#mititei

I’m also quite fond of they way my family gives me the side eye when I announce a new recipe and then come sniffing into the kitchen like some kind of cartoon wolf.

Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

Today’s episode of Cooking With Fanfic comes courtesy of an actor interview talking about foods they missed from home. One of them mentioned mititei, or mici, a fresh Romanian sausage. Sounds delicious!

Day 1: prep the meat

Naturally every time I cook non-native recipes I find myself lacking local sources for something. In this case, savory and coriander. Luckily I still have a small amount of both from a random find at a gourmet store. (I did, however, place an order for more!)

Beef suet I can get from my local butcher and I opted for ground pork to use the first time since I couldn’t find lamb. I’ll probably try a beef only version later, since I try not to eat pork, but I’m going with the recipe the first time!

Day 2: shape and cook the meat

Everything needs to sit overnight to let the flavors marinate, so plan ahead! I did cook some right away to test the flavor blend and it was good but it was much richer the next day.

Normally this is a hand shaped log but I got the brilliant idea that maybe I can extrude it with a plastic bag.

Worked like a charm! I used the top of a plastic water bottle for a tip, so the bag wouldn’t tear out at the seams from pressure.

I’m planning to put some of the logs in the freezer to chill before cutting, since that part was still really sticky. But clean up was a breeze and they were much more uniform than the ones I shaped by hand.

I really meant to get a photo of it all plated, but it was so good and we gobbled it all up. 🤣

Traditionally it’s served with potatoes, mustard and beer. But since I’m not a big fan of two of those, I just ate it with hashbrowns. It’s garlicky and a little like a sage breakfast sausage, but so much better. Next time I’m going to hand shape some larger sausages and serve them on a potato bun with grilled onions!