Cevapcici from Zagreb

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 1,500 g minced beef or lamb or mixed
• 6 m.-large onion(s), red
• 6 cloves garlic, small to medium
• 1 ½ tbsp salt
• 1 ½ tbsp pepper
• 3 tbsp paprika powder, hot
• 3 tbsp paprika powder, sweet
• 3 tbsp parsley, dried
• 3 tbsp oil
• 6 tsp baking powder
• 150 ml mineral water
• Oil for frying

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 13 hours 30 minutes

Place the ground meat in a sufficiently large mixing bowl. Chop the onions and garlic very finely – you should take your time and put some effort into this. If you have an onion chopper and a garlic press, you can of course use them instead. Add it straight to the bowl with the ground meat. Add all the spices, oil, baking powder, and mineral water. First, mix everything well with the dough hook of a hand mixer until all the ingredients are evenly distributed and the dough begins to hold together. Then continue kneading the dough with your hands for about 20-30 minutes. Apparently, the dough likes this. Let it rest in the refrigerator for half an hour. Then form small rolls from the dough and place them on one or more plates; they should look something like slightly thicker fingers. If you have trouble forming even-sized rolls, you can place a quarter of the dough at a time into a freezer bag, roll the dough out into an even rectangle, cut open the freezer bag, cut the dough lengthwise once so that you have two strips lying one underneath the other, and place a washable ruler underneath the rolls. Divide the dough every 2.5 to 3 cm using a spatula, for example, roll it out briefly in your hand into a round shape, and place it on a plate. No one has to watch. Place the rolls in the refrigerator overnight to rest. We always do this – if you’re short on time, you can of course fry the cevapis straight away, but they supposedly taste better after they’ve been left to rest. The next day, fry the cevapis one after the other in hot oil in a pan (preferably with a nonstick coating), depending on how much space there is, and then place them on a warm plate. I always calculate 1 tablespoon of oil for 10 cevapis, which I find is more than enough (in a nonstick pan!) if you keep the cevapis moving around while frying. The cevapi are ready when they are a good dark brown on the outside.