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LTH,

In the interest of nothing says excess like excess after a very nice cevapcici lunch at Ilidzanka I stopped at Azur Meats, which is where Meisa buys their cevapcici, and picked up cevapcici to make for dinner.

Azur Meats cevapcici


I let the cevapcici chuckle away on medium heat in a cast iron skillet while I cut up a veggie or three.


And sliced the terrific Bosnian pita I bought earlier in the day at Illidzanka.


A quick pan toast of the pita and dinner is ready.


The cevapcici from Azur were really quite good and made for quick, inexpensive dinner. Azur sells cevapcic in 3-lb packages for $8 and, as these were fresh, I froze the remainder. I'm betting they will be really good with eggs for breakfast. In the past I've bought cevapcici from Joe the Sausage King on Western, a good all around sausage guy. I prefer Azur's cevapcici, but it may just be a case of liking the last one you had the best.

If you stop at Joe's I recommend buying some of his dried sausage. My favorite is the Fireman, which has a decent heat level, in addition to good flavor.

Enjoy,
Gary

Ilidzanka
2547A W Lawrence
Chicago, IL 60625
773-275-2707

Azur Meats
2547 W Lawrence
Chicago, IL 60625
773-784-7350

Joe's Market
4452 N Western Ave.
Chicago, IL. 60625
773-478-5443

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

I find it interesting that cevapcici gets so much attention here.

When I lived in Zagreb, the big three meats were, in this order, raznici, cevapcici, and plescaviza.

Plescaviza is basically a spiced hamburger, but does antyone know where to get good raznici in this town?

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Chicago Craft Beer Week!

Don't know about good or not, but I do see that raznici is listed on the blackboard specials in Gary's review of Illidzanka.

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Objects in mirror appear to be losing.

Nr706,

As Kman pointed out, Illidzanka. has raznjic on their menu and I'd guess many of the same places that have cevapcici serve raznjic as well. In fact raznjic was, along with cevapcici, amongst our lunch order yesterday at Fontana

Raznjic at Fontana


Far as more talk about cevapcici, I mean, who doesn't like spicy sausages?

Enjoy,
Gary

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

Gary:

Now I'm sorry I didn't join you in visiting Azur Meats but I definitely intend to visit that store soon. I did go to Sahar II (link) for some Maghrebi sausages, i.e. merguez, to accompany the last of the season's (mostly) home-grown boumiano (link) which, under the circumstances, would perhaps be more aptly called shakshooka. Sahar's merguez do not disappoint.

Antonius

P.S. By the way, sheeps testicles are available at Sahar II!

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Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
________
Na sir is na seachain an cath.

GWiv wrote


A sucker bet indeed!! Cevapcici is undoubtably the crack cocaine of sausage. For the last 5 years we've served Joe the Sausage King's cevapcici and eggs for breakfast at out block party. Nothing gets 'em lined up like 25 lbs. of cevaps smoldering away on lumb charcoal
My favorite breakfast sammich is cevaps on an everything bagel with a fried egg, cheese, red onion and a little tomato.
Azur's product looks pretty tasty. With Joe's retirement on the horizon the Azure cevap looks like a contender.

JSM

Joe's retirement???? Is this something coming up in the near future? I sure hope not. I absolutely love everything he makes - especially the Fireman's Blend! Say it's not so!

JSM,

I heard rumblings of Joe's retirement, I think from you, but did not realize it was near term. I've always liked the United Nations of Sausage that is Joe the Sausage King, it will be a loss.

Enjoy,
Gary

Joe's Market
4452 N Western Ave.
Chicago, IL. 60625
773-478-5443

_________________
Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

All too true, both the building and business have been up for sale since some time last spring. Joe claims hes tired and it's time to abdicate, he is however willing to train the next king

JSM

Note on Joe's from July, 2004. Unless the asking price has come down a good deal, this will be a tough sell.

Gary:

Amata, Lucantonius and I all speak with one voice in praise of Azur's cevapcici, a bunch of which we cooked up yesterday evening. We enjoyed them after a 'primo' of a soup with small pasta, chicken and spinach, the cevapcici being served with lepina and raw onions, a little piquant piperada, and an outstanding chile sauce from a little place we 'discovered' recently. The cevapcici at $8 for two pounds are not exactly cheap, as caseless sausages go, but they made for a great meal.

Thanks for bringing this place to our attention.

Antonius

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Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
________
Na sir is na seachain an cath.

Antonious,

So glad you enjoyed the cevapcici, Azur's version is really quite good. Did you get a chance to go a few doors East to Ilidzanka and buy a few of her pita?

You mention 2-lbs for $8, I thought the fellow said 3-lb for $8, but I could easily be mistaken.

I see a round of cevapcici in my near future, though I think I'll grill this batch.

Enjoy,
Gary

_________________
Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

Gary:

Yes, indeed, I went to Ilidzanka...
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=49307#49307

It seems I perhaps got a bargain on the bread but not so on the meat? Or did the fellow at Azur misspeak about how much was in the box? It was a total of 40 cevapcici and I thought he said '2 pounds'... In any event, we were happy and will be happy again when you eat up the rest (we froze a bunch).

