Country 22 - Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is in south-eastern Europe on the Balkan peninsula. It is bordered by Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and the Aegean Sea. Parts of the country are very mountainous while to the north it is very flat. It has hot summers and cold, snowy winters. 
Bosnia and Herzegovina can trace human settlement back to the Neolithic age and it has a very rich and interesting history. The Slavic people, that populate the country today, first settled there in the 6th century. In the mid 15th century the Ottoman Empire brought Islam to the country and altered the cultural and social outlook of the country. After World War 1 Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of Yugoslavia only regaining its independence in 1992.
Today the country has high literacy, life expectancy and education levels. 
Bosnia and Herzegovina is home to three distinct cultures: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats as well as minority groups of Jews and Roma people. About 51% of the population identify as Muslim and 46% as Christian. 

Bosnian food tends to be mildly spicing and light using tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peppers, beans, mushrooms, zucchini and paprika. It is balanced between western and Eastern influences and closely related to Turkish food. Typical meat dishes use beef and lamb and specialities are Cevapi, dolma and goulash. Herzegovina produces most of the countries wine and plum and apple alcoholic beverages are also popular.

Gary made the food selection for our 'visit' to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He chose Cevapi - Bosnian finger sausages and Shopska salad. We were also intending to do Prebranac - Bosnian baked bean but in the end we decided the sausages and salad would be enough food.

First we made the Cevapi. Into the bowl went, ground beef, ground lamb, breadcrumbs, garlic, finely chopped bacon, baking powder, fizzy water, salt, pepper, paprika and parsley. We mixed everything together and formed them into small sausage shapes. We left them to rest in the fridge for a while before we fried them in olive oil until cooked through.

 

    

Next we put together the Shopska salad. Green pepper, tomatoes and red

onions dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar and topped with feta cheese. Neither of us are great lovers of raw onion or green pepper so we dressed the salad early and left the vegetables to 'cure' a bit in the dressing hoping that the vinegar would take away some of the harshness.

Bosnians eat their Cevapi with a pita bread called Somun. They dip the bread in a beef broth before grilling it. We used naan bread and sprinkled them with water before heating through. (we were going to use beef stock but we forgot!)

Our Bosnian and Herzegovinian meal.

A cevapi ready to be eaten!

The Verdict! 
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! 😋
We added some sour cream to the Cevapi and also put the salad into the naan. It was very good! We both like lamb anyway and the mixture of both the meats enriched the flavour. The raw onion went well with the sausage but as usual was still being tasted at bedtime - and, indeed, the next morning! I think caramalized onion would have been delicious too - if not very Bosnian.