[bluesman]

Burek time!
For reference, the island is about 3.5 X 5.5 ft.


Feta Cheese on top, seasoned beef/onion/garlic on bottom left, and a mix of the two fillings bottom right.

I was too close on this last shot, a little blurry. I gotta work on my camera skills. This is the wife's work BTW.

I would love to learn how to make that sometime. There's a real skill to making this great meal.

[capozzoli]

Oh yeah, that looks awesome.

Come on man, crack those knuckles and write out that recipe!

[beerocd]

Oh yeah, that looks awesome.

Come on man, crack those knuckles and write out that recipe!

I've said it before - I'll say it again - we ain't got no recipes.
Wife eyeballs the dough. It's just water, flour, salt, oil and eggs.(claims the eggs make it stretchier)
According to the wife...
Around four cups of warm water, 2 eggs, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, add flour and knead add flour and knead add flour and knead until the dough is thick enough to hold it's shape in a ball. Let it sit a while, in a warm oven - maybe half hour and then you can start stretching.
Well floured cloth, I don't think I can teach you to stretch over the internet, but stretch as far as you can without ripping, then with a knife you cut off all the the perimeter which is too thick leaving only the thin stretched dough. As you see in the picture you only cover 2/3 to 3/4 of the dough leaving some naked dough so it will seal dough against dough to stay in roll form.
Use the cloth to roll the burek, lifting the cloth from the side with filling causing the dough to roll toward the nekked dough.
So you end up with the ~4 foot roll and you bring your pan next to the roll for easy transfer. First cut the ends off the dough where there would be no filling, the cutting motion will seal the edges for you. Then coil the roll into your greased baking pan. We use an official enameled round pan, that just fits into the oven. It takes two of the rolls pictured to fill the pan with burek.
Filling is ground beef, onions, garlic, vegeta, paprika, garam masala (I know - real traditional ingredient), dried parsley, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, salt.
Before spreading out the filling add 6-8 eggs and mix well - once baked in the dough it will keep the meat from falling out.
Over season it to overcome the blandness of the dough; the dough above will be enough for about 6 lbs of meat.
Or you can use feta cheese, eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, oil - just don't make it too soupy. If you know what chicharon is(deep fried pork with skin on), you can dice that up and throw it in with the cheese.
Served hot is best, later when you reheat it you will probably want a dollop of sour cream or yogurt to dip into as it dries out on subsequent reheatings. Not so much on the cheese ones, but definitely the beef one.

350 for 45 minutes to an hour uncovered - just watch the top of the dough till it turns a nice rustic brown color. When it comes out you flick some water across the top with your fingers and cover with a towel for 10-15 minutes to soften the crust just a bit so it's not crumbling when you cut it up.

Ask away - I'll answer whatever I can. We really mostly cook by eyeballing, tasting, feeling the food. The old fashioned way.

[capozzoli]

I cook almost everything the same way. I dont measure to much, only when first cooking something complicated.

I only use cookbooks and recipes as a guide. Once I can make a dish consistently the same way time after time I no longer need a guide.

Your instructions seem like a good guide, Im gonna try it.

Still no word on the Passage Steak huh? MAybe its Croatian. Still sounds borekish what with the feta cheese an meat and dough.

I wonder why it is called passage steak maybe it is an Easter or passover type thing?

Is humus a Yugo thing? or Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna) Lots of Greek influence there right?

[beerocd]

Still no word on the Passage Steak huh? MAybe its Croatian. Still sounds borekish what with the feta cheese an meat and dough.
I wonder why it is called passage steak maybe it is an Easter or passover type thing?
Is humus a Yugo thing? or Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna) Lots of Greek influence there right?

No hummus, no pastitsio, no passage steak. Could be Cro but they are big into fish (Adriatic).
Mussaka, Paprikash, stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, whole roast pig, lot's of smoked meat, feta - that's what I grew up on.
We do Ivar - Roasted and peeled red bell peppers, eggplant, oil, spices, garlic all coarsly ground, slow cooked until thick (a little looser than hummus and eaten with bread. Generally you do one batch in September, put it in Mason jars to last you until next year. Or the same peppers just peeled, with crushed garlic, oil, and salt - eaten fresh as a side.

Foods vary from village to village - so I can't say absolutely no way it's Serbian. But I've never heard of it, nor have any family members of mine. EDIT: google maslenica and you come up with tons of Croatian references - so yes I guess it's a Yugo dish just not particularly Serbian.

[capozzoli]

Mussaka is also a Greek dish. How do you Serbs prepare paprikash, the same as the Hungarians?

Northern  Indian again last night.




In front is a cracked and toasted wheat mixed veg upma. Then a bowl of masala channa dal. Saag Aloo (potatoes in a pureed spiced spinach and onion sauce. And fried naan bread taking the center stage. As with most Indian meals the bread is a big player.

[bluesman]

Looks great. 

How do you prepare the cracked and toasted wheat mixed veg upma?

