Examples Dishes of Balkan Cuisine

Elbasan Tavası

Ingredients:

1 kg yogurt
6 eggs
2-3 cloves garlic
1 kg boiled lamb
Butter
Red pepper

1. Mix yogurt and egg with a fork, add crushed garlic and pour into a pan.
2. Arrange the meat on top.
3. Heat some red pepper in butter and drizzle over the pan.
4. Cook at 175 C until the mixture has set.

Gratavası
Stewed White Beans

Ingredients:

½ kg dry white beans
2 medium onions
1.5 T tomato paste
2 t ground red pepper
Black pepper, flake pepper and cumin to taste
½ c oil

1. Soak beans overnight.
2. The next day, boil till tender.
2. Meanwhile, chop and sauté the onions.
3. Mix in the tomato paste and ground red pepper.
4. When the onions are transparent, add a bit of water and boil till tender.
5. Strain the water from the beans and place the beans in a clay baking dish.
6. Add the boiled onion mixture, and bake at 175 C until the top browns.

Pirinç Tavası
Baked Chicken with Rice

Ingredients:

3 c rice
3 T butter
2 medium onions
2 green peppers
1 kg chicken

1. Boil the chicken in salted water, let stand for 1 hour.
2. Rinse rice with cold water.
3. Mince the onion and pepper and sauté.
4. Add the washed rice.
5. Stir five or six times, then place in a baking dish and add enough hot chicken broth to cover the rice by the width of one finger.
6. Arrange the boiled chicken meat over the rice, add a bit of black pepper and cook in the oven until the water is absorbed.

Beyaz Lahana Dolması
Stuffed Savoy Cabbage

Ingredients:

1 medium Savoy cabbage
2 medium onions
300 gr ground beef
2 T tomato paste
Ground red pepper
Black pepper to taste
½ c rice
1 c oil

1. Remove the inside of a head of cabbage.
2. Put whole into a pot and boil until the cabbage softens. Remove from the water.
3. Saute the ground meat, rice, oil and salt.
4. Add the tomato paste, pepper and black pepper.
5. Fill the inside of the cabbage with this mixture, then cover with a few cabbage leaves and place cut side down in a baking pan.
6. Mix some tomato paste with the oil, pour over the cabbage, and bake at 175 degrees. As the cabbage cooks, baste occasionally with the oil and tomato paste.

Bayram Paçası

Ingredients:

7-8 sheets of baklava phyllo
200 gr butter
2 eggs
3 T flour
3 c meat broth
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 T yogurt
3 T vegetable oil
Cooked meat or chicken
Ground red pepper

1. Oil a baking pan, and stack the phyllo, brushing each layer with melted butter.
2. Pour the remaining butter on the last layer, and bake at 175 C until brown.
3. Add the boiling meat broth, return to the oven for 5 minutes.

Sauce:

1. Combine the garlic, yogurt, flour and vegetable oil with 1 cup of water, and cook on low heat until thickened. Pour this sauce over the phyllo.
2. Arrange the finely shredded meat over the top, heat some oil or butter with red pepper and drizzle over the top, return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes more.

Zeytinyağlı Kırmızı Biber Turşusu
Pickled Red Peppers with Olive Oil

Ingredients:

4 kilos red sweet peppers/pimientos
2 c olive oil
3 c water
1 handful sugar
1 handful kosher salt
1 head garlic
1 bunch parsley
1.5 bottles grape vinegar

1. Cut off the stems of the peppers and remove seed.
2. Boil the water, oil, sugar, salt and vinegar together.
3. Put 5-6 peppers into the boiling mixture and turn a few times.
4. Place the peppers in a non-metallic baking dish and let cool.
5. Chop the garlic and parsley.
6. Pack the peppers into a large jar, adding the garlic and parsley between layers.
7. Add the remaining liquid from the pot, cover tightly and place in the refrigerator.

Lahana Sarması
Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients:

1 cabbage
500 gr ground meat
250 gr rıce
1 T tomato paste
½ c oil
2 onions
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil the cabbage to soften. When softened, separate into leaves.
2. Chop the onions finely and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Place some of the filling in the leaf, fold the base over, the fold the sides in and roll up.
4. Arrange in a pot in a single or double layer, add water just to cover and simmer until done.

Ispanak Böreği
Spinach Börek

Ingredients:

1 kg flour
Water to make a dough the consistency of an earlobe
salt
½ spinach
250 gr margarine

1. Put ¾ of the flour into a large bowl and add salt and water to make a dough the consistency of an earlobe, knead well.
2. Divide the dough in two. Divide one piece into 10 pieces and the other into 14 pieces and roll or pat into discs about 1 cm thick. Stack them, brushing well with margarine.
3. Let cool, then roll out the stack of 10 into a sheet and line a round baking dish.
4. Into this, place well washed and chopped spinach. Roll out the stack of 14 and use to cover the spinach. Crimp the edges to seal, brush butter on the top.
5. Bake at 200 C for 30 minutes.

