SKINLESS SAUSAGE, mititei (ROMANIA) ćevapčići (BALCAN COUNTRY)

 

Grilled skinless sausages, MITITEI (as called in Romania)

                            with cold beer or fresh cider (=”must”, in Romanian)

Ingredients:

  2lbs of ground beef from the neck (1kg)
 1 lb lamb   (1/2 kg)
 1 teaspoon of pepper,
 2 teaspoons  salt  
 1  teaspoon bicarbonate (baking soda) in seltzer water
 2 teaspoons thyme (oregano)
 1 head of garlic, crushed
 1 teaspoon paprika (chili pepper)
 1 cups seltzer water
 1 cups beef broth  

Preparation composition of small sausages:

          Mix meats with salt, pepper, thyme, baking soda, seltzer water and beef broth. Mixing with hands give a homogenized mixer, but is good if you mix very well with a wooden tablespoon.

Mixing with hands give a homogenized mixer, but is good if you mix very well with a wooden tablespoon.

 

          

 Separately, peal and crush garlic, and adds to meat and spices.

         The mixture is left to cool for 2-3 hours. We noticed this step is important for easy molding the small sausages in the next step. This is because, hand mixing or spoon mixing is a laborious step and the meat and fat needs time to cool off.

Take a spoon and form small sausages= mititei coiling her palms moistened with cold water and placed in trays to be grilled.

NOTE:
I noticed that  MITITEI are much tasty if they are frozen for a day or two.

FROZEN BUNDLE OF ROMANIAN JOY AND HAPPINESS: READY TO GRILL!

As for grill cooking,............... this is the beginning the happy time:

           Spray the hot grill with PAM, oil, (or another fat spray).

With a cold beer in hand  brush the mititei  with a good olive oil and put little sausages on the grill, one after another (don’t forget to take a shot of beer every now and then).  

          Turn every few minutes (max 4 min on side), to be cooked on both sides, but don’t grill it too much and become dry.

  Serve with mustard, hot pepper (optional), French fry and ABSOLUTELY a cold beer or a fresh cider (if it is a fall season).


Bon appetite!

FOR ROMANIAN READERS:

RETETA DE LA CARUL CU BERE:

http://ro.wikibooks.org/wiki/Carte_de_bucate:Mititei_-_Carul_cu_Bere

HISTORY AND WORLD WIDE, (from Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%86evapi

MITITEI or Balkanic Ćevapčići has its origins in the Balkans during the Ottoman expansion into southeastern Europe and developed through the Middle Ages into a regional specialty similar to the kofte kebab.

Ćevapi  or ćevapčići (diminutive)  is a grilled dish of minced meat, like a  skinless sausage  , found traditionally in the countries of southeastern Europe. They are considered a national dish in Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Bulgaria and in Serbia.  They are also common in Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, as well as in Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and the Italian provinces bordering Slovenia.

Bosnian ćevapi are made from two types of minced beef meat, hand mixed and formed with a funnel, while formed ćevapi are grilled. Serb ćevapčići are made of either beef, lamb or pork or mixed. Macedonian, Croatian, Bulgarian and Romanian varieties are often made of both pork and beef.

The preferred drink to go with is beer.

World wide

 The word comes from the Persian word kebab, sometimes with the South Slavic diminutive ending -čići (Bosnian, Croatian Slovene, Serbian: ćevapčići/ćevapi;  Macedonian: Ќебапи, kjebapi;

Bulgarian: Кебапчета, kebapcheta, Czech: čevabčiči.

 In Romania, dish is known as mititei.