Ringing in 2015 with Sujuk Rolls
Thank you to everyone who sent emails, encouraging me to keep blogging. It took a long time. OK, a really long time, but I’m back. A lot has happened since my last post. Let me fill you in — I entered into an amazing relationship (right around the time I stopped blogging… go figure). I bought a house. I experienced the misery of a flooded basement (without a wet vacuum to help). I became a pro at fixing drywall. I traveled a bunch (Peru, Japan, and England). Now that the DIY projects have slowed down (fingers crossed!), I want to get back to blogging.
I’m going to keep today’s post short and simple. This is a quick hello and a delicious winter recipe — sujuk rolls. Sujok is a special Armenian sausage that I blogged about back in Syria. My host mom used to prepare sujuk in bulk and preserve it by wrapping the sausage in breathable cloth bags and air drying them on her balcony. Fortunately, this recipe doesn’t call for dried sujuk, which makes it a lot simpler.
One of the things that makes sujuk so special is the combination of all the fragrant spices. Home cooks in Aleppo eat sujuk for breakfast with their eggs. Sujuk also makes for a great topping on pizza (a twist on the ordinary sausage) and a legendary late night sandwich/snack. Sujuk rolls are popular appetizers at restaurants in Aleppo and are perfect for parties. Enjoy!
Sujuk Rolls
4-6 appetizer servings
Components
- 1kg fresh sujuk sausage
- Thin pita bread
- fresh salsa, optional
Putting them all together
- Prepare the sujuk as described in the recipe, but do not dry.
- Separate the pocket pita bread into two halves.
- Spread a thin layer of sujuk on the pita bread.
- Tightly roll the pita and sujuk into a log.
- Use a sharp serrated knife to carefully cut the sujuk-pita log into individual rolls.
- Bake in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, or until crispy.*
Notes: It’s important to use thin pita bread so that you have a good sujuk-to-pita ratio. Also, some restaurants in Aleppo fry these rolls, but in order to keep the recipe healthy, I bake mine. They still come out crispy because I use beef with 85/15% fat content.
I hope everyone is either already celebrating in 2015 or getting ready to ring in the new year with those they love. I’ll be back soon with more recipes and stories <3
Posted in appetizers, Middle Eastern, savory, snack, Turkish by Antonio Tahhan on December 31st, 2014. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
syrahsuzie Says:
Took me a while to catch up with your latest post. Another great recipe. Often wondered where you were (and your family) whenever Aleppo came up on the news. Looking forward to more news and recipes.
January 24th, 2015 at 10:12 am