I live in the town of San Pedro, which is part of the city of Los Angeles, and is home to thousands of Croatians, including my butcher. For years, I have seen these little cigar-like Balkan Sausages at the butcher shop but unfortunately never bothered to ask about them. The other day, the lady in front of me bought loads of them. She said her family is wild about cevapcici and she usually grills or broils them and serves with onions and peppers in olive oil. So…I added some to my order. It was time to give these little guys a try.
After some research on the Internet, I found they are almost always served with onions then ingredients like sour cream, peppers, paprika, and flat bread are not far behind.
I sautéed onions and peppers then added salt, garlic and spicy paprika, meanwhile cooking the cevapcici under the broiler.
I even found a video on how to make them, although I couldn’t understand a word except “cevapcici,” I did see how they are formed, by a unique kitchen gadget, into what I would call a particularly unfortunate shape as they are not too pretty for the camera if you know what I mean. But, boy, are they ever delicious!
My butcher instructs me to pronounce all the c’s like a ch, so I sound like a Croat.
Che-Vap’-Chi-Chi.
He makes his with lamb and beef and spices although some also add pork to the mix.
You may recognize these famous Croats in food and wine respectively:
Lydia Bastianich and Mike Grgich.
I plan to serve a lot of cevapcici this summer (now that I can pronounce it), hot off the barbecue grill, maybe with a yogurt cucumber dip? If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and give them a try.
I plan to serve a lot of cevapcici this summer (now that I can pronounce it), hot off the barbecue grill, maybe with a yogurt cucumber dip? If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and give them a try.
UPDATE:
TRY THIS CEVAPCICI FLATBREAD PIZZA TOO! Recipe here.
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Would love to have your butchers name, if you don’t mind. They look delicious, and I’m not too far from San Pedro. By the way, we met at Brook & Steve’s for Hanukkah dinner. Your blog is fabulous, I want to be your neighbor 😉
Hi Lori lynn. Thank you for stopping by my blog the other day. What a pleasant surprise to find this post as it holds many fond memories for me. I worked for 2 summers in Slovenia and Cevapcici were a standard on the grill all summer. In Slovenia the avjar was always present also, kind of a Salvic ketchup. Avjar is a mild roasted red pepper paste. It’s delicious and I wish I had some to grill right now.
Hi Winedeb – haha -you can hear him pronounce it clearly at the end of the video. It’s a tongue twister.
Sista Maryann – cracking me up again. These little “unfortunately-shaped” sausages are going to be showing up at many of my parties.
Hi Sylvia- I gave myself a history lesson before the post 🙂
Interesting and delicious recipe , mainly for me that I just know a few things about Croatia
Hi Lori Lynn!
You have stumbled upon something good here sista!