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Main course

Mixed grill

A grill plate of kebapi, pleskavica and pork, shared across the Balkans and ordered for the whole table.

Recipe from Туѓино Јабано

Mixed grill
Prep
4 hr 30 min
Cook
35 min
Total
5 hr 5 min
Fasting
Not suitable

Ingredients 13 ingredients

Method

  1. Put the beef and pork in a bowl with the grated onion, garlic, bicarbonate of soda, salt and pepper. Pour in the sparkling water and work the mixture with your hand for a good three minutes, until it turns sticky and pale.
  2. Cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge overnight, or at least four hours. This rest is what separates a kebap from a sausage: the salt dissolves the meat protein and the mixture binds without egg or breadcrumbs.
  3. Season the pork neck steaks with salt and pepper, rub them with a little oil and leave them at room temperature while the fire settles.
  4. With wet hands, roll two thirds of the mince into short fingers about 8 cm long and 2 cm thick. Flatten the rest into two thin patties, a good deal wider than you think they need to be, because pleskavica shrinks and thickens on the grill.
  5. Build a charcoal fire and let it burn down until the coals are grey and you can hold a hand above them for four seconds. Flames scorch the outside long before the middle is done.
  6. Grill the pork neck first, six to seven minutes a side, then the sausages, then the kebapi and pleskavica, which need only three or four minutes a side.
  7. Move each item to a warm platter as it comes off, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest while the next batch cooks.
  8. Serve everything on one board with raw sliced onion, ajvar and warm lepinja.

If you cannot find it

Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.

Ajvar
Roast red peppers and one aubergine, blend with garlic, oil and vinegar; or buy a jar from a Balkan or Turkish grocer.
Lepinja
A thick Greek pitta warmed over the coals, or a plain naan.
Home-made coarse sausage
A coarse Polish or Ukrainian fresh sausage; avoid anything sweetened or heavily herbed.

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