Osmanli kebabs

Ingredients:

• 600g. fatter mutton
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 onions
• 200g. rice
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon saffron

Our daily receipt will be famous turkish kebabs, in a one of the many variations known as Osmanli kebabs. Here are the directions:
Wash meat, wipe, cut into bigger cubes, put into a deeper pan, pour lemon juice over, sprinkle with chopped onion. Leave to stand in a cool place for at least 1 hour. In the meantime pick over rice, wash and dry. Heat oil, add rice and cook slowly until glassy, pour in warm water in which saffon has been dissolved, add salt and pepper. Simmer until tender. Thread meat on to skewers without onion. Grill on medium heated gridiron. Turn while grilling and brush with oil, as needed. Put rice on a serving plate and arrange kebabs over it. Serve with some fresh vegetables (spring onions, tomatoes, paprikas or lettuce, with tomatosalad and the like).

Osmanli kebabs

Couregettes with cheese

Ingredients:

• 1kg. young couregettes
• butter for greasing
• breadcrumbs for sprinkling the baking pan
• 150g. kachkaval or cheese
• 50g. butter
• 1 bunch of parsley
• salt and pepper
• 2dl. sour cream

Wash couregettes, cook about 15 minutes in slightly salted water to get soft, but not overcooked. Cool and cut lenghtways. Grease the baking pan or a fireproof dish with butter or oil, sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Arrange the couregettes. Grate cheese, mix it with chopped parsley and fill with it the couregette halves, add saltr and pepper, cover with thin slices of butter or margarine and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Preheat the oven to 180-200°C and bake about 30 minutes, until the chhese melts and gets slightlybrown. With couregettes stuffed this way serve sour cream mixed with some sugar to taste, as well as the freshly baked pogatcha.

Couregettes with cheese

Stuffed dried paprikas

Click on the link for the modified version of Stuffed dried paprika (stuffed peppers) recipe

Stuffed dried paprikas

Pindzur

Ingredients:

• 1kg. big paprikas
• 500g. unripened tomatoes
• 500g. aubergines
• 2-2.5dl. oil
• salt
• 3-4 cloves of garlic

Wash paprikas, wipe and dry fry on top the stove. Bake green tomatoes and aubergines in the oven. When all the veggie's are baked, peel them, chop and put into a pan, add salt, then pour in oil gradually, stirring all the time and fry at low heat until the mixture is well blended and the given quantity of oil mixed in. Add chopped or crushed garlic, mix. Shape a ball or a cone in the salad bowl and cool well. Serve with grilled meat, warm cornbread, pogatcha and the like. Pindzur is prepared in several variations, depending on local tradition and on personal taste.

Pindzur

Japraci

Ingredients:

• 1kg. rastan
• 400g. beef meat
• 2dl. oil
• 150g. onion
• 80g. rice
• 200g. dry meat
• salt, pepper and parsley

Fresh and young leaves of rastan you have to separate from the stalk and separate the bumped part of the leaf. Wash them in the cold water and cook them in boiling salted water for a couple of minutes. When the leaves are blanched take them out and immediately put them in cold water so that they can preserve the natural color. Until the usage keep them in cold water.

Beef’s meet from the neck or from the shoulder blade should be separated from the bones, any root hairs and fat and chopped with a sharp knife. Peel the onion wash it and chop it in small. Select the rice and wash it, and then drain it good. In a suitable dish on the fat which is already on a hot temperature put the chopped onion so that it can be stewed. On the stewed onion you add the chopped meat ands stew all that together.
When the onion and the meat are stewed you add a certain dose of the prepared rice and stew that all together. You spice the mass with a little bit of salt, milled pepper and parsley and let that all to cool off. On every leaf of rastan you put a spoon of the mass and fold (roll) the leaves. Out the rolls in the pot, pour over the water, let the rolls boil on a hot temperature, and then cook them for about 2 hours on a low temperature.

Suggestion: between japraci you could put dry meat – 1 piece per portion – and cook all that together.
In the end put in the browned flour (in hot fat stew the flour with red pepper and pour that over japraci) and let that boil for few more minutes. Serve them with sour milk.

