Lamb Yiros

Start this recipe a day ahead

Serves 4 to 5
Marinade

700g lamb – cut into small strips

1/2 juice of lemon

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

70ml white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sea salt flakes

2 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon white pepper – ground

3 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika

2 tablespoons dried oregano

2 brown onions – sliced

Garlic Sauce

300g Greek Yoghurt

3 cloves of garlic crushed

1/2 juice of lemon

To Serve

Ice berg lettuce – shredded

Pita bread x4 or 5 – store bought or recipe here

Method

In a bowl, combine the lamb with the sea salt, garlic powder, pepper, paprika, oregano. Add the sliced onions and then add the olive oil, lemon juice and white wine vinegar. Massage the marinade in with your hands, cover with cling wrap and leave to marinade overnight in the fridge or at least 5 hours before serving.

To make the garlic sauce – combine the yoghurt, lemon juice and garlic in a bowl and combine. Again – leave overnight if possible for the flavours to develop.

30 minutes before serving, remove the Lamb from the fridge. Cook the meat on a barbecue or fry pan until the onion is browned and lamb is cooked – do not overcook or the lamb won’t be tender anymore!

At the same time, thinly brush one side of the pita bread with olive oil and place on the barbecue or in a fry pan to get some heat. Only leave on the heat for about 1 minute so you don’t get hard pita bread.

When the lamb and pita is cooked – add the lettuce to the pita bread, top with lamb and then drizzle with the garlic sauce. Wrap up and serve.

When I was little, one day I decided I did not like most foods and stopped eating them seemingly overnight. Meat was removed from my diet unless it was cooked on a barbeque and it was a chop or a sausage and I decided I had issues with all forms of sauce except tomato.  Because of this, I missed out on eating what was reported to be the best Yiros Adelaide had – The National Fish Cafe Yiros. The National Fish Cafe is unfortunately no more but used to be situated near the Grand Hotel on Jetty Rd Glenelg.

My brother would always get the lamb Yiros and he would sit across the kitchen table from me, ready to demolish it, whilst I would start my pleading to please have a little corner of the luscious, moist pita bread that was slightly oily but was clear of any “scary” lamb filling. And that was my fish and chip shop ritual – I would always beg for a few scraps of melt in the mouth pita bread before I was told I could have no more and to this day I have still not tried a pita bread as moist and insanely delicious as that. I came to realise only recently on one of my Yiros bread rants that I can’t believe my parents never just asked the owners for a piece of the bread to satisfy my very basic needs??!!! My mum did bump into one of the owners years later and redeeming herself (it’s not at all my fault that I was a picky little shit ) she asked about the brand of bread they used. She did find out…. but forgot again…. “You can still buy it though”, she reported to me. Good to know.

So on Friday night whilst assessing the money I had left until pay day, I decided walking to Coles to get some bland, card board pita out of my measly amount of money was a waste of time. I realised I could just make the pita myself and maybe I can once more experience soft, moist, unforgettable pita.  I was pretty happy with what I made - but it wasn’t quite the same as the one I remember from when I was little.  Still, I don’t think I will buy it anymore – it’s so easy to make yourself.

Pita Bread

Makes 8 large pitas

3 cups plain flour

1 (7)gm packet yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt flakes

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/4 ( I used a tad more) water at room temperature

2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Method

Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup of water and stir together with a spoon. Stir until all the ingredients form a ball. If some of the dough is not sticking then gradually add a bit more water – I needed about 1/4 cup more.

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the dough on your work surface and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes.

When you have finished kneading the dough, form a ball and place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with olive oil – making sure you coat the entire ball of dough in the oil.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size or  approximately 1 hour 20 minutes.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down with your fist and divide it into 8 pieces – or if you want smaller pita breads divide them again. Roll each piece into a ball,  place on a tray or on baking paper and cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
When you have got your balls resting preheat the oven to 200 degrees. I used a pizza stone to put the pita bread on – if you don’t have then a thin roasting pan would be fine.
Spread a small amount of flour on your work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a bit more  flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin to flatten the dough. Roll it out extremely thin –  to about  1/4 inch thick.

