100 Bulgarian Dishes

© 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

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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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