Bosnian Burek - Savory Balkan shock of the senses

One of the first things u try when u live in the Balkans is the almighty Burek.
Its the comfort food only the peoples of this little piece of land could have come up with.
A shock to the senses and taste buds its nothing different than other meat filled pastry with the only difference that the Burek is eaten on every occasion in every neighborhood and the ultimate breakfast pastry, that in my opinion is taking over the world of breakfast delights like a storm.
Savory fillings baked in a thin pastry dough are popular throughout southeastern Europe, a legacy of the Ottoman Empire. They go by a variety of names — börek, bourek, böreği, bouréki. The Bosnian version, burek, is an easy ground beef meat pie rolled up into a snail-like form.
All of the countries on the Balkan peninsula that have a tradition in preparing this pastry have their own version of it but the king and the best type of Burek is the one prepared in the capital city of Sarajevo.

INGREDIENTS

Pastry

• Flour -- 2 cups
• Warm water -- 1/2 cup
• Melted butter or olive oil -- 1/4 cup
• Egg, beaten -- 1
• Salt -- 1 teaspoon

Meat Filling

• Ground beef -- 1 1/2 pounds
• Onions, minced -- 3
• Eggs, beaten -- 2
• Paprika -- 2 tablespoons
• Salt and pepper -- to season
• Melted butter or olive oil -- 1/2 cup

METHOD

1. In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to mix together the flour, warm water, melted butter or olive oil, egg and salt until it comes together in a doughy mass. Add more water, a tablespoon at a time, as needed to bring the ingredients together.
2. Remove the dough to a floured work surface and knead until smooth and pliable. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rest for at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix together the ground beef, onions, eggs, paprika, salt and pepper in a large bowl until smooth and set aside.
4. Remove the rested dough to a lightly floured work surface and roll out into a large rectangle. Place floured fists underneath the dough and gently pull sections of the dough out to form a very thin rectangle about 2 feet by 3 feet (60 cm x 90 cm). Take care not to tear holes in the dough. If you do, pinch them together. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes or so to dry out a little.
5. Brush the pastry dough all over with melted butter or olive oil. Place a row of the meat filling along the longer edge of the rolled out pastry dough, leaving a 1-inch border. Bring the bottom of the pastry up over the meat filling and roll it up into a long sausage-shaped roll.
6. Lay one end of the roll onto the middle of a greased baking pan. Carefully wrap the remainder of the pastry roll around itself to form a snail-shaped pie in the middle of the baking pan. Brush the top of the pastry with melted butter or olive oil.
7. Place in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until cooked through and golden-brown. Cut into wedges and serve with a large dollop of good yogurt.

Breaded zucchini with a Greek yogurt dip

I know its the summertime and all of us want to expose that great beach body we`ve been working on all year round... on the other hand you really cant say no to this deep fried goodness of a side dish i prepared for today.
Breaded, baked zucchini are a side dish orgasm.
Its fairly easy to prepare so u wont have to steam over the stove to prepare them.
U know that feeling when u get really bored from preparing the same minimal dishes in those hot summer days and u are really in need of some decadence ?
Well thats how i feel about side dishes sometimes. Sure, there is a health benefit to simple vegetables. But there is a deep satisfaction in something decadent.And sometimes you need that satisfaction.

Breaded, Baked zucchini are a side dish delight.
You peel them, cut them salt them and let them sweat. When completely drenched, you dry them dip in flour and eggs and put them in hot boiling oil.

Ingredients

2 zucchinis
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
Oil
3 tablespoons parsley
5 tablespoons flour
1/2 litter heavy cream

 Instructions for preparing this dish

1.      Wash and peel zucchini. Cut each in half, and then lengthwise into slices the width of three pennies stacked together. (You'll get about 20-25 slices.) Salt them up generously, and leave aside in a bowl for about 15 minutes to let them sweat out the moisture.

2.      Separately beat two eggs in a soup bowl, and add 1 teaspoon of seasoned salt (or ½ bouillon). Mix well. Take another bowl and pour the flour into it.

3.      Heat up some ooil in a frying pan on the highest setting. Dry each zucchini slice with a paper towel. First dip each in the bowl with flour, then in the bowl with eggs. Place carefully into the frying pan. Fry at the highest setting for a while, and then bring the heat down to medium. As you'll fry two or three batches due to amount of zucchini remember that the first batch will take the longest to fry, or about 3-4 minutes on each side. Each subsequent batch will only take half that. (You'll further bake zucchini so you are not frying them up completely, just until they get the right blushing color.) Heat oven to 390F.

4.      Beat the remaining egg, and mix with heavy cream, parsley and the remaining seasoned salt (or bouillon).

5.      Layer all slices into a pan (approximately 12-14 inch in diameter). You'll have 2-3 levels. Once layered, pour the heavy cream mixture over it evenly. Bake for 25 minutes, turning the pan around midway

     I enjoy this dish with a ton of sour cream and
     Greek yogurt as a dip for the baked zucchinis 

      Enjoy.

