Поздрав из Србије!

Or, to my non-Serbian friends, Greetings from Serbia. Today we are continuing to explore the former Yugoslavian regions with a side step from Croatia to Serbia.

On the menu today are Cevapcici (aka Cevapi) which are sausages found all over the Balkans in various shapes, sizes and flavours. The word is derived from the Turkish kebab from which my serving suggestion today is also derived.

Because meat+bread+salad  = delicious in any language! 😘

Wikipedia lists the following variations:

• Sarajevski ćevap, from Sarajevo, Bosnia, meat mix of beef and sheepmeat
• Travnički ćevapi, from Travnik, Bosnia, meat mix of beef, veal, mutton and lamb
• Banjalučki ćevapi, from Banja Luka, Bosnia, beef meat
• Tuzlanski ćevapi, from Tuzla, Bosnia, meat mix of beef, mutton and lamb
• Novopazarski ćevap, from Novi Pazar, Serbia, traditionally sheepmeat
• Leskovački ćevap, from Leskovac, Serbia, veal meat

My version uses lamb so takes its cues from a the novopazarski cevap.  I could not find a recipe for one of these online and the entry in Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery was vague to say the least:

So I used a lamb cevapcici recipe I found online here. The spice blend made these sausages super tasty and the high-fat content of the lamb kept the sausages from drying out during cooking so this was a really good find.  Also, the cevapcici were super easy to make.

The recipe for the Sopska Salata or Serbian Tomato Salad came from here.

My pita recipe came from the Relish Mama Family cookbook which is our current Tasty Reads cookbook but you could use any homemade pita recipe or use bought flatbreads to make cooking this even easier.

And now for some fun facts about Serbia. Which turned into random facts about David Bowie.

Nikola Tesla was a Serb.  Amongst other things, Tesla is known for the development of alternating current and wireless technology.  He was also played by David Bowie in the amazing movie The Prestige!

The most known Serbian word?

Vampire.

David Bowie starred alongside Susan Sarandon in a vampire film back in the 1980’s called The Hunger.

Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie in the Tony Scott movie “The Hunger”… (1983)
byu/Reporter_at_large inDavidBowie

Serbia is the world’s largest exporter of a particular (and delicious) food item.   In 2012, 95% of this item came from Serbia.  And seeing as this has now also become an unofficial David Bowie post, it features as an ingredient in two of the cocktails on this list inspired by David Bowie.

The ingredient?  Raspberries.

One more….just to really tie things together…Brian Rasic (Brajan Rašić) who was Bowie’s official photographer for many years and gave the world several iconic photos of the great man?  Was born in Belgrade.

Seriously, sometimes this just writes itself….

Have a wonderful week everyone!

And tell me, if you were going to drink a David Bowie-inspired cocktail from the list above, which would you choose?  I’d have a Starman.

Cevapcici Recipe:

Sopska Salata Recipe (SBS Food)