Man Food - (Week 5 - Slovenia)

OUR EXPERIENCE

My man (husband) was the excited one this week, as we were having what he calls 'man food'. Although I could find what Slovenians ate, I did struggle to find recipes for those meals. So I hope what we did represents the country’s cuisine correctly. We liked it, it was tasty, warming – as we were having a cold spell (with some snow) and filling. The Bograc (stew) was delicious and the method is my version from what I could gleam from a very basic line of 'cook until soft'. I just served it with mash and savoy cabbage.  Personally, I would prefer more paprika; but it was a quiet dinner table as we all ate.


Polsja Obara was meant to be our next dish, although the chap in Tesco’s looked a little shocked when I asked if they stocked dormouse. Instead of dormouse I used turkey breasts, as I felt that dormouse would be more meaty than chicken (no idea why). Another success!


The final dish was the national dish: Idrijski Zlikrofi and here I need a confession. It didn't look anything like the picture I found. I know why, it was because I rushed it. Personally, I thought it was ravioli, shaped liked squashed pillows. My pasta wasn't thin enough, I had the balls too big and their shapes would have provided my son some fun for his 3D shape maths homework!


But at the end of the day, once cooked they tasted really nice. We all enjoyed them, and it was then that I started virtually kicking myself as I could see if I had invested the time it would have been a terrific dish.

 

I wanted to do the honeybread (Drazgose) but could only find the ingredients and not a method and I didn’t get around to working out how to make it. Pajtiche is another dish that didn’t make it off the paper, but I might still work out how to make them and give it a go. Once I recover from the Idrijski Zlikrofi incident. I have included the ingredients, so if you want to try one Sunday afternoon, then feel free to and please - let me know the outcome!

Next week we are off to Columbia, so we might have Aerepas....

Slovenia - The Country


Slovenia is a hilly country covered in forest, in actual fact it is the third most forested country in Europe and over a third of it is protected. They have 100 castles, with another 500 in ruins and 10,000km of marked hiking trails. Along with the forests, about 1% of the country is covered in vineyards.

The Cuisine 

Slovenia interestingly has developed 170 regional and typical dishes, which can only be described as ‘man food’ good hearty food such as meat, potatoes and cabbage. They have lots of earthy vegetables, with meat and a smattering of herbs.

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Bograc (Stew).............................................83
Polsja Obara (Dormouse Stew)..................77
Idrijski Zlikrofi...................................................68

 

Wanted to cook:

Drazgose (Honey bread)
Pajtiche

Bograc (meat stew)

Serves 5
Ingredients
350g Beef
350g Venison (I could only get venison sausages)
350g Pork
500g onions
25g garlic
25g paprika
250g tomatoes
200g peppers
500g potatoes
2 tbsp red wine
Bay leaf, thyme, salt, rosemary, pepper
 
Method:

1. Fry the onion, garlic and meat, until just browning. Add the paprika and pour on enough water to cover along with the herbs and the vegetables (but not the potatoes) and the wine.
2. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about ½ hour, then add the potatoes and simmer for another 1 hour.
   NB: I didn’t add the potatoes, instead I cooked them separately.
    

Polsja Obara (Dormouse Stew)
NB: This is all I could find, I just used the quantities which suited our requirements.
Ingredients
Dormouse (I used Turkey)
Oil,
Onion
Carrot
Parsley
Celery
Lemon rind
Marjoram
Bay leaf
pepper
Vinegar
Vegetable stock
Cornflour mixed in cold water

Method:

Fry the chicken until browned with the onion. Add chopped carrots, parsley and celery. Then add some stock, which has been mixed with some cornflour diluted in cold water. This will thicken the stock. Also add the pepper, marjoram, bay leaf and lemon rind and vinegar. Cook for 40mins. Serve with cooked potatoes.

Idrijski Zlikrofi

This is all I had!
Dough: 9oz white flour, 2 eggs, Oil, Milk, Pinch of salt
Mix all the ingredients and knead for 10 minutes. Rest for 30 minutes, then roll into rectangles.

Stuffing: 17oz potatoes Cook for 30minutes, peel and mash. Add smoked bacon, salt and pepper and chives. When cold make into small balls.

Once the pastry is rolled out, place the balls on one side so you can turn the rolled pastry over. Then you can cut small rectangles of pastry with filling and you then need to make the right shape. It sort of looked like a pillow that has been slightly pinched in the middle.

Cook in boiling salted water for 12 minutes.

Drazgose (Honey bread)

Knead out 1/3 white flour, 1/3 rye flour and 1/3 heated honey. Add ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda. Design shape and bake.

 

Pajtiche

Knead dough from white flour, milk, oil, salt and yeast. Roll the raised dough and cover it with filling. Sauté onions in butter; add walnuts and breadcrumbs and a little hot milk. Make rolls 5cm diameter 1 finger thick. Place in greased tin and leave to rise. Then bake.