© Ivelina Ivanova, autor
Lyudmil Haydutov, editor
Photography: © Nikolay Kamburov DARSS Translation: © Irina Cherkelova
English text consultant: Mick Cooper
Foodstyling: Irina Gutova Design: Elena Negrieva
Gourmet Publishing
First edition 2016, Sofia
ISBN 978-954-2917-91-5
Printing house: Aliance Print
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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Bulgarian Dishes Ivelina Ivanova
Š Elena Negrieva
About the Bulgarian cuisine Any national cuisine is much more than its geography, climate, history and way of living. It is part of its national identity, a reflection of its essence and vision of itself. Once a great state, its shores washed by three seas, it is now much more modest but Bulgaria still occupies a strategic position on the tastiest Balkan crossroads – a merging point for the tastes of Europe and the Orient, East and West, North and South. The dishes on a Bulgarian table today, the products, the spices and the cooking techniques form a beautiful mosaic of innumerable pieces collected in the course of millennia by ancient Thracians, Slavs, Proto-Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, Arabs and Persians. This mosaic has been created over centuries with wisdom and carefulness. We have taken something from everyone who has crossed our lands, leaving trace in our history and culture, the best, the staunchest, and the tastiest.
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Proof is found in the sources of our ancient culinary history – ever since the times of the Thracians, dishes with cabbage, parsnip, mint, thyme, dill, lovage, garlic, onion, lettuce, carrots, purslane, celeriac, dock and sorrel have been prepared in our lands. Various kinds of cheeses have been made. There is information that the Thracians were the first to sour milk with ferment of green plants, rich in Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, which made the milk much easier to be assimilated by the human system. The Slavs, on the other hand, baked the highly nutritious millet bread. They also grew rye and wheat, leeks, green peas, lentils, chick peas and turnips. From the Proto-Bulgarians, considered to be a nomadic people of meat and milk diet, we took jerked meat, although its legendary original version – meat dried on the back of the horse, salted by its sweat – sounds a bit too naturalistic. From our connections with Greece, we developed a taste for olives, lemons, olive oil, figs, courgettes, aubergines, cinnamon and bay leaves. From the Turkish cuisine, which is strongly influenced by the Arabic and Persian cooking, we borrowed the frying of food in more fat and paprika, the use of black pepper and allspice and the syrup soaked sweets. The Bulgarian names of numerous traditional dishes and products come from Turkish and Arabic – chorba, plakiya, kurban, kebap, kavarma, kyufte, sarma, patladzhan, yakhniya, gyuvech, kereviz, pilaf, byurek, kolak, trakhana, kayma, magdanoz, kaymak, halvah, lokum… What is the contemporary Bulgarian cuisine like? I would define it as obsessed with a specific and nostalgic, tasty conservatism. The restrictions are not necessarily a negative feature because it is exactly this conservatism that preserves our cuisine’s character and identity. This makes Bulgarian cuisine distinguished from other nearby national cuisines.
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The most ardently protected space in our cuisine is that of the spices. Savory and spearmint embody the fragrance of the typical Bulgarian dish. The first axioms taught in the kitchen of any Bulgarian home are beans or lamb with mint, lentils or potato stew with savory. The attempts to rebel against these rules of combination are usually met with complete disapproval, especially by the elderly. Paprika, parsley and dill are the runner-ups in the fragrance charts. Among the spices from the Orient the preferred ones are black pepper, bay leaf and cumin. Allspice and nutmeg are used mainly in sausages. In some of the regional dishes spices are used, which, in spite of our country’s relatively small area, are completely unknown in other parts – honey garlic, tarragon, wild cumin, fennel seeds, lovage, costmary, chervil and fenugreek. Until recently, seasons were of great importance in the Bulgarian cuisine. In the traditional village cooking it is still like that. In Spring, tasty dishes are made of spinach, dock, nettles, sorrel, green onions, lettuce, ramsons, orache, courgettes, broad beans, strawberries and cherries. They are combined with lamb, kid meat and poultry meat. In the Summer, we turn to vegetarian dishes and salads with tomatoes, string beans, young potatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumber, garlic and onions. The Autumn abundance of aubergines, leeks, red peppers, cabbage, celeriac, cauliflower and carrots is combined with weaned lamb meat and veal. Winter is the season for pork with potatoes, beans, lentils, green peas and rice. Holidays and celebrations are the natural time when food is displayed to be seen, handed out and shared to take part in rites and rituals. Cooking is a process very close to magic because the human hand transforms the products from one form into another. The Bulgarian ritual breads are richly decorated with sacred symbols, the round banitsa pastries embody the heavenly bodies, the dishes traditional for St. George’s Day, St. Peter’s Day and St. Nicholas’ Day with lamb, chicken and carp respectively, are remnants of pre-Christian offerings.
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All this can be described as diversity, savoury local seasonal products, preserved Bulgarian varieties and breeds, simplicity in tastes. Globalization, with all its advantages and disadvantages, is reflected in all aspects of life. Thanks to it, the mosaic in the Bulgarian plate becomes even more colourful. Seasons in food have almost vanished in the city cuisine. In the supermarkets you can find courgettes, spinach, tomatoes, aubergines, strawberries and raspberries at any time of the year but the taste is very different. The Bulgarian cuisine has always been part of the Mediterranean tradition and still is. Apart from dishes prepared with regional products, it is also the heart and soul devotion to tasty food, joy in experiencing and sharing the table with other people. The Bulgarian table is always well laden with numerous and tasty dishes, good wine and rakiya and many joyful people ready to share them with pleasure. The recipes in this book reflect my views and have been carefully selected to illustrate as clearly as possible the complete richness and diversity of tastes and fragrances of the Bulgarian cuisine. The method of preparing and the products are in accordance with the modern tendency for healthy cooking and eating, simultaneously preserving the Bulgarian identity of taste and feeling for food.
