Recipes From Croatia

By Heneedsfood

Cover photo by Kreetta Järvenpää

Škampi na buzaru

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup virgin olive oil

• 1/3 cup coarse bread crumbs

• 1 small onion, finely chopped

• 6 cloves garlic, finely grated

• 4 tbsp brandy

• 3/4 cup dry white wine

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 400 g tomatoes, puréed

• 1 tbsp Vegeta to taste (or use salt)

• 1 tsp freshly milled black pepper

• 650 g scampi, rinsed & left whole

• 1/3 chopped parsley

• Fresh lemon, to garnish

• Crusty bread, to serve

Preparation

Heat 2 Tbsp of the oil in a large pan over medium flame, add the bread crumbs and stir for a couple of minutes until golden. Scrape the crumbs into a bowl and set aside.

Wipe out the pan and put it back onto the heat. Pour in the remaining oil and sauté the onion for 1 minute. Add the garlic and continue cooking for 5 minutes until soft. Add the brandy and ignite by tipping the pan so the flame catches it. Alternatively use a match or lighter. Once the flame has gone, add the wine, tomato paste and purée, Vegeta and pepper. Bring to boil then lay the scampi in the sauce. Cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes, tuning over once to cook evenly.

Gently stir through the bread crumbs and parsley, turn off heat and serve. Squeeze over fresh lemon juice, add more parsley and use bread to mop up the sauce.

Grah

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 375 g borlotti beans, soaked overnight (can be mixed with cannellini beans)

• 2 litres water

• 500 g bacon bones

• 100 g celery, chopped (about 1 stick)

• 50 g red capsicum, chopped

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 small onion, peeled & chopped

• 1/4 cup oil

• 4 garlic cloves, chopped

• 1 tbsp paprika

• 1 tbsp flour

• Parsley and virgin olive oil, to garnish

Preparation

In a large saucepan add the beans, water, bacon bones, celery, capsicum, bay leaves and onion. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about an hour, or until the beans are soft and wellcooked.

In a separate small frying pan, add oil and garlic and cook over low heat until light golden. Remove garlic and set aside. With the oil add the paprika and flour and stir to combine and let simmer for about a minute. Do not burn this. Put the garlic back into this roux.

When the beans are cooked remove the bones. Once cool enough to handle, pick the meat off the bones and add it to the soup along with the paprika mixture. Discard the bones. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes and check for seasoning. Depending on the salt content of the bones, you may not even need to add salt. Lots of pepper is fine.

Garnish with parsley leaves, a drizzle of virgin olive oil and serve with lots of fresh bread.

Oblatne

30-35 pieces

Ingredients

• 1 x 200 g packet wafers (5 sheets)

• 400 g sweetened condensed milk

• 250 g unsalted butter, softened or at room temperature

• 200 g dark chocolate, melted

• 110 g ground walnuts

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

Combine all ingredients, except wafers, in a large bowl and mix until creamy.

Lay a long piece of plastic wrap or foil (twice the length of the wafers) over the work surface and lay one of the wafers in the centre, waffled side up. Spread with a quarter (250 g) of the chocolate mixture all the way to the edges. Lay another wafer over the top and repeat the process until the final sheet of wafer. Do not spread chocolate over the top layer.

Gather the plastic wrap or foil from both sides and wrap the wafer cake well before refrigerating for a few hours or overnight. Cut into diamond shapes before serving.Cut into