Recipe Box
Peka (Dalmatian grill "under the bell")
Posted by dmzlucka on Aug 18, 2011
My Mom has made something similar for years using her oven but my husband and I had the "real deal" in Croatia this summer and it was FABULOUS!!
Ingredients
Lamb shoulder (whole) but you can use chunks of meat....better with a bone.
Potatoes (about 2 to 3 pounds depending on your pan), peeled and halfed
2 red onions
Italian peppers, whole
Rosemary
Sea salt (large grains)
Black Pepper
Paprika
Olive oil
Instructions
First, start a wood fire (they use oak but I have tryed vineyard wood). Let it get down to embers.
Cover the bottom of a large round pan (heavy gauge alumininum or cast iron) with olive oil, layer peppers and potatoes then lay several sprigs of rosemary on top.
scrape away the embers so that a "floor" in your pit appears large enough for your pan. Cover with a dome shaped lid (one that gives you at least 5 to 10 inces above the meat surface and touches the floor of your grill surrounding the pan). Place rings around the top of the dome so that when you put embers on top, they don't roll off. Season the meat with the remainder of the spices, rub on paprika and lay the meat, fat side up on top of the potatoes
NOTE for the FRESNO COOK: I have tried this with a cast iron pan and later with a tagine. The tagine worked wonderfully BUT the bottom pan broke due to the heat. Lid survived. Cook time (with 4 large bone in country-style pork ribs and about 6 lamb ribletts) took 45 minutes. If you have heat forming at the bottom of the pan it would be best to put the meat at the bottom and not the potatoes. Check your heat source.
2 Comments
© 2012 Paprika Studios | Home | About Us | Food Blogs | Email Us
Comments
Anonymous (not verified) | Thu, 2011-09-01 17:03
Where can I get a bell PEKA
dmzlucka | Thu, 2011-09-01 20:26
Well....this has been my "quest" since I arrived home! My first attempt was to contact a friend in Croatia. This was too $$$ (like 500 euro). Next (when it turned out like briquettes) Dad and I used a cast iron skillet with a lid (no good since the lid was too close to the food). If you look at the photo, it sort of looks like a rounded out disk blade from my Dad's vineyard. This is what I am trying to get a friend to make for me....but I have to wait untill harvest is complete. What seems to work is a cast iron pot (like a gumbo pot) turned upside down over a baking pan (but don't put the pan ON the coals...scoot them away. I am going to also try a clay oven ...maybe this weekend (the kind you use for bread) I'll load up some photos.....good luck and post how it goes!