At Ilidzanka I was lucky and got the friendly shift...

Antonius

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Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
________
Na sir is na seachain an cath.

That is the way I've always had it; never pan fried or from a griddle.

You may also want to make yourself from scratch because ultimately this is seasoned meat, which has been hand formed.

Have fun!

Regards,

Antonious,

Ever so glad you had the Dr. Hyde, as opposed to the Jekyll, experience at Ilidzanka.

Enjoy,
Gary

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

OK, so here's a new one on me.

We were hanging around the Jean-Talon mkt in Montreal this afternoon, when I couldn't help but notice the guy with the sausage-grill cart. Turns out he's selling a "saucisson Roman mici", a Romanian wurst about the size of a double-volume wine cork, same shape roughly. It's a melange of beef and lamb.

So I asked him about its relation to cevapcici: "Yes but, this is Romanian" was his answer.

Served with mustard and kraut (? surely local adaptations??) on a lovely grilled chunk of baguette.

Sure tastes a lot like cevapcici... excellent means to delay hunger for a few minutes.

Jean-Talon, btw, now has a *huge* indoor section, which they didn't a year ago when I was here. Very busy happy place on a snowy Saturday afternoon in late Nov.

Geo

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Sooo, you like wine and are looking for something good to read? Maybe *this* will do the trick!

There are some references to Romanian cevapcici in this thread on Bulgarian deli. As carried by the Lincoln Quality Meat Market, they are similar to Serbian cevapcici with a lot of garlic added. This store also carries a cumin-rich Bulgarian variant. Geo didn't mention garlic, so I wonder if that Romanian version was similar to Lincoln Market's version.

Earlier in the week I broiled more of the Romanian version than we ate at that meal. For lunch today one was sliced and added to a tomato-based vegetable soup. The sausage was in the soup just long enough to warm up. The texture and flavor complemented the soup quite nicely.

Lincoln Quality Meat Market
4661 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
773.561.4570

Sorry I didn't reply sooner--en route back to KC, takes forever to get here from Montreal. US Customs in Toronto is a madhouse.

You're right, no appreciable garlic, and certainly no cumin. Just very cevap-like.

What's your take on the sauerkraut? It most certainly wasn't choucrute: quite coarsely chopped and a bit of a sweet and sour flavor. Went very well with the smoky brown-crispy notes of the sausage.

There are several sausage stands in Jean-Talon, the most noted of which specializes in merquez. I saved him for next time, since I tried it last visit (excellent version), and wanted to try the Roumanian this visit.

Heh-heh, since my new flat is less than 10 mins walk from Jean-Talon, I expect to become a regular at each and every stand. Now if I could only find a clam stand, a la Boston Haymarket...


Geo

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Sooo, you like wine and are looking for something good to read? Maybe *this* will do the trick!

I had Cevapcici (or "Cevaps" b/c I can't pronounce the former) for the first time this year. It was a Croatian variety served on a warm pita and topped with a spicy eggplant and roasted red pepper sauce. Not sure if that's the standard packaging but it was quite good. We've been calling it the manbearpig sandwich (named after a humorous South Park episode) since this meat was advertised as 1/2 cow + 1/4 pig + 1/4 lamb.

There's been a Croation Cevaps stand that has been at nearly every street and/or music festival I've been at this summer, manned by the same people, serving the same fare. I saw them recently stationed at Do Division fest and Pitchfork Music Festival and would expect them to be at this weekend's Wicker Park fest as well. Not sure on the average age here, or the love of music within the confines of this forum, but I would encourage anyone to check out any of the "larger" street and/or music festivals in the city this summer for a Cevaps fix.

I'll be sure to try the other variations recommended here as well.

That stand was at the Wicker Park fest last year and probably was the busiest place, although, to be honest, there wasn't much competition. I may have to try one...

Last year I made a big bunch of cevapcici when I was going through a period of food blahs. Alas, they didn't break me out of my malaise. I thought they were spicy, but lacked flavor. I put two packages in the freezer and just the other day, in an effort to use up things that have been in the freezer too long, decided to try braising them, so I browned them in a skillet in olive oil, added onions and garlic, and then deglazed with wine and then added some beef stock, and about a cup of ajvar (the eggplant pepper spread,) covered and cooked over very low heat for about 30 minutes. Served over egg noodles. It was quite good. I'll do the second package the same way. Another thing cleared out of the freezer!

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"Good stuff, Maynard." Dobie Gillis

We've eaten a lot of Cevapcic this summer. Although we call it Mititei or Mici, as my kids just refer to it "Mitch". My picky children have finally found something that they geniunely like and can go through a big package of this at a time. My oldest claims to not like garlic but apparently she overlooks it when we have this for dinner.

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One Mint Julep was the cause of it all.

Ah...mic! A question for the experts (Erszi, are you listening?): my understanding has always been that the "secret"--such as it is--is adding both soda water and baking soda (which seems a bit like overkill, but...). Most of the older recipes I can find, though, use only baking soda. Thoughts?

