Hey, in case you haven’t looked at the calendar recently January is almost over. How did this happen already? Gosh I don’t know. I pulled out my weekly day planner this morning and turned the page to see what was up next week. Turns out, it’s February!
And you know what that means! A month of me cooking. Yep, this is my attempt to whip up some of my own Bulgarian dishes!
After some thinking, reading some cook books and making some lists, I’ve got a semi-plan!!
Here is what is on the list:
- Banitsa
- Chorba with White Beans
- Pitka
- Kavarma
- Gyuvetch
- Tomatoes and Cheese in a Pot
- Moussaka
- Biscotti Cake
- Stuffed peppers
- Sarmi
- Kufteta
- Snezhanka Salad
- Kozunak
- Lentil something…
- Eggplant something..
Aside from Shopska Salad (which I firmly believe is a dish best left to summer when tomatoes are their most delicious), any favorites I’ve left off this list? Things I must make? Can you help me figure out which lentil dish and eggplant dish I should make?
It looks like I only have one salad and I feel like I could really use one or two more salads. Thoughts?
Help me out, help me out! Okay? Thanks.
Here’s an idea – lentil salad. Boil the lentils, filter(?) it from the water (which you don’t need) and add salt, pepper, fine cut parsley, olive oil and vinegar. Add diced ham, boiled eggs too, also diced in not too small dices. Voila.
I’ll take a look through some of my cook books for other salads.
Oh, and about the sneezing – play it safe and take a couple of Aspirin C’s when you get back. There is an epidemic, after all.
Well what do you know – I got a sort of an eggplant salad.
You bake and peel two eggplants and after they’ve cooled, dice them. Cut 2-3 tomatoes and 6-7 baked and peeled peppers. Cut a large onion into thin slices. Mix all this with fine cut parsley (half the small bundle like those that that old ladies sell). Add salt as desired. Pou a coffee cup (i.e. shot glass) oil and stir a little. Diced pickle is opitional. И готово
I’ll look for some proper eggplant dishes later tonight.
If you send me a recipe when you are getting ready to fix one of these, I’ll see what I can do about fixing them here in Walla Walla. Sort of like cooking together in different kitchens.
Your dAd is always up for a culinary adventure. (You should have seen what I fixed on Saturday.) I’ve been feeling a little bored with the things I’ve been cooking lately.
Hi Karolinka
If been reading your blog for a while and love your comments on Sofia and Bulgaria. I am living in Hamburg, Germany and my husband is from Sofia.
Today I like to help your with some ideas:
- green salad or spring salad made of finelly sliced lettuce, small chopped radishes and spring onions. Fixed with some salt, vinegar and oil.
- Baked salad: slice eggplant, zucchini (summer squash), tomato and bake in an pan in some olive oil until golden brown. Place on a platter in one layer and season with fresh parsil, salt, olive oil and chopped garlic. Eat with a slice of sirene.
I hope your enjoy it…
Best wishes,
Kiwi
Eggplant something:
Get some eggplants – cut them in slices – the way you cut bread. Then put the slices in a large dish with a lot of salt and leave them for an hour to get the bitterness out. Then dry them, coat them with flour and fry them in a deep pan with a lot of oil. Take them out. In a separate pan prepare thick tomato sause and just before you take it away from the hot plate put in it some large bits of cheese (white Bulgarian chese). Do not keep them long enough to melt! Cover the fried eggplant slices with the sause. It goes well with garlic.
That’s a great summer dish and one of my favourites. But I don’t know what kind of eggplants you would find during the winter. Maybe you should stick to the кьопоолу recipe above. But this one you can get ready made from the shop or better yet ask one of your Bulgarian frieds to get you a home made one. Personally, I am not much into it.
As for the lentils – well, make the soup. It looks like the bob chorba but is prepared in a different way.
Лютеница – the real lyutenitza is made ONLY from red peppers. Bake them (grill, barbecue, or the special pepper-baking-device) , peel, put in some garlic, olive oil, parsley, black pepper, salt. Blend everything with a hand blender (the smoothness level is up to you, I prefer it more coarse).
Кьопоолу – bake whole eggplants on a grill or barbecue (gives them a great smokey taste, much better than oven baked). bake them very very well! When you peel the black burnt part, inside the eggplant should have become kind of transparent! Bake some red peppers as well. Mix the eggplants , peppers, garlic, parsley, a lot of olive oil, salt and blend with a hand blender up to the desired smoothness. Best consumed while still warm with good fresh bread.
