Farm Chef recipe: Cevapcici in pitta with tomato salad

Cevapcici is a type of skinless sausage or kebab traditional in the Balkans and southeastern Europe.

Served with a tomato and onion salsa, and a dollop of sour cream in a pitta or flatbread, it is a delicious meal.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 200g beef mince
• 150g lamb mince
• ½ onion grated
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp Hungarian paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp toasted ground cumin seeds
• 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients for the meat kebab thoroughly. You can use a fork to mash the minces together or use your hands.
2. Shape into fat sausages about 8cm long.
3. If you want to cook on a barbecue, that works really well. If not, you can heat a griddle pan on the stove and fry the “sausages”, cooking on four sides if possible to ensure that they are cooked through, for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick you have made them.
4. They can be threaded on to skewers if you wish to eat them on their own.

Tomato salad accompaniment

Serves 4

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 200g tomatoes, diced 5-10mm
• 1 banana shallot, chopped small
• 4-5 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tsp Maldon salt
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• ½tsp cayenne pepper
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp black onion seeds

Method

1. Chop tomatoes and sprinkle with the salt.
2. Chop shallot and soak in the vinegar.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients into the tomatoes, then add the shallot and you are ready to go.

Pitta

Pitta is a useful recipe for all occasions, and especially good for holding hotdogs or burgers by the bonfire.

It’s a store-cupboard bread and can be knocked up quite quickly with items you probably have to hand.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 300g plain flour
• 120ml plain yoghurt
• 90ml water
• 1½tbsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp oil

Method

1. To make bread – put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Add the yoghurt, water and oil and beat until the mixture comes together.
2. Remove from bowl and knead on a dry surface for a couple of minutes (if it is too sticky at this stage, use a bit more flour when kneading).
3. Set aside covered for half an hour.
4. To cook, separate the dough into six even-sized balls and flatten to 5mm-thick oval shapes.
5. Heat a heavy-based frying pan to medium hot and place the bread rounds in the pan. Cook until golden on the underside, then turn.
6. Turn the heat down to medium to cook the other side so the roll cooks through. This should take 4-6 minutes – be careful not to burn them. If they cook a bit quickly on the outside, pop them into a medium oven for 3-5 minutes to cook through.

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