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Gypsy Boy

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?” (Julia Child)

I almost think that this depends on the area that you come from. I met someone from Bucharest and they use the soda water/+ soda method. (I think that it was a 1/2 C soda water to 1 tsp of baking soda).

Where my in laws are from in Transylvania (Oradea/Nagyvarad) everyone I've met uses a recipe with just baking soda. When we went back and visited it was quite a discussion because everyone seems to have a little twist on their own recipe. I've been told that this is the 'must have' ingredient in the recipe. "You can make it without it but it's not going to be right". They also use a three meat mix (lamb, pork, beef) and additionally add some type of extra fat to this. I've seen some people make it using some rendered fat like lard, and other people using a piece of fat back that's been ground up very fine.

The other thing I learned there was to not just place them on the grill. The interesting thing I saw was after the sausage was made and rolled, prior to grilling, the person cooking would put a teaspoon or so of cooking oil in their hands, roll the sausage back across getting it slightly coated in oil, and then grill. Apparently it was explained to me that there is a fine line between the use of the oil so it doesn't stick, and having your sausage too greasy with cooking oil.

I've had variations with add ins that I didn't particularly enjoy. Soaked caraway seeds come to mind, and also dill. I think that I sort of prefer the garlic/onion flavor to come up stronger and those add ins sort of deterred from the taste for me.

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One Mint Julep was the cause of it all.

Hmmm.... I too have heard since forever that the three-meat mixture is the way to go, though the final oiling step is new to me. To check my memory, I just consulted what I could grab easily. That means:
1) Paul Kovi's book on Transylvanian food, which I tend not to like. Sure enough, he doesn't mention either baking soda or soda water. He is the only one, however, who expressly calls for all three meats.
2) Anisoara Stan's book on Romanian cooking from the mid-50s uses only baking soda (though I am surprised to see her calling for beef alone). The thing I hadn't recalled--and that both call for--is thyme.
3) Lesley Chamberlain's book on Eastern European cooking calls for baking soda only and a mixture of beef and pork.
4) Nicolae Klepper's book on Romanian food (which I think is uneven) calls for beef only (though in a footnote he acknowledges that mic can also be made from lamb, mutton, pork, or a combination of all of them). Klepper also uses baking soda only. He then takes a perfectly unexceptionable recipe and ruins it by adding hot red pepper (okay, maybe) AND paprika AND caraway. A veritable League of Nations!

I think it's time to take a trip out to Saravale again. They're friendly, they're Romanian, and they've got a wonderful selection of meats, sausages, and the like.

Saravale Meat Market & European Deli
5254 W Irving Park Rd
(between Laramie Ave & Lockwood Ave)
Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 685-5126

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Gypsy Boy

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?” (Julia Child)

Kramerica,

Those guys have hit all the major fests for some years now, and have been well-reviewed here in the past. They have a very good, representative version of the dish. Retro on Roscoe also is a good place to try them, plus Turkish from a few vendors, and usually superb Polish stuff from a local church. The hot stuff is ajvar, by the way. You can learn lots more about the dish and other Balkan foods by searching LTH.

Vrbas Grocery Store in Des Plaines makes several kinds of tasty Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian/Montenegrin sausage -- two kinds of cevapi and (usually) a couple of longer, thin sausages. The meat-mix varies, as does the spicing, but they all seem worth the trip. Buy more than you think you will use as they disappear quickly and they freeze well affter cooking.

If you grill large batches, be prepared to concentrate on getting them on and off the grill quickly. It works much easier if you have someone to hold the platter while you're using all three hands to work the grill. Using a spatula is a good substitute for oiling the links as a means of preventing sticking.

They don't always have a lot in the cooler, so you might want to call first. The upside is that it's usually very fresh.

Vrbas Grocery Store
(847) 298-9665
562 E Algonquin Rd,
Des Plaines, IL 60016

When I head into the city to buy mine I usually get mine from Lalich Deli. They have it made with and without garlic. When I'm there if I'm lucky they also have something in Hungarian that's called Tepertos (there's an accent over the O I can't figure out how to make) which is like a deep fried pork crackling. The lady that runs the shop is very nice, and she usually has a good array of different staples. One of the other items that we usually get there is Perla Harghitei which is a mineral water from Romania. What she has that my family likes is one that's flavored, if my translation is correct, like elderberry (bodza in Hungarian). I tried to translate the label from the Romanian but it says Soc si Lamaie, I think that Lamaie is lemon or citrus though and might not be the right word.

In the summer we go through a lot of it over crushed ice. I would say that it's an acquired taste a friend of mine thought that it was going to be like carbonated lemonade and got a bit of a surprise.

I'm interested in trying out a trip to Saravale sometime I've never been in there.


Lalich Deli
4208 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
Phone: (773) 545-3642

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One Mint Julep was the cause of it all.

Lalich also has a location in Niles:

Lalich Deli
847/581-1120
8188 N. Milwaukee Ave., Niles

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Lalich Cevaps are indeed wonderful, but they only make them on certain days, and they sell out quickly, so call ahead. Zoran Lalich also make some truly amazing bacon, and he will roast a whole lamb, goat or pig for you.