Eastern European Grilled Meats

Theophan · May 2011

I'm mostly a "lurker," here, because I still feel like a beginner, and I'm SO grateful to the experienced Eggers on this forum. I've learned so much here, and am like many of you, now, in that it's getting sort of disappointing eating anything grilled that wasn't cooked on my Big Green Egg!

I thought this might be unusual enough to be of interest: I've gotten to know people from many places in the world in my church, many from Russia and Eastern Europe, and I've become fond of many foods I'd never encountered before. Tonight I tried cooking a Shashlik (shish kebab) recipe from Uzbekistan and sausages (cevapi) from Serbia. They turned out wonderfully, and even my stepdaughter, son-in-law, and 3 grandsons, none of whom are familiar with such foods, thought they were great. Here are a few photos:

Cevapi (pronounced "Chev-AH-pee," the "Ch" as in "Charles"), in this recipe, anyway, are made from beef, lamb and pork, with salt, baking soda, black pepper, and cayenne (Cevapi made by Bosnians wouldn't have any pork in them):

Shashlik is lamb, marinated many different ways, on skewers. This one is from Uzbekistan, and was marinated in soda water, salt, whole coriander and whole cumin:

Theo

elzbth · May 2011

It sure looks good. I'm not familiar with using soda water as a marinade?? How long to marinate, and do you use it on other cuts of meat? Great photos!

Richard Fl · May 2011

Great looking different ideas. Do you mind sharing the portions for the recipes for the sausage, Cevapi and the meat marinade?

Theophan · May 2011

I'm not familiar with using soda water as a marinade?? How long to marinate, and do you use it on other cuts of meat?

I've never used it before, either. I had Shashlik decades ago, as a kid on a tourist trip to the Soviet Union, believe it or not, and liked it, so a few months ago I was absent-mindedly looking for Shashlik recipes on the Web. I found a bunch of Russian recipes that used pomegranate juice, which sounded wonderful, but the only one I tried I found quite disappointing. And I found a sort-of recipe (no quantities on any ingredients!) for this Uzbeki recipe, and I tried it once before and thought it was wonderful. I tried it a second time. now, this evening, and liked it even better (I forgot the salt the first time, and it was better with the salt).

I have no idea what the soda water does. She said marinate for 8 hours or preferably overnight, so I marinated it overnight. I used about equal quantities of coriander and cumin, just sort of sprinkled in what looked like a good amount, threw in maybe a teaspoon of salt (could have used more) and a small bottle (12oz, maybe 8?) of Club Soda, stirred it a few times, and the next evening, grilled it. Just yummy!

I got the "recipe" from here: http://annasrecipebox.com/2009/05/26/shashlik-shish-kabob-authentic-uzbek-dish/ if you're interested. I thought it was really good.

Theo

NibbleMeThis · May 2011

The cevapi looks fabulous! There's a lot of Eastern European kabobs in Steve Raichlen's book Planet Barbecue! that I want to try but I don't think he got this one. I'm going to have to add it to my list!

Nice one, Theo!

Theophan · May 2011

Do you mind sharing the portions for the recipes for the sausage, Cevapi and the meat marinade?

As I said in a reply to someone else, the Shashlik (kebab) marinade I got online (see the link in my other reply) and the original author didn't include any proportions. i got a very small (I don't recall, but I'm guessing much less than two pounds) boned, butterflied leg of lamb and cut it into chunks, and I'm guessing I probably put in about a tablespoon each of whole coriander and cumin, maybe a little less. And I think about a teaspoon of Kosher salt, and more would have been OK. And a small bottle of Club Soda, I think it's probably 8oz.

And the cevapi recipe I got from friends in my former parish (they called it Ćevapčići -- pronounced "Che-VAHP-chi-chi"), and here it is (I don't use a lot of salt, often find things too salty, but I felt like this could have used a little more salt, so I bet people who like salt more than I do might want quite a bit more salt):

Ćevapčići – Serbian sausages

1 lb. lean ground beef
½ lb. ground lamb
½ lb. ground pork
4 -7 finely minced garlic cloves
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cracked or freshly ground black pepper
1 (+) tsp. cayenne pepper
1 beaten egg white

Theo

Mix all ingredients together. Shape into sausages and grill.
Can be served plain or with grilled or raw onions on a pita.

cookn biker · May 2011

Wonderful cooks! Thanks for sharing, and the flavors must have terrific.

Mainegg · May 2011

Thanks for sharing Theo, one of the great things of this forum is all the different things we get to see, and then try, that other wise we would NEVER come up with!