Cheesecake with greek Katiki cheese

One of the best thing`s in going on vacation in Greece are the wonderful deserts that are vast and great big kaleidoscope of tastes of that ancient country.
From the turkish influence with the baklava and eklers to the Lazarakia, a kind of sweer braed.Greece is one of thoese countries that u want to visit over and over again just because of the delicious deserts it offers.

So for today`s desert i offer a little modern twist on the mainstream cheesecake with a little greek zing.Enjoy
This Greek version of cheesecake uses the  tart Greek cheese xinomyzithra and creamy katiki. Garnish with sweet morello cherries or with a sauce made from fresh strawberries (beat in the blender the strawberries with some sugar and a little lemon juice).

Ingredients:

For the cream

• 600 gr katiki
• 600 gr xinomyzithra
• 4 sheets of gelatin
• 300 gr  sugar
• 500 ml cream milk

For the base

• 1 package biscuits (400 g Digestive)
• 80 gr butter, melted

Procedure:

To prepare the base, grate the biscuits in the mixer and combine with the butter then spread over the bottom of the pan.

Soak the gelatin sheets in some cold water.

For the cream, beat the two cheeses in the mixer with the sugar and slowly add the cream milk.

Extract 1/3 cup of the cream and warm it so that we could totally melt the soaked gelatin.

Stir the gelatin with the rest of the cheese mixture and spread over the biscuit base.

Place it in the fridge for 4 to 5 hours, to thicken so it could be easy to serve.

The king of meatballs

The King of meatballs

One of the most common dishes in Macedonia and the whole of the Balkans and one of the most beloved comfort foods in this region of the Mediterranean
His Majesty the Pasha meatball or as we call it Kjofte

If you visit Turkey, you`ll see Kjofte meatballs of ground meat in almost every restaurant on every small street from Istanbul to the smallest village.
Some Kjofte are made with bulgur rice, breadcrumbs others are meat only, mostly lamb but sometimes combination of beef and lamb.
This dish is old , Macedonian, our grandmothers and mothers prepared it. It`s Turkish origin is in its name `Pasha` or `Pasa` represents a higher rank in the Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitaries and others. However, Macedonia was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for almost 5 centuries and many recipes were inherited from the Turkish cuisine. This dish consists of small meatball in a special sauce prepared from flour which we call `Kasha`

Ingredients:

• 500 g minced beef
• 50 g rice
• 1 egg
• 1 grated onion
• finely chopped parsley
• ground black pepper
• 1/4 tbs salt

For the `Kasha`

• 4 tablespoons of flour
• oil
• 1.5 liters of water
• 2-3 tbs tomato puree
• 1 large carrot 
• 5-6 pieces of garlic
• mixed spices, black pepper,parsley, bay leaf

Preparation

1. First boil rice until half cooked 
2. Mix minced meat with onions.Add dried spices, black pepper, salt and parsley and add cooked rice.Mix well everything, then form balls with a size of a ping pong ball
3. Fry meatballs in hot oil
4. When done, remove meatballs from the pot and align on a kitchen paper
5. In the same pot, add carrots to fry a bit, then add the flour to fry just for a little while until it changes color
6. Then pour water and add chopped garlic, black pepper, mixes dried spices to taste, bay leaf and tomato puree and return meat balls in the pot.Leave to simmer quietly until the rice in the balls is fully cooked (about 10-15 minutes)
7. Serve Warm

The smells and tastes of the south European cuisine

The passion with which i am starting this blog has been within me for all of my life.
The location of my country and the whole of these food-passionate countries and their inhabitants,is in the middle of an explosion of cuisines that combine in the most delicious ways that only the ancient gods of Olympus could have put them together.
The region spans a wide variety of cultures with distinct cuisines most notably the greek, italian, slavic and spanish ways of cooking
The sole impact of the Mediterranean climate on the creation of this type of cuisine mean that they are beyond the core trio of oil, bread, and wine.Mediterranean cuisine encompasses the ways that these and other ingredients, including meat, are dealt with in the kitchen, whether they are health-giving or not.

In my home country of Macedonia these weird combinations of half oriental and half Slavic dishes are the main aorta of the type of diet of its inhabitants. The act of preparing these dishes in my country and all of the mentioned countries summarises the love and depth with which these people and their cuisines are interwoven within the invisible strings of tradition, family and love of food.


My job ... my goal with the creation of this blog will be to bring these ancient traditions of preparing common spanish, italian, turkish, greek and all around Balkan dishes, within the grasp of the intrigued connoisseurs all around the world, 
and maybe just for a slight moment bring a little taste, smell and music of these common household kitchen`s from the passionate food loving countries of Southern Europe.