Mici (Mititei): The Romanian Sausage

An interesting thing about Romanian cuisine is that they all have some sort of histories. Take the example of Mici (also known as Mititei), this traditional Romanian food that is the equivalent of hotdog or sausage in America. It was said that a popular country inn restaurant in Bucharest ran out of sausage casings, so the chef had to form and grill meat rolls without the casing.

The dish Mici, is often a simple cuisine made from ground beef with lamb and pork. The meat are usually ground together and flavored with spices like paprika, black pepper, lots of garlic and cumin.

Mici is very easy to cook and extremely inexpensive to buy. These are often sold in large packs at grocery stores. You can easily cook it by grilling. This is also perfect during picnics. It is also best to be eaten along with mustard and beer.

Mici is a festival food that you can easily prepare anytime. Let me teach you how to do it.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (ceafa, pronounced as chah-fah, back of the neck)
1 lb ground pork
½ lb ground lamb
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp thyme
¼ tsp star anise
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp cumin
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup of beef stock
½ cup warm water

Instructions:

• Get your ingredients altogether.
• Combine the spices and salt. Set aside.
• Prepare beef broth. Set aside.
• Mix ingredients altogether. Blend in the baking soda.
• Slowly add warm water until well combined.
• Form meat into cylinder shapes about 3 inches long and 1 ½ inches in diameter.
• Brush all sides of the mititei with oil.
• Grill (you may also fry, but it wouldn’t be as tasty as grilled). Turn every about 3-4 times until cooked. It may take about 10 minutes to cook.
• Serve with mustard. You can now enjoy your home cooked Mici! It would be better for this to be served with beer!

Image courtesy of Erumania. No copyright infringement intended.