Source: destination-montenegro.com

Japraci

Pie with meat

Ingredients:

• 6 Pie Breads (or one packet shop-bought)
• 3 large onions, chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 900g. pork, cubed
• 2 large eggs
• salt and pepper
  

Pie or pita with meat is a traditional Bosnian recipe for a pizza-like dish of pork, onions and eggs spread over pie breads which is oven-baked until set.
Heat the oil in a pan and use to fry the onions until golden (about 10 minutes). Add the pork and continue frying until the meat is thoroughly browned all over.
Take off the neat at this point and stir-in the eggs and season to taste with salt and freshly-ground black pepper. Mix thoroughly to combine then arrange the pie breads on a lightly-oiled baking tray. Spread the meat mixture over the top of the pita breads then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 210°C and bake for about 8 minutes, or until the eggs are set and golden brown. Serve hot.
Source: Celtnet recipes

Pie with meat

Thick chicken soup with kaymak

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken
• 1-1.5 lukewarm water
• 40g. lard
• 250g. kaymak
• 2 onions
• 20g. flour
• 2 tablespoons of paymak
• red paprika pepper
• salt
• 1/2 bunch of parsley

Clean the chicken, cut into pieces, wash and wipe a little. Heat lard, add pieces of chicken, fry to brown on all sides and then take out. To the leftover lard add finely chopped onion, cook slowly until tender, then add the kaymak, add red paprika pepper, mix and to stewed kaymak, stir, add lukewarm water, meat, more water if necessary, salt and pepper. Simmer all until meat is tender. Sprinkle with chopped parlsey before serving. This broth is most often prepared in Serbia, where the best kaymak is produced.

Thick chicken soup with kaymak

Papazjanija

Ingredients:

• 1kg. beef meat
• 300g. carrots, sliced
• 1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped
• 150g. celery root, sliced
• 150g. kale, thinly sliced
• 100g. parsnip, thinly sliced
• 300g. potatoes, thinly sliced
• 500g. spring onion bulbs
• black peppercorns
• 1dl. vinegar
• garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 bay leaves
• salt
• 50g. fat

Clean and cut the vegetables into thin slices and the kale and potatoes into big slices. Oil the pot for cooking the stew. Put the meat at the bottom of the pot, salt it and add the vegetables, one by one. Leave the onion bulbs whole. Add the seasoning. Pour vinegar (wine) and water, cover the pot with a baking paper and cook it for 2-3 hours in the oven. The stew can be served in the pot.

Papazjanija

Cucumber and thick yoghurt salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 50-75g. shelled walnuts
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/2l. thick yoghurt
• 350-500g. cucumbers
• 1/2 bunch of dill
• salt

Clean garlic, crush well, add crushed or finely chopped walnuts, oil, whipped thick yoghurt, peeled and cubed cucumbers, chopped dill and salt. If the mixture is too thick, some water can be added. "Tarator" salad can also be prepared with lettuce. In that case instead of cucumbers, use chopped lettuce leaves. If the tarator is prepared so that it is more watery it can be served as cold soup in summer months. As salad, it is served with roast and fried meat or fish dishes, offal, baked or fried potatoes etc.

Related articles:

• Macedonian tarator salad

Cucumber and thick yoghurt salad

Dolmas in spinach leaves

Ingredients:

• 1kg. spinach
• 350g. ground pork
• 250g. ground beef
• 50g. rice
• 1 smaller onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper

Clean spinach, wash, drain, remove thick leaf ribs, blanch shortly, then drain. Mix meat, add half-cooked rice, finely chopped onion and garlic, egg, salt and pepper. Mix all well. Fill spinach leaves with this stuffing, roll them up and press both ends thightly, so that the stuffing does not come out in cooking. Heat lard in a bigger pan or enamelled djuvetch, add one half of chopped onion cook shortly until slightly soft, arrange dolmas over, cover with the rest of chopped onion, pour in tomato juice, cover and stew in the oven preheated to 175-200°C. While stewing, shake the pan several times and add some more warm water and put back into the oven. Serve sour cream with the dolmas. Romanian dolmas in grapevine leaves are prepared in the same way.