Both things however should be done in summer with fresh and delicious products. The stuff you get from the market now is no good. Also, many people put tomatoes in those two startes – believe me, they are much better without the tomatoes, which give a watery bland taste! Commercial version in the supermarket have MOSTLY tomatoes inside because tomatoes are cheaper. But I never buy those anyway. So much tastier if you make them yourself.
@Boyancho Sounds like maybe I should wait on these recipes until summer time. I guess it’s a good thing that one can make and eat soup all year round but that it’s especially good in the winter!!
Супа топчета then. The obvious choice.
@helen do you have a favorite recipe? I just looked at five different ones online and they are all fairly different.
It’s very challenging for me to put down a recipe for you in English. Plus, I am not much of a cook. But my topcheta soup is very simple – it includes chopped onions and carrots, black pepper, savory (чубрица), rice and meatballs made out of minced meat bought from the shop. And at the end liaison (застойка) made from one egg and two or three spoons of yogurt. Can you make something out of it? If you are still interested I may send you the exact instrucitons through e-mail. Or better yet leave it for somebody more knowledgeable to give you guidance (!but do not add tomatoes!)
@helen I think that I can handle this soup. Or not, we’ll see. That’s all part of the challenge. And, will not add tomatoes!!
What about homemade Ruska Salata? it’s sold everywhere in Sofia, but in my opinion it has way too much mayonnaise sauce. The homemade one is worderful and much more healthier. And I usually replace the ham for tuna fish, delicious!
My recipe: boil separely eggs, green beans, peas, potatoes and carrots. Cut in dices and add tuna fish, and also tsarevitsa if you wish.
@Marta excellent idea!!
Ruska Salata is not a traditional Bulgarian dish in fact. As the name would suggest Ruska Salata i.e. Russian Salad. The funny thing it is not even Russian. In Russia, the dish is called Olivie Salad and in fact comes from France. It’s called Russian Salad in Bulgaria, because it came to Bulgaria from Russia.
In the same line of thought, Moussaka and Кьопоолу are not originally Bulgarian either. The first one is Greek and the second one Turkish, but they are common, widespread and loved in Bulgaria, so they have become a part of Bulgarian cuisine.
Гювечета
http://media.snimka.bg/1681/009618135.jpg
“Sirene v giuveche”
One of my favorite dishes but you need giuveche. Giuveche is the mini version of giuvech. I am sure if you’ve been to the large open fresh market off Lion’s Bridge (that for whatever reason people refer to Jenski Pazar) or to any other open market, you must have seen various brown/colorful clay pots – these are either “giuvech” (big ones) or “giuveche” (little ones).
Everone has his/her own version of making “sirene v giuveche” so don’t be surprised if you find yourself with more than one significantly different recipe for the same dish.
Here is how I make it. You need some finely chopped scallions (in the absence of scallions regular onion would do just fine), some chopped red and/or green peppers (if you can’t find fresh, red roasted peppers coming from a jar taste great too), some diced tomatoes (if you can’t find fresh tomatoes from a jar work too), some chopped parsley (again, if you can’t find fresh, either dried or frozen can do), and obviously sirene. Now, try to find good quality sirene as it is important for the flavor of the whole dish. Also, taste it before you use it – sometimes it can be too salty which makes the whole dish too salty. To solve that, you can put the cheese for a couple of hours in fresh cold water. You may have found already that sirene in Bulgaria is made from cow’s milk, sheep’s milk, goat’s milk, and a combination of these. If you like really strong flavor you can go for sheep (I find it too smelly but everyone is different). Goat sirene is excellent although tough to find. However, regular cow’s milk sirene if it is good quality is wonderful – it should not be offensively smelly, should not crumble at the slightest touch, should not be hard as a rock, and should not be too salty. Nice fresh aroma, good firm consistency, good color, and a pleasant flavor – that’s what you look for in sirene.
Here is what you do next. Put the chopped scallions/onions, peppers, tomatoes, and parsley at the bottom of the giuveche (you choose quantity but it should be proportional to the quantity of sirene used) and mix them well. Cut a larger chunk of the sirene (again, you choose the quantity) and put on top. Sprinkle with some black pepper and paprika. Put in the oven. I am not sure for how long – I check it every few minutes and take it out when it looks ready. To look ready – you should smell the aroma in the air and the sirene should look on the verge of melting (but should still be in the same shape as it was when you put it in), and everything should look hot. Then you take it out and crack an egg on top of it. Put it back in the oven until the egg starts looking like sunny side up (the yolk should be runny). Then take out, put a tiny bit of butter on top so it melts, sprinkle more black pepper, paprika, and parsley. You should it eat while it is still hot. Before you start eating, take a fork and mix it all together. Make sure you have some freshly baked bread – good crust and soft on the inside. Eat the dish with the bread. Delicious! Now, for a true Bulgarian experience, you should drink airian with it. Have you tired it yet? Take plain yogurt, fill half tall glass with it, mix well with a fork until it looks smooth, add cold water to fill in the glass, mix well and – voila! Some people like to add a bit of salt in it.
