the Ćevapčići story...

 

i have to confess i am a former Ćevapčići free loader. true viewers at the expense of my dad papa joe who at the time probably held the record for the most Ćevapčići in a deep freeze. the deep freeze the size of a small garden shed in his man cave. well that might be a slight exaggeration but with papa joe it was go big or go home. the thing is he knew i was the Ćevapčići robber but having had my status changed to single parent he gave me a get out of Ćevapčići jail free card. just as well man responsible for status change in question lived interstate because i am sure his head would have ended up in papa joe's vice....personally it should have been his balls. but no need to feel alarmed viewers, are some of you clutching your balls now? lol. because i am only joking, although 10 years ago i probably would have clamped them there myself, hee, hee.

ok viewers i know this is not supposed to be about my romantic tragic past but a little context can sometimes paint the picture. thanks to my dad i had a fairly consistent supply of Ćevapčići until one day i came to visit and he was unloading 250 trays out of his landcruiser. jesus dad don't you think you might have gone overboard? i enquired. bloody bitch....has gone out of business ( i must keep his identity confidential) WHAT? yes…( to be fair her identity shall remain a secret too) has taken him to the cleaners, stolen his recipe and started a new business with the apprentice. what's he want with old bag like that? pička. (insert accent plus i don’t think i should translate that word for you viewers) i did want to inform my dad that even Ćevapčići have a freezer life of 3 months but of course in the circumstances i didn't think it wise. besides according to my calculations and my Ćevapčići pilfering, we could knock off those 6000 cevaps in no time. 

of course lovie came out to see what all the yelling was about. stara what are you doing? nothing just put these in the freezer.  so lovie and i helped him offload the cevaps while i got her up to speed on the cevap story. what a shame, he had the best in adelaide, tasty, fatty enough to remain juicy and his secret seasoning. and at a reasonable price why bother making your own?

well  x years later and bless you dad, i do miss those days when you caught me sneaking out of your shed with said cevaps under my arm. and we played this little game where you would be outraged and i would tug on your heart strings and say…didn’t pay child support ( his identity must also remain confidential viewers but the closest i can disclose is that he looks like crocodile dundee). i never forget the time we were on a plane flying in vietnam and this american woman got soooo excited and started pointing at him, yelling honey, honey look it’s crocodile dundee. and yes, it is a bit of a digression but i did warn you some of my former blog bittersweet might make it in here, hee-hee. and i have to admit that line came in very handy when we hated each other’s guts for a while.

 so back to the cevaps. why bother making your own, well viewers do you recognise any of these? acidity regulators, 262,331,451, dextrose, preservative 223, sulphites, oleoresins, carrot fibre, soy flavour enhancer 635, wheat flour, sugar. no wonder there is a diabetes crisis. these are just a few of the ingredients, does that sit well with you? and why did …(name withheld) have to spoil it for the whole of adelaide when she ruthlessly dethroned the  Ćevapčići king, sending him into the carnivore abyss? srum te bilo to her... which loosely translated means shame on you.

the beauty of the internet folks is that you can just about find anything, so what is a former  Ćevapčići robber supposed to do? use her investigative skills and report back with a foolproof recipe that you can make for yourself to be enjoyed with family and friends, and no you don’t need to be a slav to get your  Ćevapčići making license. although i have to admit it does make one appear seemingly more authentic. so here it goes, the recipe with some tweaking from me in my new test kitchen. why buy a new car when you can design your new kitchen instead?

before i divulge this recipe, i would like to give you my top tips to ensure that everything goes smoothly:

   you do not want the leanest cuts of meat, yes you can go to the butcher but if you are buying from the supermarket ( no mince shaming here) make sure you get the regular beef and regular pork which will have the highest fat content but will still be surprisingly lean and juicy. and with the left-over mince just make a quick pasta sauce

   get yourself some food handling gloves for mixing unless you want your hands to smell of garlic and be paprika stained

   onion must be finely grated so use the smallest holes ( not the ones for zesting, don’t worry i shall provide some visual cues)

   the mixture and i repeat is best made the day before and left in the fridge. i made mine in the morning and made them the next afternoon

   the cevaps will shrink during cooking so you may want to make them a little longer, i like to make them compact for rolls

Ćevapčići recipe

500gms of pork mince

1 kg of beef mince

1 large onion finely grated

9 cloves of garlic

3 tspns of sweet paprika

3 tspns of salt

2 tspn of white pepper

1 tspn of vegeta

2 tspn of bicarbonate soda

200ml of mineral water

1 egg

method

in a bowl mix minces thoroughly, add onion and garlic and mix thoroughly again with hands. add all dry ingredients and mix thoroughly again. then add the egg, mix thoroughly and then add the mineral water about a third at a time and mix thoroughly. the consistency should be pasty. i fried off a bit to check for seasoning and was happy with it. then cover with plastic and leave in the fridge overnight. some say to shape them into cevaps but i prefer to do it the next day as the mince is easier to handle. fry or barbeque, serve how you like but we like to make them into rolls with Turkish bread but if you know how to make lepinja (that could be for another blog post) kudos to you because home-made lepinja is da bomb. and I know one lady who makes the best.

i butter the rolls and then slather with my homemade tomato relish ( yes, another blog post) or you can be a bit more traditional and use ajvar. plus i dollop some sour cream, throw a few cevaps on, cover with traditional cabbage coleslaw.

these are certainly worth the time and effort because they not only taste good but contain no rubbish ingredients. they may not be as perfect as the former  Ćevapčići king but hey they are better than the fake, carrot fibre extender version.