The Balkans know how to Live

One of the key things the food of my English and Irish ancestors and the food of south-eastern Europeans have in common is cabbage, cabbage and more cabbage. Personally I find it tastes like sweaty socks and so for a while I thought maybe I just won't like southeastern European food, what with all the cabbage and pickling and raw onion... that is until I visited Balkan Foods store in Montreal. The smell of smoked meat was almost overpowering. This is home to the world's best cheese spread, called Kajmak, imported from Serbia as well as an endless array of preserves from various parts of former Yugoslavia. The sandwich board outside displays a mouthwatering temptation of smoked sausages sautéed with bell peppers on a bun sitting on a pile of raw onion... the raw onion I could do without. Being the average height for a northwestern European Canadian, I rarely feel short, but when you stand in a room of Serbian men averaging about 6'7 speaking in a gruff Slavic tongue it can certainly be intimidating... but they were super-nice, and I walked away with a bag full of goodies, wrapped tightly in multiple layers of plastic so as not to stink up my car with the smell of smoked meat.

With my first crack at Balkan smoked sausage I decided to make one of my all time favourites - similar to what they put in the bun, only over Jazmin rice - not very Balkan, but hey - it works. Once again, simplicity at its finest!

BALKAN-STYLE SAUSAGE AND PEPPERS

Essentially, I made this very similar to the way I make most sausage and pepper dishes, only this time let more of the flavours talk instead of caramelising to death. To make this authentic and to make the flavours "pop", quite simply - more garlic, more onions. For each 2 servings, slice one 12-inch sausage into 3/4 inch slices. Heat a cast-iron skillet on medium-high and coat the bottom in olive oil and toss in the sausage (in judging how much oil to put in, look at the sausage inside - the more white speckles, the less oil you'll need, but from my experience with smoked sausage, much of the fat has been rendered off, so chances are you'll need more than less.)

Toss in a whole white onion roughly chopped and 1/2 each of a red and yellow bell pepper cut into strips. Fry and season with salt and pepper gradually. About 2 minutes before you're ready to take it up, toss in about 7-8 cloves of chopped garlic. Serve it however you like - on a bun, over rice, or even on its own.

Укусно!