Camel meatballs with a mint/yoghurt sauce

Yeah, camel. Lovely stuff. In the northern parts of Australia, camels--an introduced species--are a real problem. So yeah, do your part for the environment and eat camel. Serious.

A lot of people I know, they wouldn't eat camel because, you know, 'eww'. But really, a chicken--even a free-range, organic one--is a dirty animal. Oysters, mussels and all those crustaceans--crabs and lobsters and bugs and yabbies--are all dirty animals. They're bottom feeders. So what's bad about a camel, really, in comparison?

For the curious, camel is, in flavour, a bit like mutton. Which, seeing as not many Westerners eat that any more, is like strong-flavoured lamb. The big difference between camel and mutton, though, is the aftertaste. Camel has this unique and wonderful sweet aftertaste. It's most apparent in the steaks, but here, in this recipe, we're using the sausages. Many butchers and poultry stores can order camel sausages, but you'll find that some places in the market have them kicking around in the freezer. When serving camel to a group as finger food, the sausages are brilliant.

Ingredients:

1 kilogram pack of camel sausages, fully thawed
250g Greek-style yoghurt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Lebanese cucumber
a pinch of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped (more to taste)
a few drops of lemon juice (more to taste)
a little freshly ground black pepper (again, more to taste)

In a bowl, whisk together the yoghurt, crushed garlic, sea salt and a little of the mint. Take the cucumber, slice it in half lengthways and use a tiny spoon (I find one of those 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoons to be perfect for the task) to scoop out the seeds. Grate both halves of the cucumber into the yoghurt mix, whisk and taste. At this point, you might want to add a little mint. Don't just throw in a stupid amount, as fresh mint is very strong. Whisk in the lemon juice and a little freshly ground pepper. Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator for a while.

Take a sausage and, using a paring knife, slit the skin open. Peel the skin away and remove the meat. Take a good pinch of the meat and roll it into a ball. Repeat with the remaining sausages. Season with a little sea salt and black pepper, before pan frying over a medium flame until cooked. Don't overcook, as camel is quite lean.

To serve, simply jam a toothpick into each meatball, so people can dip it into the mint/yoghurt sauce.

Tips and ideas:

The sauce, of course, would go well with mutton or lamb or any meat, really, that has a similar flavour. Try it with goat, for instance. You could, of course, serve it with a grilled camel steak.

If you don't like mint and want to pair the camel with another sauce, well, be careful. The sweet aftertaste makes matching difficult. From experience I can tell you that mustard doesn't work at all. Consider something with rosemary. I can't say I've tried it, but I reckon it could work. Experiment, experiment, experiment.