Lamb Merguez Burgers

I grew up eating lamb on the 4th of July: my grandmother and grandfather would serve grilled shish kebab at the party they always hosted on that day, also their wedding anniversary. This was invariably accompanied by my aunt's fabulous potato salad and my mother's surprisingly delicious green Jell-o salad, the only one I'll eat. The evening would finish with homemade red-white-and-blueberry ice cream and the setting off of fireworks.

But now I'm celebrating the Fourth of July in France, where it's just another day. Still, it's nice to celebrate our American-ness just a bit. So our meal was a good compromise. Claire made this cake and we watched the Tour de France, and then I made this lamb merguez "burgers" and we watched women's soccer. All-American, and yet not really. In fact, merguez is to France what pizza is to the United States: an immigrant food that has been embraced by the broader culture.

Most of the work of these burgers involves grinding: first spices (fennel and coriander), and then (at least for me) the meat. First the spices get toasted.

Then, after cooling down a bit, they go in the spice grinder. I used to think that toasting/grinding spices was a waste of time until I actually tried it. Now I'm hooked: the spices smell so great and taste really fresh and strong. I highly recommend picking up an extra coffee grinder at a garage sale and using it for spices.

 I had ground up my semi-frozen lamb with a small onion and some garlic. I then added the merguez-y stuff: the toasted/ground spices, some piment d'esplette (a paprika-like spice from the Basque country--it's a bit spicier than paprika, but it was fresh and my regular paprika was looking sad), salt, and--yes--butter. In Melissa's defense, the lamb I used (cut from the leg) was pretty lean, and merguez, which is the go-to sausage on the French grill, tends to be very fatty. And the meatballs I made turned out to be quite juicy and less gamy than some ground lamb dishes can be.

Why meatballs? Well, I knew I couldn't grill these and that my choices were the stovetop grill (I still haven't mastered that) or the oven (I had this article in mind). But then after a recent falafel experience, I decided that meatballs would be much more manageable in a pita than a large burger.

While the meatballs roasted (15 minutes in a 425 oven), I made my harissa mayonnaise (also a very French thing--it's awesome with fries!), grated some carrots, and sliced some cucumbers. I squeezed some lime over both and tossed them with a bit of salt. I thought these would make a good crunchy counterpart to the rich and spicy meatballs.

And voilà, my Franco-American 4th of July dinner. These vanished in no time flat. They were spicy, but just on this side of too spicy, with a great balance of flavors and textures. Claire, who generally dislikes lamb, devoured about 5 meatballs in her sandwich. So even though I had to wait an extra day for the traditional reading of the Declaration and the fireworks will come 10 days later, it was a good meal for a special day.