Uschipci: Balkan Barbecue

Ground meat

1. For uschipci you need lean pork, veal and smoked bacon or salo. The meat must not be tough, or it will be hard and unpleasant in the finished dish. Smoked bacon or smoked salo gives the dish that wonderful aroma and flavor I remembered so well. The ratio of veal to pork should be about 4:3, plus one part smoked bacon.

   Use the same amount of cheese as bacon. Kashkaval is usually used, but for home cooking, readily available Gouda or Edam works perfectly well.

2. Grind the meat. Trim off the membranes and any bone fragments.

   

   Grind the raw meat through a meat grinder into a bowl.

   

3. Chop the pepper, bacon, cheese and garlic. Remove the seeds and the white inner membranes from the hot red or green pepper pod. Chop the pepper quite finely, into small cubes or very thin strips. Cut the bacon or salo into small cubes. Cut the cheese into small cubes. Peel the garlic clove and chop it finely with a knife.

4. Mix the ground meat and chill it. In a bowl, combine the ground pork and veal, then add the chopped bacon and cheese, the pepper and the garlic, and salt lightly. Season with ground black pepper and add 0.5 tsp ground paprika.

   

   Knead the ground meat thoroughly by hand so that all the ingredients are evenly distributed and combined. Cover the mixture with a plate or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins.

   

Grilling

1. A charcoal grill with glowing coals is the ideal, of course. But an electric grill rack will do the job well, and so will a grill pan if you cook at home in the kitchen. In the national cuisines, the gratar is widely used: a very heavy iron grate or plate set over very hot hardwood coals.

2. Heat the grill as hot as you can. This matters: any grill must be as hot as possible, otherwise the ground meat will release juices while cooking and those juices will boil the meat. Heat a grill pan over high heat.

4. Shape the uschipci by pinching off bits of the meat with your fingers. The word uschipci most likely comes from the way the pieces are formed: pinching off the meat. You can vary the size of the pieces quite widely to suit yourself. But keep in mind that they cook over high heat, and very large pieces may not cook through before the surface starts to burn.

   

   This amount of ingredients makes about 20 pieces, each weighing about 35 g.

5. Grill the uschipci on a greased grill for 4-5 mins per side. Place the raw pieces on a very hot grill greased with a little fat. Alternatively, you can thread pieces of the firm meat mixture onto thin skewers. This is convenient and guarantees good browning of the surface and even cooking.

   

   The surface of the pieces browns nicely, the cheese in the meat melts, and the smell of smoked bacon tickles your nose. If the inside seems slightly underdone, you can briefly turn the pieces onto the side that has not touched the grill. Finished uschipci are not pink when cut, and the juices run clear.

   

Serving

1. Often, especially in restaurants, the side dish is French fries with a little tomato sauce or ketchup. But to my taste, fresh vegetables go best with charcoal-grilled meat.

2. Put the uschipci on a plate with the side dish. While the uschipci cook, prepare the serving plate and the sides: herbs, ripe tomatoes, lettuce, onion and Bulgarian lutenitsa, which is easy to make from red bell pepper and ripe tomatoes, or else ketchup, but only a good one.

   

3. Add hot pepper, bread and wine. Since uschipci are slightly spicy and piquant, I recommend adding a hot pepper pod to the sides, cut into rings or strips. Plain fresh bread will not hurt, and of course a glass of young wine: baked cheese-stuffed patties taste best with it.