Minced Meat Dishes

2. Punjene Paprike (stuffed peppers) 

It's a dish made of fresh peppers (capsicums), stuffed with a mix of meat, spices and rice which is then cooked simmering for few hours in tomato sauce. There is more than one variation of the dish across the Balkans. The most popular one includes minced meat and rice and it's not uncommon to add a stuffed zucchini to the pot with stuffed peppers. Traditionally, stuffed pepper are cooked in a clay pot and served with mashed potatoes or they can be eaten with bread.
Ingredients:

Stuffing:

• 8-10 white peppers
• 600 g ground beef
• 1/3 cup (80 g) rice
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tsp vegeta spice (or salt)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper, freshly ground

Sauce:

• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp ground paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• ½  cup (120 ml) tomato puree
• 4 cups (1 l) water

Direction:

1. Cut the top of the peppers and remove all the seeds. Set aside.
2. Cook the rice halfway (about 5 minutes) and strain. Set aside.
3. Chop onion and parsley and mix with ground beef and rice.
4. Season and stuff each pepper and set aside.
5. To prepare the sauce, lightly heat the oil, add 2 tbsp flour and stir gently until smooth.
6. Add ground paprika and salt and stir for about 1 minute so it doesn't get burned.
7. Add tomato puree and water. Stir and let it boil.
8. When the sauce starts boiling, place all the peppers inside. Turn the temperature down to medium and simmer for about 45-50 minutes in a half covered pot.

* Sauce will reduce during the cooking and will become thicker.
** Stuffed Peppers are often served with mashed potatoes.

3. Sarma (Pickled Cabbage Leaves Stuffed with Rice and Minced)

In much of the country, as well as in Serbia and Croatia, sarma includes rice, minced meat and seasonings as well as layers of dried smoked beef in predominantly Muslim regions, whereas in Serbia and Croatia sarma rolls are cooked with layers of smoked pork, prosciutto bone or pork sausages. Sarma rolls are seasoned with vegetable seasoning, bay leaves and paprika and are slowly simmered for a long time in large clay pots. It is traditionally served on Christmas, New Year's Eve, Easter,  family saint patron's day (slava), birthdays and weddings.

Also, there are various Serbian recipes of sarma prepared in accordance to Orthodox Christian religious restrictions on using meat and animal fat during period of Lent. Lenten sarma is usually stuffed with rice, shredded carrots, onions, seasonings, or even chunks of smoked fish for families who are well-off, and cooked in water and vegetable oil. It is usually served with bread but used to be served with proja (corn bread) in the past, preferably still hot. Besides cabbage, grape and swiss chard leaves are also used to prepare sarma. 

Ingredients:

• 1 large head sour cabbage
• 800g (2cups) minced meat
• 200g (1cup) rice
• 1 medium onion, finely minced
• salt and pepper
• paprika
• beef stock or water
• sour cream, to serve
• smoked beef/pork bone (optional)
• pork skin (optional)

Direction: 

1. Separate the cabbage leaves, being careful not to tear them.
2. Mix meat, rice, onion, salt, pepper, and paprika.
3. Place about a tablespoon or more (use your own judgment based on the size of the leaves) of the meat mixture into each cabbage leaf, near its base.
4. Begin rolling the leaf from the base into a thick cylinder, tucking in the sides after the first "roll." 
 

 

5. Layer the cylinders tightly into a medium-sized or large (clay) pot.6. Cover the sarma rolls with beef stock or water (I find that if you use water, it makes its own broth anyways with the meat as it cooks).
7. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for at least three hours.
8. Serve with sour cream, with or without some of the cooking liquids according to your preference.