Related articles:

• Turkish dolmas in grapevine

Dolmas in spinach leaves

Tirit pie

Ingredients:

• 750g. flour
• 2-2.5dl. lukewarm water
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper
• 1 chicken or smaller hen
• root vegetables (carrot, parsley root, some celery, parsnip)
• 2 tablespoons oil for greasing and sprinkling
• 1/2l. sour cream or thick yoghurt
• 2 cloves of garlic

Sift flour, make a well in the center, add some salt, the egg and the lukewarm water as needed. Knead into a smooth dough for the pie, divide it into 8-10 small balls, cover and leave to stand. Roll out the dough into rounds, not too thin. Bake them on top the stove or in a dry baking pan in the well heated oven, until brown and brittle. Cook the chicken in slightly salted water with roots. When cooked, take the chicken out, strain soup into a bigger pan. Remove bones, chop meat, add salt and pepper. Pour the pie over with heated oil and bake in the oven preheated to 200°C about 40 minutes or until nicely brown. In the meantime crush garlic and mix with beaten sour cream and pour over the tepid (not hot) pie, cover with a clean cloth or another tepsiya and leave to stand for a while.

Related articles:

• Bosnian Tirit pie

Tirit pie

Bosnian spinach pie (zeljanica)

Ingredients:

• 1 package filo pastry
• 2 bags washed fresh spinach
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 lb ricotta or cottage cheese
• olive oil
• 1-1/2teaspoons salt
• milk
• plain yogurt (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Wash and drain spinach. Chop spinach and put in a big glass bowl. Add salt and mix with hands. Leave for about 10 minutes and then drain the excessive water. Mix together eggs and sour cream and add to spinach. Add cheese to the mixture. Grease a baking pan. Take filo sheets and lay them on a dry surface.(While adding the filling, you may wish to cover the sheets with a dry towel and then a damp one to keep it from drying out or flaking.) Place one sheet of pastry into the pan and cut away excess. Brush with oil, using either your hands or a pastry brush. Repeat for 6 or 7 layers. Add a skim of filling and spread evenly. Repeat until the pie reaches the top of the pan or you run out of ingredients, but make sure you finish with the pastry on top. Place pie in the oven, uncovered, for about 35 minutes. Pour on top of the pie while it is baking, 1/4 cup sour cream blended with 0.125 cup of milk. Bake for another 15 minutes. This dish can be served warm or room temperature. It is traditionally served with yogurt.
Source: Visit-bosniaherzegovina.com

Bosnian spinach pie (zeljanica)

Montenegrin nettle soup

Ingredients:

• 600g. young top shoots of nettles, well washed
• salt
• butter for sauteéing
• 50g. round-grain rice, cooked
• 2 potatoes, diced small
• 1 bunch spring onions, coarsely chopped
• 1l. water

Pick the nettles wearing rubber gloves. Sweat the nettle tips, sprinkled with a little salt and water, in a lidded pan until just limp. Pound them to a paste in a mortar, or process to a puree with a food processor or stick mixer.
Saute the chopped spring onions and potatoes in a little butter until the potatoes start to color a little. Off the heat, add the nettles: then gradually stir in the water. Stir well and simmer gently until the potatoes are cooked through.
Serve in a tureen with a dollop of clotted cream.
Source: Europeancuisines.com

Montenegrin nettle soup

Carp on onion from Vranje

Ingredients:

• 1 carp of 1,5kg.
• 1kg. onion
• 1-1.5dl. oil
• 200g. rice
• 5-6dl. warm water
• salt and pepper
• 1 (leveled) teaspoon dried thyme

Cut onion into slices, cook slowly in heated oil. Add to it picked over, washed and drained rice, cook until it becomes glassy barely cover with warm water, add thyme, salt and pepper, mix. Clean carp, wash, cut gashes (but not very deep) on both sides 3-5 cm. apart. Place carp thus prepared on rice, brush it with oil sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put into the oven preheated to 150-170°C and bake until all is tender and the fish has a crisp brown crust (about 1 hour more).
This dish is traditionally served on Christmas Eve and St. Nicholas Day in the town of Vranje and it's vicinity (southern part of Serbia).