Enjoy cooking! Ivelina Ivanova
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Contents
Salads and Entrées Spring Salad..............................................................14 Bean Salad with Aubergines..................................16 Katak with Roasted Peppers................................... 18 Salad with Marinated Mackerel........................... 20 Walnuts and garlic appetiser.................................. 22
62
Kyopoolu................................................................... 24 Lyutenitsa................................................................. 26
Soups
Aubergine Byurek.................................................... 28
Raw Summer Soup................................................. 52
White Brine Cheese Bansko Style ........................ 30
Summer String Beans and Wild Plums Soup ......54
Baked Kachamak with Kashkaval and White Brine Cheese......................................... 32
Mushroom Soup with Sorrel.................................. 56
Baked Mushrooms ................................................. 34
Beans Soup with Boletus........................................ 60
Baked Stuffed Potatoes............................................ 36
Chicken Soup with Cabbage.................................. 62
Breaded Peppers in Tomato Sauce......................... 38
Shkembe Chorba ......................................................64
Patatnik on a Frying Pan...................................... 40
Kurban Chorba....................................................... 66
Baked Katmas with Mushrooms ......................... 42
Meatball Soup.......................................................... 68
Breaded Kashkaval................................................. 44
Knuckle of Veal Soup.............................................. 70
Baked Kashkaval ................................................... 46
Chicken Soup........................................................... 72
Tripe in Butter......................................................... 48
Fish Soup.................................................................. 74
Tarator....................................................................... 58
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Scad Fish Akhtopol Style...................................... 114 Mussels Plakiya..................................................... 116 Mussels with Rice................................................... 118 Fried Scad Fish....................................................... 120 Kebabcheta.............................................................. 122
146
Fried Meatballs...................................................... 124
Main Dishes
Peppers Stuffed with Meat in White Sauce......... 126 Moussaka................................................................ 128
Beans with Olives in Earthenware Pot.................78
Lamb Liver with Potatoes and Green Onions.... 130
Peppers Stuffed with Rice........................................ 80
Kebap in Aubergines ............................................ 132
Dried Peppers Stuffed with Beans.......................... 82
Wine Kebap............................................................ 134
Stuffed Vine Leaves with Rice and Lemon.......... 84
Kapama Gorno Draglishte Style ........................ 136
Tomato Stew............................................................. 86
Pork Kavarma with Leeks................................... 138
Monastery Stew........................................................ 88
Chicken With Cabbage......................................... 140
Baked Cabbage ....................................................... 90
Chicken with Rice.................................................. 142
Baked Courgettes with Rice ................................... 92
Chicken Lyutika.................................................... 144
Eggs Panagyurishte Style........................................ 94
Chicken with Vegetables on Sach......................... 146
Moussaka with Leeks, Bulgar and Kashkaval... 96
Roasted Chicken with Fresh Potatoes.................. 148
Baked Aubergines ................................................... 98
Forest Lamb Gyuvech........................................... 150
Potato Balls ........................................................... 100
Lamb Kebap with Green Onions........................ 152
Nettles with Eggs and Walnuts............................ 102
Drob Sarma .......................................................... 154
Baked Jerusalem Artichoke with Mushrooms.... 104
Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb in an Earthen Pot.... 156
Peppers Stuffed with White Brine Cheese............ 106
Gyuveche................................................................. 158
Mish-mash.............................................................. 108
Sauerkraut Leaves Sarmas with Meat............... 160
Fish Plakiya .......................................................... 110
Chicken Stew with Potatoes ................................ 162
Stuffed Carp............................................................ 112
Pork Chops in Brine............................................. 164
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Desserts
170
Kurabiyas with Marmalade ............................... 168 Turkish Delight Sweeties ...................................... 170 Halvah ................................................................... 172 Semolina Halvah ................................................. 174 Sweet Chocolate Salami ...................................... 176 Liquid Chocolate ...................................................178 Marmalade Cake ................................................. 180 Revane ................................................................... 182 Vanilla Cream Cake with Walnuts ................... 184 Biscuit Cake .......................................................... 186 Baklava.................................................................. 188 Marbled Cake ...................................................... 190
172
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Bread, Banitsa and Snacks Bread with Leaven................................................ 194 Soda Bread............................................................. 196 Festal Bread............................................................ 198 White Brine Cheese Bread Samokov Style ....... 200 Fortune Banitsa for the New Year’s Day .......... 202 Rolled, Coiled Banitsa.......................................... 204 Banitsa with Spinach on Frying Pan................ 206 Small Buns............................................................. 208
198
Milinka Buns Sliven Style ................................. 210 Tikvenik...................................................................212 Buhtas with White Brine Cheese..........................214 Tutmanik.................................................................216 Mekitsas ................................................................. 218 Milk Banitsa ........................................................ 220 Kozunak................................................................. 222
symbols
vegan
220
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vegetarian
fish and seafood
meat
desserts
| salads and entrĂŠes |
Katak with Roasted Peppers Ingredients for 4 servings 200 g strained yoghurt 4 tbsp olive oil or sunflower oil 100 g sheep’s milk brine cheese 2 tbsp roasted walnuts, cut 1 tbsp dill, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, pressed 4 roasted red peppers 1 small cucumber salt and vinegar to taste
Method 1. With a wooden spoon stir the strained yoghurt with the salt and a few drops of vinegar to taste. Pour the oil in thin trickle while keeping on stirring. Add the garlic, the finely grated cheese, walnuts, the 2 roasted peppers finely chopped and the dill. Leave the mixture in the fridge. 2. Cut the remaining 2 peppers lengthwise, cut small circles out of them and garnish with a spoonful of the katak and a thin slice of cucumber.
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