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.

 

That's not Foreign! (Week 2 - England)

My son was so disappointed that when he picked out "England" as our second country. I pointed out to him that to people from other countries, our food is foreign but I am not sure if he believed that. He just complained that the food would be 'boring' and that there would be no pasta! My husband, on the other hand, was a little more excited as his instant thought was 'man food' and he has been happy with what we have had...

 

I know the idea was to do at least one dish, but I have done several. We had a lovely beef casserole, with onions, mushrooms, carrots and dumplings (forgot to add the pearl barley). Then we had home made fish and chips, Roast chicken and I used the rest of the chicken for chicken and mushroom pie and I am in the process of making a chicken soup for tonight, with some lovely crusty bread. I also did a apple crumble. No English cakes this week, as I had some blueberries I needed to use up ( I turned them into muffins, which are American more than English).

 

This morning we pulled out the country for next week, which my son is excited about - Barbados, so that should be interesting and maybe a little more exciting for him than England!


Chat more next week, need to do some research!

 

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Beef Casserole..............87
Chicken Pie..................90
Chicken Soup................90

 

 

Beef Casserole

 

Ingredients:

Serves 4

 

1lb braising steak, bite sized tossed in seasoned flour

1 onion, sliced

(Optional: pearl barley, mushrooms, carrots)

 

Gravy:  2 Oxo cubes,

2 rounded tsp Bisto powder

1 heaped tsp cornflour

 

Method:

 

1. Fry the onion, until golden and place in the casserole dish. Fry the seasoned meat until golden and place in the casserole dish, with the sliced mushrooms, chopped carrots and pearl barley if using.
2. Boil 1 pint water and crumble in oxos, lower the heat. Add bisto and cornflour (which has been combined in a little cold water). Stir to avoid it going lumpy.
3. Pour over the meat and place in pre-heated oven on GM4, 180C, 350F, when bubbles lower oven to 140C, GM1 275F for 2 ½ hrs. (or it can be cooked at GM4, 180C, 350F for 2 hours)
   NB: Dumplings can be added 20 mins before serving. It can also be served with lovely greens and mash, or rice and other veg.
    

Chicken Pie

Makes 1 pie (8”)

Ingredients

Left over chicken from a roast (I cook a roast, I always cook a big bird to get the leftover meat)

Packet Puff Pastry (or you can use short crust)

Mushrooms

Onion

Veg stock cube 

 

Method

1. Lightly fry off the mushroom in a big pan, add the chicken and mushrooms and let it warm through.
2. At the same time roll out the 2/3rds of the pasty to line the bottom of the tin.
3. Make a well in the centre of the pan mixture and put in the vegetable stock cube with a small amount of water.Crush down the cube and then mix it through the pie filling.
4. Pour the filling into the pastry case and then roll out the remaining pastry to make the top. (You will have some left over, which you could turn into a jam roly-poly and pop into the freezer for another day)
5. Make a hole into the top of the pie and pop into the oven for 20-30 minutes at 180C

 

 

Chicken Soup

 

Ingredients

 Left over chicken carcass

 Onion

 Root vegetables: we prefer carrots, sweet potatoes and parsnip

 

 

Method

 

1. After picking off most of the meat for the pie put the carcass into a large pan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to boil and skim off any fat off the top. Simmer for at least 1 hour, but not more than 2 hours. You might need to top up the water a little.
2. Strain the liquid and pick off bits of meat and pop into the stock. You have now made your base for your soup.
3. Making the soup. Pop some butter / oil in a large saucepan and put in the chopped onion (if using). Prepare the vegetables and add to the saucepan along with the stock (it will look like jelly when cold)
4. Again, bring to the boil and then simmer for at least 1 hour, no more than 2 hours. You may need to add more water. Also, you could add lentils or pearl barley or chick peas if you want more of a meal.
5. We just love this as is, with fresh crunchy rolls.