Carp on onion from Vranje

Izmir-style Kofte

Ingredients:

• 500g. ground meat
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• ¾ bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 potatoes, peeled and sliced and placed in salted water
• 2 large tomatoes, grated or 1 tomato paste
• 4-5 “sivri” peppers or 1-2 bell peppers cut into strips, or 3 anaheim peppers cut in half

Combine meat, onion, egg, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, knead well and shape into finger-length meatballs.
Saute potatoes lightly in a bit of oil and spread around the outer edge of a baking pan, preferably round. Fry the meatballs in the same oil and arrange in a sunburst shape in the pan. The sauté the peppers in the same oil and arrange over the meatballs.
Add a bit of water to the grated tomatoes, or mix tomato paste with 1 c water, and pour evenly over the meatballs in the pan. Bake at medium heat for ½ hour until the sauce has thickened.
Source

Izmir-style Kofte

Albanian walnut cake with lemon glaze

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 TBS lemon rind, grated
• 1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Glaze ingredients:

• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• dash of ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 150°C. For the cake, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and then mix in the eggs. Blend the yogurt with the buttermilk. Sift together the dry ingredients and add them alternately with the yogurt mixture into the egg mixture. Stir in the lemon rind and walnuts. Pour the batter into a buttered 9 x 13 inch baking pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. The cake should still be moist.

Meanwhile, make the glaze by simmering together all the ingredients, covered, for about 15 minutes. When the cake is done, remove it from the oven, turn the oven off, pour the glaze over the hot cake, and return it to the oven for about 10 minutes.

This recipe is published in cookbook: Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant

Albanian walnut cake with lemon glaze

Thick soup with herbs

Ingredients:

• 100g. parsley
• 100g. dill
• 40g. mint leaves
• 40g. celery leaves
• 50g. butter or oil
• 40g. flour
• 3/4-1l. water
• 2dl. yoghurt
• juice of a lemon
• salt

Wash spice herbs, remove stalks and snip all. Heat butter or oil, add prepared herbs, cook slowly in a covered pot. When tender, add flour, fry a little and add water. Simmer for about 10-15 min. mix separetely egg yolks, thick yoghurt or sour cream and lemon juice. Add soup slowly, then stirr all well. The soup must not boil any more.

Thick soup with herbs

Carp with red wine

Ingredients:

• 1 carp of 1/1,5kg.
• 40g. butter
• 1 onion
• 3 paprikas
• 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• salt
• 2-3dl. red wine

Heat butter or oil, add finely chopped onion cook it a little to soften, add cored paprikas cut into strips, cook, on until tender. Clean fish, wash well, wipe, sprinkle with lemon juice, rub with salt and parsley inside and outside. Grease a fireproof dish, put in fish, cover with stewed onion and paprikas. Bake in the oven preheated to 175°C. While baking, baste with juice to which wine is gradualy added. Bake until nicely brown. Serve in the same dish. As an accomplishment serve mashed or boiled potatoes.

Carp with red wine

Sutlijach

Ingredients:

• 1l. milk
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 lemon zest strip
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1.5l. water
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup white rice
• 3 egg yolks
• ground cinnamon for garnish
• almonds for garnish, optional

Sutlijach or rice pudding is a delicious Macedonian sweet dish. Here is the directions how to prepare it:
In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the milk, sugar, butter, lemon zest and cinnamon stick. Heats until small bubbles appear along the edge of the pan and then remove from the heat. Let stand for 30 minutes to develop the flavors.
Meanwhile, in another saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt and rice, reduce the heat to low and cook slowly until the rice kernels have swelled and are tender, 15-20 minutes. Drain.
Place the saucepan holding the milk mixture over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add the rice and simmer uncovered, stirring often, until thickened, 15-20 minutes. Remove the lemon zest and cinnamon stick and discard.
In a bowl, using a fork or whisk, beat the egg yolks until lightly frothy. Gradually add about 1 cup (8 fl oz/ 250 ml) of the hot pudding to the yolks, beating constantly. Gradually pour the warmed yolks into the remaining pudding, stirring constantly. Cook over very, very low heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.
Spoon the pudding into individual dessert bowls or one large serving bowl. Sprinkle with cinnamon and top with toasted almonds, if using. Serve sutlijach at room temperature.