Place the Pita’s on the hot stone or tray – I could only fit one at a time. They will get puffy and be cooked at around 3 minutes. I found that 2 minutes was perfect as I like my pita soft and easy to roll up but 3 minutes is ok and they have a bit more colour to them. Try and test for yourself.

Serving Suggestion: Serve warm straight away or lightly brush one side with olive oil and put oil side down on a grill plate or fry pan to get the pita nice and warm and soft – don’t leave for too long or the bread will become crisp.
Serve with – Croatian Cevapcici with Sour Cream and Ajvar or Greek Yiros

These plum jam biscuits are fairly plain but that is not entirely surprising as most Croatian biscuits seems to be very plain and basic – perfect for dipping in a strong cup of coffee. When I was younger – I was extremely strange and decided I did not like the jam in the middle of the biscuit and so would hunt for the plain one’s that Baba may have thrown in. Because of this, I thought it was about time I made them myself and finally eat jam in a biscuit like a normal person.

The original dough recipe is an almost cake like pastry, sort of unusual and unexpected – the biscuit is soft and not crisp like a normal biscuit.  Mine were huge and not the tight little rolled up perfect bundles I recall from when I was young however, the taste was what I remembered even if mine were a massive, sloppy version.

Wanting to try the dough another way – my second batch were more biscuit like and although nice the taste was totally different and not the soft cake like consistency that I am used to.

I really couldn’t decide which dough recipe to share with you – they are very different so I’ve included both – you can try both and see for yourself.

Ingredients

Filling (Use for both versions)- These are all approximates – it’s really to taste so add a bit and keep tasting till you are happy.

Plum jam – about 1 cup

Almonds, lightly roasted and crushed aprox 1/2 cup or more so the jam isn’t too runny

2 tsp sweet sherry

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Dough Version 1 (Cake like recipe)

Makes about 4 trays

2 eggs

125gm caster sugar

125g unsalted butter

185ml of milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Enough self raising flour to make a soft dough – about 800-900g – just keep adding until you can form a dough.

+ caster for dusting (if you want more sweetness)

Method

Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy. Melt butter gently and add to the eggs and sugar. Add the vanilla extract and then add the sifted self raising flour slowly until a soft dough forms.

Knead for 5 minutes and then roll out dough so it’s about 1/4 inch thick  and cut into triangles.

Add a blob of jam in the middle of the bottom of the triangle and roll up like a croissant, bending the two ends downwards.

Bake in a moderate oven 200C until light brown.

*To add some extra sweetness if you wish roll the biscuits lightly in caster sugar whilst still warm.

Dough Version 2  (more biscuit like)

Makes about 2 trays

125g unsalted butter

150ml thickened cream

1tbs caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

+ Caster sugar for dusting

Method

Melt the butter in the microwave and then add to a bowl along with the 1tbs sugar, vanilla extract, cream and baking powder. Slowly add the flour until you have formed a soft dough. Knead for about 5 minutes. Roll the dough out thinly and cut into triangles.

Add the jam mixture in the middle at the bottom of the triangle and rollup like a croissant bending the two ends down.

Bake in the oven at 200C until brown.

*To add some extra sweetness if you wish roll the biscuits lightly in caster sugar whilst still warm.

Cevapcici are a skinless, Eastern European sausage that can differ in size and ingredients depending on what region you are from. Coming from a Croatian background I love my Cevapcici but unfortunately wasn’t a meat eater when I was growing up so only in later years have I fully embraced them. Most Cevapcici are made from pork and beef however, according to my parents my Baba made the best Cevapcici which were made with minced veal and a bit of pork – and most probably with the inclusion of Vegeta - the Croatian stock powder that should be added to basically anything as it boosts the flavour of most dishes.

I spent most of this weekend making and eating Cevapcici’s and after trying both pork and beef and pork and veal varieties – the veal version is definitely my favourite but it’s up to you which way you go.

