Kacamak (Cornmeal)

Ingredients:

• 400g. Cornmeal
• 1l. water
• Salt
• Oil

Kacamak that is also known as: Kačamak, kachamak or bakrdan is a traditional dish in Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro that is made of cornmeal/cornflour. Instructions for the recipe are very simple:

Put water in a deep bowl, bring to the boil, add salt and gradually add the corn flour, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. The mash should be medium thick.

Cook for half an hour and when cooked pour over with hot fat or oil. You can add potatoes, cheese, hot pepper or kaymak. Serve with yogurt or sour milk

Kacamak (Cornmeal)

Russian Salad (Ruska Salata)

Ingredients:

• 3 potatoes, boiled and chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 can of green peas
• 300g. of ham, chopped
• 300g. mayonnaise
• 100g. olives, chopped
• 5 pickled cucumbers, chopped
• salt to taste

Cook the potatoes and after that cut into slices as same as the carrots, ham, olives and cucumbers. Take all the ingredients (except mayonnaise) in a serving bowl and mix all slowly.

Add salt to taste. You can add pepper too. Now mix it all with mayonnaise. You can garnish with parsley and olives.

Keep in fridge at least for an hour before serving. Try Russian Salad with kiflichki instead of bread. Enjoy

Russian Salad (Ruska Salata)

Tomatoes Filled with Meat

Ingredients:

• 600g. veal
• 100g. onion
• 4 eggs
• Tomatoes
• Spices
• Rice
• Parsley
• Salt and pepper

Wash the tomatoes and carefully with the knife take off the top and core of each tomato. Leave the tomato to dry. Mince the veal in the meantime. Fry chopped onion and add minced meat, salt and pepper.

When the meat is fried, add chopped parsley, beaten eggs and some cooked rise. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and put in a saucepan. Bake for about 25 minutes. Serve on top of cooked rise in a plate with tomato juice or ketchup.

Tomatoes Filled with Meat

Stewed Zucchini with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1kg. small zucchini cut in cubes
• 3 medium tomatoes cut in pieces
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 1 tea cup of olive oil
• 1 vegetable cube
• 1 tea cup grated mitzithra cheese
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 3 eggs
• parsley, salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a saucepan. Braise the onion and the zucchini. Add tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients, except the mitzithra cheese and the eggs. Add some water and cook in low heat until the ingredients soften and absorb their juice. Then beat the eggs and the cheese with a mixer. Lower the temperature and pour the egg mixture on top of the zucchini. Cook until the egg thickens. Cover the saucepan and cook for some minutes. Add parsley, salt and pepper for taste. Serve cold.

This is healthy and vegetarian recipe, recommended for the people that want to try at home some new fat burning foods.

Stewed Zucchini with Tomato Sauce

Ajvar

Ingredients:

• 4 aubergines
• 8-12 fresh red paprika
• chili peppers to taste
• 1-2 dl. oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar)
• salt and pepper to taste

Ajvar is a popular appetizer made of roasted paprika, ripe tomatoes, and even string beans can be combined into ajvar. Ajvar is a seasonal dish in Macedonia, Serbia and other former parts of Yugoslavia, always made in late summer and early autumn, just after the paprika harvest, when many households bottle their own ajvar for use throughout the winter season. Here are the directions:

Wash aubergines, drain, put into the heated oven (175-200°C) and bake then peel while still warm. Wash paprika's, wipe and dry fry on top the stove, then put into deeper dish, sprinkle with cold water, cover and leave to cool. Skin cooled paprika's and remove seed. Grind paprika's and aubergines together. Peel onion, chop finely, cook slowly in heated oil until quite soft. Towards the end add cleaned and crushed garlic, cook shortly together, set aside, add ground paprika's and aubergines and mix (very often ajvar is prepared without adding onion and garlic).

Turn all into a deeper dish and drip in oil slowly, stirring all the time. When all the oil is used, add lemon juice or vinegar, salt, pepper and mix well. Put into a bowl, shape nicely, sprinkle with more pepper if desired and pour over with some more oil.

Serve as an appetizer to spread on thick slices of country-style white bread or flat pita bread with chunks of feta cheese, or use as a side dish to accompany grilled or roasted meats.

Ajvar is put into small clean jars pressed tightly so that there are no bubbles in them and the jars covered with cellophane ot parchment.

