Ćevapi

Ingredients

• Minced beef500 g
• Minced lamb300 g
• Minced pork200 g
• Garlic6 clove
• Bicarbonate of soda1 tsp
• Iced water100 ml
• Sweet paprika1 tsp
• Onion to serve — finely chopped2
• Somun flatbreads4
• Kajmak or soured creamto taste
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Combine all three minces with the crushed garlic, bicarbonate, paprika, salt and pepper.

   6 min

2. 2

   Work it by hand for ten minutes, adding the iced water a little at a time, until the mass turns tacky and even.

   12 min

3. 3

   Press film onto the surface and refrigerate for at least twelve hours.

   720 min

4. 4

   With wet hands roll sausages eight centimetres long and as thick as a thumb.

   15 min

5. 5

   Grill over hot coals or on a griddle three minutes a side, turning once.

   8 min

6. 6

   Split the warm somun, tuck the ćevapi inside and add a pile of raw onion and kajmak.

About the dish

The mince is worked at length with iced water until it turns tacky and even. That stickiness is what holds a skinless sausage together on the grill.

The mixture must rest cold for at least twelve hours, better a full day. In that time the salt dissolves the muscle proteins and the meat binds to itself.

The bicarbonate in the mix is not a raising agent but a way of lifting the pH: the meat holds more moisture and stays juicy over a fierce fire.

Worth knowing

• — A day in the cold is a condition rather than a suggestion. Without it the sausages fall apart on the grill however long the mince was worked.
• — There is no need to turn them more than once: every movement costs crust.
• — The onion is served raw and in a quantity that looks excessive. Its sharpness is the counterweight to rich meat.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

680 kcal

Protein

44 g

Fat

42 g

Carbs

30 g

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