What the…?!?!?!... Bouncing around in the Balkans! What are the Balkans you ask? The Balkans are located in the Southeast region of Europe, a peninsula to be exact. There you will find a number of countries, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, to name a few dominant states. History has been written countless times throughout this area, from the time of the Greek Empire, Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottomans, and into modern day history. What makes this region so rich is that every war, territorial occupation, and freedom achieved for each of these cultures that have been conquered, a piece of its various occupiers has been left behind. So, the Chevap, or the Ćevap, or the Ћевап; for the point of this blog, we will stick to the English script of the ‘Chevap’ which is singular and ‘Chevapi’, which is plural. Where does it come from? What is it? What is it made up of? How do I make one or more? Good God, all these questions! Let’s start with the history. The term Chevap comes from a Turkish word kebab or the food called Shish Kofta or the Köfte Kebab. Yes, those pesky little rascals from Asia Minor, who occupied the region for 500+ years, brought the Shish Kofta and left their mark. Except their dish is made of beef and lamb, no pork. Muslims don’t eat pork! If you’ve had a Turkish Shish Kofta you know without pork it doesn’t do it! At least not for this carnivore. Why do Muslims not eat pork? Well, in the Qur'an it is mentioned that Allah prohibits eating the flesh of swine, because it is a sin and the avoidance of pork in Islam is a primary food rule and therefore a way of maintaining Muslim identity. But, for the avoidance of controversy, technically within Christianity, Leviticus 11:27, God forbids Moses and his followers to eat swine, as they are considered unclean. But, since we are from the Balkans, we like to buck the system. So, the cultures that dominated the Balkan region of yesterday and today, the Serbs, Greeks and the Bulgarians who maintain their Orthodox Christianity, changed the Shish Kofta to the Chevap. Instead of a no pork Kebab option, we added pork to the Kebab which are now called the Chevap or Chevapi. What makes the Serbian, Greek or Bulgarian Chevap different? It’s the amount of mixture in the meat and the spices, yes, the spices. The mixture is beef, pork and lamb. The Serbs use a little bit of it all, the Greeks use more lamb than pork, and the Bulgarians use more pork than lamb and beef. Then the spices! The Serbs like it a bit spicy, the Greeks a bit milder, and the Bulgarians even milder than the Greeks. That’s all! Our recipe for this day’s blog will be the Serbian Chevap, how did you guess!!!
Let’s get started!
Chevapi - Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds of ground pork, the pork was purchased at The Farmers Rail
1 pound of ground beef, 85% Lean/15% Fat or 80% Lean/20% Fat is fine as well, also purchased from The Farmers Rail
½ pound ground lamb, the lamb is a specialty item at Whitefeather Meats
1 egg white
4 cloves of garlic, but I always use more like 6-8, your choice
1 tsp. of salt
1 tsp. of ground black pepper
1 tsp. of cayenne pepper
tsp. of paprika
1 tsp. of baking soda
1Tbsp. of crushed red pepper, I always add this, its most certainly optional but it adds a nice Zing. If you don’t like a little spice, leave it out.
Chevapi – Prep and Instructions:
In a large bowl add all of the above ingredients.
With clean hands, mix and mash it all together, thoroughly for several minutes to be sure that all off of the ingredients are mixed in equally.
Once you have mixed it all together, you will probably want to wash your hands again. Place parchment paper on a plate or baking dish, take a chunk of meat out of the bowl and roll a meatball.
Once you have made the meatball you will need to have a cutting board or similar, to roll out the meat so that it resembles a small sausage. You might need to give it a few tries, if you need to, then create the meat into a meatball again and start over. The beauty of working with meat is that you can continually recreate it.
Once you have created the perfect sausage style link put it on to the parchment paper and start with the next one. You will probably get about 40-50 Ćevapi from this amount of meat.
If you would like to save for later, no problem, just put it in your freezer and cook later.
Once you are ready to grill, lightly oil the surface of your grill if necessary and grill until cooked through.
Conclusion:
This dish is a staple in the Balkan world and it doesn’t really matter what the ratio of meats you choose to use and what level of spice. It’s just an all-around great entrée. I paired this with a Serbian brandy made from Quince, or also known in the Balkan region as Dunya (Dunja or Дунја). You can purchase this at any European specialty shop or at some select grocery stores.
I hope you enjoyed this blog and I encourage you to share with your family and friends.
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