Worth reading:

• His Majesty - Ajvar by Cherry blossom girl

Ajvar

Risotto with mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 1-2 onions
• 1dl. oil
• 1dl. white wine
• 150-200g. mushrooms
• 300g. rice
• 0,75-1l. bone stock
• 100-150g. cheese
• 1/2 bunch of parsley
• salt and pepper

Peel onion and chop finely. Heat oil a little, add onion, cook until nearly tender, pour in wine, then cook together until it boils. Trim mushrooms, wash and slice finely, add to the onion and cook together for a short while.

Pick over rice, wash and drain well, add to the mushrooms, fry together for a while then pour in soup (or lukewarm water), add salt and pepper and stir slowly. Simmer until rice is tender.

When the risotto is cooked, stirr in grated cheese and chopped parsley. With fresh vegetables (tomatoes, paprikas, cucumbers) this dish can also be served as light supper.

Risotto with mushrooms

Panagurishte poached eggs

Ingredients:

• 8 eggs
• 4 soup spoons of butter
• 600g. of natural yoghurt
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 5 soup spoons of vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of paprika
• 1/3 of a teaspoon of chilli powder
• freshly chopped dill
• salt

Crush the garlic and mix this together with the yoghurt and half a coffee cup of salt. Bring a full pan of water to the boil (with salt and the vinegar). Break the eggs one by one into a bowl, then poach them in the simmering water.

After three minutes of cooking, remove the eggs. In a serving bowl, place the yoghurt and then the eggs on top. Heat the butter, add paprika and the chilli powder. Mix together for a few seconds and remove from the heat. Drizzle over the poached eggs.

Sprinkle with freshly chopped dill and serve with a dry white wine and fresh crusty bread for a delicious and quick meal.

Panagurishte poached eggs

Macedonian pogacha (Rich bread)

Ingredients:

• 750g.-1kg. flour
• salt
• 2 tablespoons lukewarm milk or water
• 20 g. fresh yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 dl. oil
• lukewarm water as needed
• 2-3 eggs
• salt
• lard or oil for greasing
• flour for dusting

Pogacha (Rich bread) is something like white bread and there are as many recipes for it as there are shapes. The next recipe is from Macedonia:

Sift flour. Crumble yeast, add some sugar, some flour and lukewarm water or milk. Mix well until smooth and leave to stand in a warm place to rise.

Make a well in the center of flour, add oil, egg yolks and one whole egg, salt and creamed yeast. Pour in some lukewarm water and mix all. Knead into smooth dough until bubbles appear in it. Dust the dough with some flour and leave it to stand in a warm place for about 45 minutes.

Grease a baking pan (tepsiya) with oil or lard. Toss the risen dough onto a board dredged with flour, knead it shortly, put into the tepsiya, cover and leave to stand like that for about 10-15 minutes. Before baking, prick with a fork in several places. Bake in the oven preheated to 200 Celsius degrees for about 30-35 minutes. When the crust is brown, it can be covered with tin paper or thin foil. When done, sprinkle the pogatcha with some water and wrap it up with clean cloth.

Serve warm, preferably with kaymak, some cheese spread or the like, as an appetizer.

The recipe is adapted from "The Balkan Cookbook" by Radojko Mrljesh

Macedonian pogacha (Rich bread)

Baked lamb and yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 lbs. lamb
• 4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
• 2 tablespoons rice
• salt and pepper

For yogurt sauce:

• 1 tablespoon flour
• 4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
• 2 lbs. yogurt
• 5 eggs
• salt and pepper

Cut meat in 4 serving pieces, sprinkle each piece with salt and pepper, and bake in a moderately-heated oven with half the butter, sprinkling the meat with its gravy now and then. When meat is half-baked, add rice; remove the baking pan from the oven and leave it aside while you prepare the yogurt sauce:
Sauté flour in butter until mixed thoroughly. Mix yogurt with salt, pepper and eggs until a uniform mixture is obtained, and finally stir in the flour. Put the sauce mixture in the baking pan; sauté it with the meat pieces and bake at 375 degrees F for about 45 minutes. Serve hot.