Traditional Sweets of Immigrants from Skopje

Source:Kübra Kutal

Samakof

Ingredients:

4 eggs
200 gr margarine
1 c self-rising flour
1 c all-purpose flour
500 gr milk

Syrup:

4 c sugar
3 c sugar

1. First boil the sugar and water to make a syrup.
2. Melt the margarine and add the milk, boil together.
3. Add the flour to the hot milk, and stir with a wooden spoon until it forms a dough.
4. Add a piece of margarine to the dough and stir a few times.
5. Remove form the heat. When the dough is lukewarm, add the eggs one by one, mixing well between additions.
6. Take pieces and form into rounds, arrange in a baking pan.
7. Bake in a medium hot oven until brown and firm, about 25-30 minutes.
8. When done, remove from the oven and pour the syrup over the pastries.

Pirinç Tatlısı
Rice Dessert

Ingredients:
200 gr margarine
250 gr (1 ½ c) rice
½ lt milk
3 eggs

Syrup:

3 c sugar
2 c water

1. Boil the sugar and water together to make a syrup, set aside.
2. Melt the butter and milk, bring to a simmer, and add the rice.
3. Cook till soft, stirring and mashing with a wooden spoon until it becomes dough-like.
4. Remove from heat, and when lukewarm, add the eggs.
5. Spread the dough into a buttered baking pan and bake at 175 C until the top is brown.
6. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, and pour over the warm syrup.

Vezir Parmağı
Vizier’s Fingers

Ingredients:

1 c water
2 T margarine
Enough flour to make a soft dough
1 egg
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Syrup:

3 ½ c sugar
2 ½ c water (syrup will be thick)

1. Boil sugar and water together to make syrup, set aside and allow to cool.
2. Heat the water and margarine, bring to a boil. Add enough flour to make a medium soft dough.
3. Remove from heat, let cool a bit, then add the egg and mix well.
4. Roll the dough into a rope, and cut into finger-length pieces, and fry in hot oil.
5. Put the fried dough into the cold syrup and allow them to absorb the syrup.

Güllaç
Ramadan Dessert of Starch Wafers

Ingredients:

1 lt milk
1 egg
125 gr butter or margarine
10 sheets of güllaç

Syrup:

3 ½ c sugar
2 ½ c water

Güllaç are special thin wafers made from wheat starch and beaten eggwhites. They are not made from scratch, but are available at stores during Ramadan. In the US, they are available at Turkish food stores or may be purchased from online suppliers of Turkish ingredients.

1. Beat the egg with the milk, and pour this mixture into a wide baking pan big enough to accommodate a sheet of güllaç.
2. Place each sheet into the mixture until it softens, then sprinkle with melted butter and fold into a square bundle.
3. Arrange on a baking dish. Sprinkle butter over all of them, and bake in a medium oven until their tops are brown.
4. While the güllaç are baking, boil the sugar and water together to make a syrup.
5. When the pastries are brown, pour the boiling syrup over the hot pastries and return to the oven for 10 minutes.
6. Remove and sprinkle with crushed walnuts.

Samsa

Ingredients:

1 lt milk
5 T rice flour
1 c sugar
Melted butter
5 sheets of baklava phyllo

Syrup:

5 c sugar
3 1/2 c water

1. Boil the sugar and water together to make a thick syrup, keep warm.
2. Mix the milk, rice flour and sugar and cook, stirring constantly, until it is pudding-like in consistency, let cool to lukewarm. 3. Cut the phyllo into 10 cm wide strips.
4. Brush with butter, put some of the pudding inside, and fold into triangles around the filling. (Fold one corner diagonally to the left side, then fold the resulting triangle away from you, fold diagonally to the right, etc. until the entire strip is used.)
5. Arrange in a buttered baking pan, and bake at 175 C until the tops are brown.  Pour the hot syrup over the hot pastries.

Şekerpare

Ingredients:

500 gr butter or margarine
600 gr flour
5 eggs, 4 divided
250 gr crushed walnuts

Syrup: 

5 c sugar
4 c water
1-2 drops of lemon juice

1. Boil then sugar, water and lemon juice to make a syrup, set aside and let cool.
2. Allow the butter to soften at room temperature.
3. Mix with 1 egg and four yolks. Add 600 gr of flour to make a soft dough.
4. Take walnut-sized pieces of the dough, open the center and fill with walnuts, then close like a bundle.
5. Repeat with the rest of the dough and arrange in a deep greased baking pan.
6. Bake at 200 C until the tops are brown, remove from oven and pour the cooled syrup over the tops, let cool.

İrmik Tatlısı
Semolina Dessert

Ingredients:

½ lt milk
125 gr butter or margarine
1 c semolina
4 eggs

Syrup:

4 c sugar
3 ½ c water
1-2 drops lemon juice

1. Boil sugar, water and lemon juice to make a syrup, set aside.
2. Boil the butter and milk together, and add the semolina.
3. Remove from heat, add the eggs and mix well. With a spoon, take pieces of the dough and arrange in a greased deep baking pan.
4. Bake in a preheated 200 degree oven until browned.
5. Remove from over, use a knife or spatula to separate from the pan, and pour the warm syrup over their tops.

Kaymaçina
Baked Custard

Ingredients:

1 lt milk
6 eggs
13 T sugar

1. Beat all ingredients together with a wire whisk and pour into a glass bowl.
2. Place the bowl in a  pan of water and bake at 175 C for  75 minutes.