While it took so long to write this, the actual preparation of the giuveche (once you have the necessary ingredients) takes minutes. So, it is a very delicious and fast dish to make, especially when strapped for time. Enjoy!
@Diana Holy-smokes!! I want to make and eat that dish right now. I must, must, buy my own giuveche this weekend.
Karolinka, glad to hear that. I just wanted to add that once you’ve bought your own “giuveche” (or more than one), you can use it for variety of dishes, not only “sirene v giuveche”. You can throw in some veggies and some sausage and put in the oven. Few minutes later you have a ready dish with a great aroma and flavor. Granted, you can prepare the same thing by just putting the same ingredients in a frying pan and cooking it on the stove, but frankly, the flavor and aroma that you would acheive by using the giuveche are so much better. Anyhow, good luck and keep us posted about your cooking adventures!
PS: Another person has written a comment saying that everytime she reads your blog lately, she gets hungry. I must admit that it has the same effect on me!
I found several eggplant dishes, but I don’t know which would be more Bulgarian. And I hate eggplants, so I can’t tell you which is tastier. But if any of these interest you, I’ll translate it:
1. Eggplants stuffed with cheese and baked
2. Baked eggplants with bechamel sauce
3. Sliced baked eggplants
4. Mashed baked eggplants
5. Cut in long pieces and baked eggplants
6. Eggplant moussaka
7. Oriental eggplants
8. Imambayalduh
9. Fried eggplants with yogurt
10. Eggplants with tomato sauce
11. Fried eggplants with rice
12. Eggplants fried in eggs and bread (don’t know the word for that)
13. Eggplant schnitzels (three types)
14. Eggplant kyufteta
with meat:
15. Mutton with eggplants
16. Stuffed eggplants
If I have to choose, I’d say 1 and 9 are the most Bulgarian. 8 is definitely Turkish, and the name means “the imam fainted (with delight)”
PS: that’s “fried in eggs and bread crumbs” on 12.
hey – never knew what имам баялдъ meant but I am fascinated by the way you spelled it in English.
Hehe, I know it’s spelled a bit differently, but I was trying to make it easier for Carolyn to get the right pronunciation
@Bobby: Wow! There are too many to pick from. I have to say that #1 and #8 seem like the clear winners. You had me at eggplant stuffed with cheese and the thought of a an imam fainting over eggplant. That sounds like my kind of a dish!!
Well, you’ve got mail
eggplant (eng.) = имамбаяълдъ (bulg.)= imambayıldı (turk.)
1. Lyutika (лютика) – mixed salad with cut tomatoes, baked and pealed red or green peppers, onions and garlic squashed with salt
2. Drusan kebap (друсан кебап) – onions and small pieces of pork. The pork is cut into small pieces, put with small amount of water in a pot with cover, added salt. After the meat is ready the pot is removed from the stove. Cut onions and black pepper are added. The covered pot is shaken (as hard as possible, preferably from male
for 1-2 minutes. Drusan kebap is probably Turkish and could be prepared from mutton, but I have tried only the Bulgarian (pork) version.
Yeyyyyyyyyy!
My top favourite Biscotti Cake is also included in your list!Way to go! I even have tried to show to my mother-in-low how to do it in the easiest possible way! My mom used to do such a cake for me and my sister.The most important for me is to find a Bulgarian type Biscotti,not an Italian,because they differ and for me personally,the cake is more delicious with Bulgarian biscotti.( I am wondering whether you have tried sweets called Негърче , if you have,well these sweets are made of the type of biscotti that you will need). I also recommend the youghurt that will be used for the cake to be home-made not bought directly from your Billa
.By home-made I mean to by 4-5 regular youghurts and to squeezed them,so that the whey has to be totally removed( my mom put all the youghurt in a peace of cheese-cloth ) and tie it uo on the sink and in the morning,we have the needed consistence.I dip the biscotti into kompot and just arrange them on a proper tray.Then put a layer of the dried youghurt and add the fruits of the kompot and even a little liqueur.,then the next layer of biscotti etc.Yummy!We doceorate the top of the cacke with grated chocolate and fruits(bananas,oranges etc).
Carolyn, I get hungry lately every time I read your blog