Homemade Mici – Romanian Garlicky Meat Open Sausages
"These mici (will translate as “small” and pronounced “Meech”) are such a Romanian barbecue staple and there is no bbq without these tasty little ones. These garlicky delicious meaty open sausages are such a Romanian staple and no BBQ will ever happen without them. With just a few ingredients, they are to die for especially when served with mustard and a cold, cold beer! Perfect for hot, hot weather. There are more secrets to these amazing casing free sausages."
NotesPreparing the homemade stock:
• To make the beef or lamb stock at home I always choose oxtail or lamb neck and boil these for a good few hours. They can be made separate or mixed it really does not matter especially if you add lamp made to the Mici
• If you don’t eat pork replaced this by lamb but if you do, feel free to mixing all three meat to a ratio of 2:1:1 meaning 2 parts of beef, 1 part pork and 1 lamb. It’s a sensational one.
• needless to say that I always add chilli flakes to spice things up a little or serve them with a nice and spicy mustard.
• Resting time it’s an important step as they will soak in all the spices and all flavours will blend in nicely.
• Mici can be grilled, ideally on the charcoal grill but a gas or electric grill would do the job too. They can be even fried in a pan or baked in the oven.
• to check whether Mici are cooked to perfection while on the grill tap them harder with a fork and if they are bouncy, they are ready.
Serves16 pieces
Preparation Time20 min
Chilling Time2 hr
Cooking Time8 min
Ingredients
- 500 g ground beef I used 5% fat content
- 500 g ground pork I used 5% fat content
- 180 ml beef stock ideally homemade * see recipe notes
- 50 ml beer
- 1 tsp soda bicarbonate
- 1 tsp salt
- 3-4 cloves garlic grated and made into a paste
- 1 tsp thyme dry or fresh
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp coriander powder
Instruction
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Place the meat into a bowl, you can give it another whizz into food processor for a double grinding but don’t worry if you don’t fancy doing this. There is another solution – extra mixing/kneading.
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In a larger mug I mix the beef stock with a beer so that be carbonate spices seasoning salt pepper and give it a good good stir until the salt has dissolved entirely.
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Add this liquid mixture to the meat and mix really well until the mixture becomes almost a paste. And this is your double grinding technique
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You can now work with a dash of oil or water to form the sausages into their shapes. A little touch of oil takes you a long way so just grease your palms with a tiny dash of oil or, use a bit of water. I always use oil. It helps with preventing them from sticking. Place all on a plate or a little tray, something that can easily be placed in the fridge.
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Transfer the sausages in the fridge to rest for 2 to 4 hours but you can leave them overnight too, it’s absolutely okay.
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Place them onto a hot grill or in a hot pan and cook them on each side ( x 2) for no longer than 4 min.
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Serve in a fresh bun (just like a hotdog with mustard and a cold glass of beer. Heavenly!