Chişcă - Romanian traditional Christmas sausage (with pork and rice)

Every Christmas, although spent far away from home, gives us the opportunity to explore (in our own kitchen) some of our traditional meals that our grandparents used to prepare.
This year I am going to prepare (for the first time ever) a special kind of sausage, made of meat and rice. I tried yesterday a simple recipe (adapted to be baby friendly) and in the next days I am planning to make another version, just to see which one is closer to the taste I know from childhood (that one I will also prepare for Christmas).

Ingredients:
- 500g minced pork;
- 4-5 Tbsp short grain rice;
- one large onion;
- 3 Tbsp oil;
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper;
- 1/2 tsp sweet paprika;
- 4 bay leaves;
- 1/2 tsp coriander seeds;
- 1/2 tsp dry thyme;
- a few pepper corns;
- sausage skin (I used pork intestine, very well cleaned)
* if you are not cooking for babies, add 1tsp salt.

Method:
Finely chop the onion and place it in a pan, over medium heat, with 6 Tbsp of water and 3 Tbsp of oil. Stir continuously. Once the onion is soft add the rice (washed and drained) and 150 ml of water. Let ot boil until all the water evaporates (the rice should be partly boiled). Set aside and let cool.
Add the minced pork, ground pepper, thyme and paprika (and salt, if using) to the rice and onion mixture.
Using a sausage accesory or a funnel fill the sausage skin with the meat and rice mixture. Make tight knots at both ends of the intestine or sausage skin and form more sausages (at the preferred length).
Pierce the sausage skin a few times using a toothpick (so that they won't swell while boiling).
Place the sausages in a pot and cover them with cold water (plus 2cm above). Add the pepper corns, coriander seeds and bay leaves. Boil over low fire for 1/2h. Remove the sausages from the water and let them cool.
Before serving, fry the sausages for a few minutes in a pan (no oil) or on the grill. They go perfectly with fresh onion and polenta.
Enjoy!