Bacchus · May 2011

Eggscellent! Thanks for bringing something new to the table. The Cevapi looks awesome!

Boilermaker Ben · May 2011

There's a small local restaurant near where I work, where the chef/owner is Serbian. Before buying this tiny place out in the suburbs, he was the chef at the United Center, where the Bulls and Blackhawks play. The walls of his new place are lined with photos of him and Pippin, Jordan, Jerry Reinsdorf (Bulls owner), etc.

I fell in love with his cevapi. He serves it on super-soft little loaves of bread (or giant buns, whichever you'd prefer to call them), which he cuts open, slathers with melted butter, and griddles.

So naturally, I ran a google search, found some recipes for cevapi and lepinja (the bread), and made my own a couple years ago. His are better, naturally, but mine came out alright.

You know, come to think of it, that may have been the first non-pizza bread product that I baked on my egg.

Theophan · May 2011

Wow -- those look great!!! I'm guessing from the background that these are yours, not in the restaurant? Great job! What ingredients are in the cevapi?

Theo

GirlyEgg · May 2011

Grew up on the stuff! Great pics! My family is Croatian and we use veal in our cevap...good stuff!

ALYWI · May 2011

Hi!
Thanks Theo for trying out the "recipe" for shashlik on my site and I'm thrilled it worked out for you and you and your family liked it. Many people I know don't like lamb because of the particular "gaminess".

The reason I didn't give proportions for the seasoning is because it's completely to taste. I like it heavily seasoned and I use just about an equal amount of coriander and cumin, about a tablespoon each for a pound of meat or so (but others use a different proportion).

The reason for soda water is to tenderize the meat. We've found that lamb doesn't respond well to some acids like wine or vinegar (it makes it tougher for the most part, depending on how long you marinate). Those "tenderizers" also impart a flavor. We like the general flavor of lamb and try to keep it as simple as possible, so soda water doesn't impart a flavor and still tenderizes; spices play up the flavor of lamb and it's a really tender piece of meat. Also, we typically use a leg (we just buy a whole leg and the butcher cuts it into inch-thick slabs).

With the water, you just want to make sure there's enough to tenderize but not so much that the meat floats in the water (so maybe the water covers only half, so spices can stick to the meat). Part of the reason for marinating overnight is to allow for *all* the meat to spend some time in the liquid (so if only half is in the water to begin with, the other half is not, so about half way through, you'd mix it so the top meat is now on the bottom and in the liquid).

Hope this answers some of the questions I saw. Please feel free to ask any other questions you might have.

Again, glad it worked out well for you.

Anna (http://annasrecipebox.com)

Theophan · May 2011

Wow -- very cool to "meet" the author of the recipe! Do you cook on a Big Green Egg? It may not be the authentic way to grill your Shashlik, but it sure tasted good to me.

Your additional comments were interesting and helpful. It looks like I poured in more soda water than you use. I might try less next time.

And it's hard to guess, really, but I'm guessing you used more coriander and cumin than I did. I think I used about a tablespoon, but I think there was more than a pound but less than two pounds of lamb. I really don't recall. It was very tasty, though.

Thanks again for the recipe!

Boilermaker Ben · May 2011

Yeah, those were mine.

As I recall, it was a lamb/beef mixture. Also garlic, maybe some onion, too. Other than that, just salt and pepper, I think.

Boilermaker Ben · May 2011

Thanks for stopping by, Anna. I like your blog. How did you happen to come across Theophan's post about your recipe? Where in WI are you? We've got several WI eggers here on the forum. I'm down in IL, but wind up in Racine several times per year, and up to Nicolet National Forest every fall.

ALYWI · May 2011

Hi Theo,
I think the "authentic" component of cooking the meat is over open flame on a sort of a grill. The shape of the grill we use is a little different (http://annasrecipebox.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/shashlik-na-mangal.jpg), but we do use coals. And as for proportions of seasoning... If you like it, if it works for you, then use that.

The other thing you might try next time is to sever vinegared onions on top of the shish kabobs (slice white or yellow onion into semi-circles not too thinly and not too thick, and put into a dish with a little vinegar, just enough to cover the onions. you can keep the onions in the vinegar for about a half hour and then serve on top of the meat).

ALYWI · May 2011

Hi Boilermaker Ben,
Thanks for checking out my blog.

I am sorry to say I didn't know about this site. The reason I found it is because there was a link from the original post to my website (and my website statistics package shows me some of the URLs which link to my pages so I try to reciprocate by clicking those links).

I'm in the north suburbs, about 40-45 minutes north of the state line.

Eastern European Grilled Meats

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