Libyan Rice Sausage: Osban عصبان

Osban is a traditional Libyan sausage, stuffed with a mixture of rice and herbs, as well as chopped lamb meat, liver and heart.

Osban might be the Libyan version of haggis, but no one would have osban for breakfast! It is usually served alongside the main meal on special occasions, and must be eaten with mseyer pickles.

Ingredients:

5-6 piece Sheeps intestines, about 30cm long (sheep casings) or commercial sausage casings

Libyan Herb, Rice and Offal Sausage Stuffing:
500 lamb liver and lamb heart. finely diced
250g of finely chopped lamb meat
2 tbsp tomato paste
½ cup of olive oil
2 medium finely chopped tomatoes

4 cups finely chopped fresh parsley
3 cups finely chopped fresh coriander
3 cup finely chopped fresh basil
3cusp finely chopped spring onions

1cup finely chopped fresh mint
2 finely chopped hot chilli pepper

11/2 cups of short grain rice washed, soaked for 10-15 minutes and drained

1 tablespoon each of: dried mint, black pepper, ground ginger, cayenne pepper, turmeric, salt

Wash the intestines with water several times, put them in a bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice/vinegar, and leave for 10 minutes, then rinse well.

In a large bowl mix well all the stuffing ingredients together. Stuff the casings, leaving room for the expansion of the rice. Tie off with thread to seal off the casings, at both ends. You can also use cotton string to tie each sausage at intervals (like a sausage link) to create smaller Osban.

Prick each sausages at intervals with a needle – be thorough to prevent the Osban bursting while cooking. Put osban in large pot, pour enough boiling water to cover the sausages (about 3cm above osban level). Add 1 tb salt, 1/2 tb cayenne pepper and tb 1/2 turmeric. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium. cook for about one hour (prick osban again with needle if it floats).

Remove osban pieces and place them under the grill or fry in little oil until browned.

The sausages are cut into more manageable osban segments before serving, or else each casing/intestine is tied at intervals with cotton string before cooking, and the sausage-link is cut up into mini-osban as in the above image.