

1 Tbsp Harissa paste

2 Tbsps very finely chopped onion or shallot

2 Tbsps very finely chopped tomato (optional, I just wanted to add some liquid to the venison meat which is on the lean side)

1 Tbsp very finely chopped cilantro leaves

1 finely minced clove of garlic

Salt to taste

2 tsps plain high quality organic gelatin powder (I use this one and am not an affiliate so do not receive any compensation for recommending it; I just like it.) 

1 Tbsp ice water

Measure all of the ingredients except for the venison and the water in a bowl and stir to combine.

Add the venison and the water and mix by hand until the water is absorbed and the spices are evenly distributed through the meat.

Venison tastes best rare so watch cooking time carefully. These patties were done after about a minute on each side. I let them rest for about five minutes, tented in aluminum foil, while I assembled the rest of the brunch. They came out juicy (thank you tomato and gelatin) and medium rare.

We had these with a riff on a Shakshuka, but they would be equally good with couscous and root vegetables roasted with cumin or, as I did for dinner this evening, spread on a tortilla and cooked until both meat and tortilla were crispy, topped with shaved cabbage tossed in tahini and lemon juice, with some Feta crumbled on top.