Source: Albanian.com

Baked lamb and yogurt

Tirana furghes with veal

Ingredients:

• veal cutlets, one pound
• salted cottage cheese, half-pound
• 1 tablespoon flour
• butter, one quarter-pound stick
• 3 tablespoons virgin olive oil
• 1 onion
• salt, black pepper and chili pepper to taste

First, cut the veal cutlets into small pieces and then dice the onion. In a saucepan, preheat the olive oil and Sauté the meat and onion for 15 minutes. In another saucepan, melt the butter and then add flour, cottage or Feta cheese, and black pepper, salt and chili pepper to taste. Mix all the ingredients together (adding the Sauted meat and onions) in the saucepan and place in a preheated 350 oven for 15 minutes. Take out and serve immediately.
Note: Instead of veal cutlets, beef liver can be used in the same quantity of meat and preparation/cooking instructions as above.

Source: Albaniantranslators.com

Tirana furghes with veal

Courgette pie

Ingredients:

• 1kg. courgettes
• 30g. flour
• 1dl. oil
• 4 eggs
• 200g. cheese
• 1/2 bunch of dill or parsley
• salt and pepper
• 2dl. sour cream

Peel courgettes, wash, cut into rounds and salt. Leave them to stand for a while. then roll in flour and fry in heated oil to get brown. Mix two egg yolks and cheese, add salt, pepper, chopped dill and two stiffy whisked egg whites. Mix all slowly. Grease a fireproof dish, or tepsya, with oil, then put layers of courgettes. Pour over with some oil and bake in the oven preheated to 200°C about 20 minutes. Beat well the other two eggs flour and sour cream or milk, pour over and return into the oven to brown. Serve warm.

Courgette pie

Tirit - Chicken Pie

Ingredients:

• chicken
• water
• 2 carrots, shredded
• 1 parsnip, shredded
• 1/2 cup oil or butter
• 2 bunches green onions, chopped
• 1 bunch of parsley, chopped
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 package phyllo dough
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk.

Tirit is a traditional Bosnian dish that can be served as an appetizer, but also as a lunch or dinner entree. Here are the instructions how to prepare the recipe:
Wash the chicken inside and out. Put in a large cooking pot, fill with water and add shredded carrots and parsnip, season with salt and pepper. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through and tender, about an hour. Remove the chicken from the broth, filter the broth and keep for other uses. Discard vegetables.
Let the chicken cool down and then remove meat from the bones, making sure the meat remains in large pices. Put chicken in a bowl and discard bones and skin.

Meanwhile, heat some oil and fry the green onions until soft. Add the onions and chopped parsley to the chicken and season with more salt and pepper.
Heat the oven to 350F.
Oil a large, deep baking pan and place 10 layers of phyllo dough, brushing each one with oil or melted butter. Put the chicken on the phyllo, level and cover with 10 layers of dough, brushing each one with oil or butter.
Mix the sour cream with the milk and pour it over the pie.

Bake the pie for about 45 to 50 minutes. When done sprinkle with water, cover and let stand for a while. Serve warm.

Source: Margarita's Recipes

Related articles:

• Turkish Tirit pie

Tirit - Chicken Pie

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

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

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

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

Cheese and sour cream cakes

Ingredients:

• 500g. German cheese
• 100g. butter
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• 200-300g. sour cream
• 150g. flour
• salt
• sugar

Pass cheese through a sieve or crush well. Beat butter well, add yolks, cheese, sour cream, the egg and flour. Mix well. Form smaller, flat cakes with some flour, try in heated butter or oil until nicely brown. Serve warm with sour cream.

Cheese and sour cream cakes

Corn bread with cheese and kaymak

Ingredients:

• 450 g. maize flour
• 50 g. wheat semolina
• 300 g. cheese
• 100 g. kaymak
• 3-4 eggs
• 1 dl. oil
• 2 dl. mineral water

Mix maize flour and semolina. Crush cheese well, add kaymak or sour cream, egg yolks, oil and mineral water. Mix all well, than add mixed corn flour and semolina. Whisk egg whites stiffly and blend them carefully. Grease baking pan well with oil, pour the mixture into it. Bake in the oven preheated to 175 °C about 50 minutes. Cool cornbread a little, than cut into squares. Serve with sheep or cow cheese spread or with drinking or thick yogurt.

Corn bread with cheese and kaymak

A pie in Krushevo manner

Ingredients:

• 250 g. cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 baking powder
• salt
• 12-15 tbsp. flour
• ½ tsp. caraway
• 1 egg yoke

Puree the cheese and add the whisked eggs, the baking powder, salt and flour. Mix the dough with a spoon, lay in an oiled pan, coat with the egg yoke and caraway and bake. Serve with sour milk, yogurt or beer.

A pie in Krushevo manner