You can eat Cevapcici plain with some tomato sauce which most Australians do at a BBQ  or you can use ajvar which is another product of the Balkan region that seems to differ depending on where you are from. Ajvar is a roasted eggplant and capsicum relish that can be served with any grilled meat.  You can find the recipe here.

Rather than eating the Cevapcici on their own I added, ajvar, sour cream with sweet paprika, Spanish onion and parsley wrapped in warmed pita bread – it was delicious – a Croatian Kebab you could say.

Cevapcici with ajvar, sour cream and spanish onion wrapped in pita

• Makes about 3 oven trays
• Start recipe a day before

Ingredients

700g veal mince – substitute for beef if you wish

300g pork mince

1 medium brown onion – grated

3 garlic cloves – crushed

1 tsp Vegeta

1 tsp Bi Carb Soda

1 tsp cayenne pepper – or as much as you like if you want your Cevapcici hotter

2 tsp sweet paprika

100ml sparkling water – or just enough so you have a soft paste

1 egg – lightly beaten

1 tsp of each salt and pepper

To Serve

Ajvar – see recipe

sour cream to serve plus a sprinkle of sweet paprika mixed in

1 Spanish onion – sliced thinly

1 tbs chopped parsley

large pita bread

Method

1. Place the veal, pork, onion, garlic, Vegeta, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper plus Bi Carb Soda in a large stainless steel bowl and using your hands knead the mixture until it is well combined.

2. Slowly knead in a small amount of the sparkling water and egg so the mixture is paste like – be careful with the water as you may not need it all so add slowly!!

3. Using your hands, shape the mixture into approximately 10cm long by 2-3cm wide sausages and put on a lined oven tray. Once on the tray – run your thumb and index finger along both sides of the sausage making them a nice shape and not blob like. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight so they can set.

4. About 10 minutes before cooking – remove the tray from the fridge. Heat a fry pan or BBQ and using olive oil cook the Cevapcici in batches over medium heat for approximately 10 minutes – turning often to ensure all sides are cooked.
To Serve: Warm pita bread quickly (1 minute) so it is still soft on a fry pan or grill plate.
Spread half the pita with ajvar then place the Cevapcici on top – you can fit about 4 or 5 on the bread. Top with sour cream that has had a sprinkle of sweet paprika folded through it then add thinly sliced Spanish onion and some parsley. Fold the pita up and enjoy!

Ajvar is a Croatian Roasted Capsicum and Eggplant relish that can be added to grilled meats and works great with Cevapcici wrapped in pita bread.

Ajvar

NOTE: Makes lots depending on the size of your capsicums and
eggplant. My recipe made about 4 cups. Keep in the fridge in an airtight
container for no longer than a week.

2 large red capsicums

1 medium to large eggplant

2 small baby carrots – carrots are not usually added to Ajvar
but it works quite well and adds an earthiness if you add a small amount.

2 garlic cloves – crushed

1 small lemon – juiced

1 1/2 tsp Vegeta

1/4 cup olive oil

2 red chilli’s – chopped

3 tbs parsley – chopped
1. Preheat oven to 220C. Place capsicums and eggplant on
a lined oven tray and roast for 40 minutes or until slightly blackened and soft.
On a separate tray or if you have room on the same one – lightly oil two peeled
carrots and roast until soft.

2. Once cooked, transfer the capsicum and eggplant to a
bowl and cover in plastic wrap and allow to cool.

3. Once cooled, remove the skins from the capsicum and
eggplant and remove seeds. Roughly chop the flesh and put in a food
processor.  Cut the carrot roughly also and add to the food processor along with the garlic and chilli.

Slowly add the olive oil and lemon juice until the mixture has thickened slightly and is
creamy and not chunky (unless you want it chunky and in that case do not
process for as long).

4. Transfer to a bowl and add the Vegeta – a bit at a time – checking the flavour.

Add salt and pepper to taste and then stir in the parsley – leaving 1 tbs to add as a garnish.