Sutlijach

Cevapcici (Grilled Lamb & Beef Meatballs)

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. lard (or butter)
• 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1 Tbsp. sweet Hungarian paprika
• 2 Tbsp. onions, finely chopped

Heat the butter or lard in a small frying pan and when it starts to foam add the onions and garlic. Fry, stirring occassionally, until soft, around 6 to 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the lamb, beef, egg and spices in a bowl. When ready, add the onion and garlic mixture. Mix well. Shape into small cylinders, approximately 1" x 2" and arrange in a plate. Cover with plastic wrap, wax paper or a towell and refrigerate for one hour to one day, to let the flavors settle and the mixture become firm.

Arrange the cevapcici on skewers about 1/4" apart from each other. Grill or pan fry in medium heat until done to your preference. Serve sprinkled with chopped onions and accompanied with pita bread.

Source

Cevapcici (Grilled Lamb & Beef Meatballs)

Filiyas

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 500g. fine wheat flour
• 2dl. milk
• 1dl. water
• 300g. kaymak or butter
• salt

Heat the tepsya and in the meantime prepare the dough for filiyas: beat egg well, adding in turn flour, milk and water, add salt in the end. The dough should be smooth and slightly ticker then the pancake mixture. When the pan is heated, grease it with kaymak or butter, pour in thiner layer of dough, bake in the oven preheated to 200°C. When the layer is done, brush with kaymak or butter, again pour in a layer of dough and bake again. Repeat until all the dough is used. When done, cover filiyas with a clean cloth and leave to cool. "Filiyas" are always served with thick yoghurt or pickled paprikas from turshiya. In the traditional Albanian cuisine the filiyas are baked under the iron pan placed in the fire cinders.

Filiyas

Catfish baked with tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 lemon
• 1kg. catfish
• 1-2dl. oil
• 700g. tomatoes
• 30g. butter
• 300g. kachkaval
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1dl. warm water
• salt

Clean fish, wash, cut into bigger pieces, drip with lemon juice, salt. Leave to stand for a while, then roll in flour and fry in heated oil, take out. Wash tomatoes, peel, cut into halves, remove seed, cook a little in the same oil and salt. Put pieces of fish in a greased fireproof dish or casserole, then put tomatoe over, add some warm water, sprinkle with chopped parsley and grated cheese. Heat oven to 200°C, bake until brown. With fish serve boiled potatoes or cooked sprinkled with plenty of parsley. Other kinds of fish can be prepared in the same way.

Catfish baked with tomatoes

Roled-up cheese pie

Ingredients:

• 500g. thin layers of dough for the pie
• 750g. fresh unsalted cow cheese
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons double cream
• 50g. sugar
• 60g. raisins

Crush cheese well or pass through a sieve, add egg yolks, cream and sugar. Mix all well, add washed raisins, cleaned and wiped. In the end blenad in stiffly beaten egg whites. Place two layers of dough at a time on a clean table cloth, sprinkle each with melted lard, put some filling over one half of the dough layer, roll up and put into a cake tin greased with lard. Sprinkle with melted lard again. Repeat until all the dough layers and filling have been used. Bake in the over preheated to 175°C until brown. Cool the pies a little, then dust with powdered sugar which can be mixed with vanilla sugar.

Roled-up cheese pie

Dilber Dudagi-Fried cakes

Ingredients:

• 500g. flour
• 1/2l. water
• 150g. sugar
• 50g. butter
• 3 eggs
• salt
• 1-2dl. oil
• sugar to roll in
• 100g. mixed walnuts, almonds, pistachios

Mix flour with water in a pan, add sugar and stirring constantly bring to the boil. Add butter, mix firmly with a wooden mixing spoon and cook at medium heat until the butter is thick. Draw aside and cool. Then mix in eggs, one by one stirring well every time. Add salt. Toss on to the board dredged with flour and knead until quite smooth. Take the bits of dough slightly bigger then walnuts, shape into round flat cakes, than fold each up to look like "lips". Fry in heated oil to brown nicely. Drain fried cakes on absorbent paper, then roll in sugar and sprinkle with mixture of chopped walnuts, almonds and pistachios.

(Photo is taken from here)

Dilber Dudagi-Fried cakes