[beerocd]

Mussaka is also a Greek dish. How do you Serbs prepare paprikash, the same as the Hungarians?

OK - to Hungarians, it's GOULASH. Paprikas is made with Paprike (bell peppers) and Goulash is generally Potatoes. And then there's Becar Paprikash which is Tomatoes, Peppers and Onions, it'd be vegetarian except for the eggs at the end to thicken.

Wiki "Serbian Cuisine" there's some pretty good stuff there.

Again, the bread in your dinner interests me the most - but I grew up a big bread eater. Bread with EVERYTHING.

[capozzoli]

In Hungary paprikash is a Chicken dish. It is roasted chicken, with the drippings from the pan and perhaps a little chicken broth mixed with a lot of paprika and sour cream.

Ill check out those serb dishes, I love learning new cooking methods, Im running out of new.

Ill post a recipe for the bread and for the upma a little later. Upma is basically Indian style cous cous.

[nicneufeld]

Well, I unearthed (in a figurative sense) my gravlax tonight, and while I plan to cold smoke it some tomorrow to add an extra layer of flavor, I tried a few slivers on Norwegian crispbread, and wow!  Great stuff.  As long as I don't get sick.  I bought prefrozen salmon, so the roundworm concern should be negligible.   

[capozzoli]

I love gravalax. Sometimes we go to the little Cafeteria at the Ikea to get a plate of it. Very nice with some mustard sauce and mixed greens and flotbrod.

cant imagine it smoked though. Maybe it will be good.

I was watching a Swedish cooking show the other day on Create (a great TV station if you dont have it) I think the show is called new Swedish cooking. Always has different hosts cooking outdoors. Really neat. Anyways, they were making fermented sea trout. Trout is very closely related to the salmon. They were taking these small fish after catching them from a hole in the ice. They carefully gutted them and then rubbed them inside and out with sea salt. Then they stacked them neatly into a food grade bucket. covered them with water that has been boiled and then returned to room temp.to sterilize. Then put in a closet at room temp for a "month or two" 

[nicneufeld]

You're talking about New Scandinavian Cooking...and if the episode in question is what I'm thinking of, it was an episode with Andreas Viestad (the original, and Norwegian host), and they were making rakfisk fermented in some guys closet.  I'm nowhere near there yet, myself. 

Gravlax and lox (smoked salmon) are really not much different outside of one being smoked, and one not.  I do like the dill flavor though.

But yeah, I can credit New Scandinavian Cooking, and its successor "Perfect Day" (outside of the annoying, nasally-voiced Finnish chick) for igniting my interest in northern european cuisine.

[capozzoli]

Yeah that is the show, but I think the host was English. Cant remember his name but he had an English accent and spoke with a stammer. He did make a gravalax also. I think it may have been for a Christmas feast. He did that roasted pork belly thing too that Scandinavians love so much. Good show.

[nicneufeld]

No, that's the same guy, Viestad, he is Norwegian and sounds like he learned English from the Robin Leach School of Overzealous British Accents.  The pork dish was juleribbe, a sort of clove-spiced Christmas side of pork basically with a huge fat cap.  I never see that particular cut of pork in my area, so no aping that for me.

[capozzoli]

Greek.



This is a dish of lamb shank, or goat pictured is goat; braised in the pressure cooker for about twenty mins or so with chopped onions splash of white wine, tomatoes olive oil, oregano, rosemary, nutmeg cinnamon salt and pepper. Start by browning your veg spce and onins a little bit then add wine and then tomatoes. Cover with lid and simmer till tender.

I had large goat shanks that are sliced cross ways so I just cut them in chunks, Greek cooks do it this way to but most traditionally the shanks are braised and served whole.

Most widely served on top of a bed of orzo pasta. While hot and strained melt some butter on top and mix through with cheese (parm. cheese or the Greek equivalent if you can get it). Then while the pasta is still hot add a cracked egg into the orzo with a ladle full of the hot tomato sauce. Mix well until the egg cooks from the heat of the pasta.

Put the past mixture on the plate and with a ladle create a depression in the middle of the pile. Then ladle the sauce into the center. Garnish with a few shakes of cinnamon onto the exposed pasta and top with some chopped fresh flat parsley.

I am going to explode.

I was gonna make homemade yellow corn sopes tonight but ran out of time. Maybe later this week.  For some reason all afternoon I had the munchies and I was craving yellow corn sopes. 

So back to the Indian bread. I use bread flour, about two cups for four laves of naan. I mix some yeast into room temp or slightly warm milk. Pinch of sugar to wake the yeast up. Let it start to proof and get going. Add a teaspoon of salt to flour, a few pinches of cumin seed, a few pinches of mustard seed. Both optional. Mix in the mixer till a nice workable dough forms. Add flour if to wet, sprinkles of  milk or water if to dry. Let it rise in a warm place. Roll into balls about twice the size of a golf ball and roll it out, thin. Then fry in a half inch of oil. Or in a dry pan or bake. I get the best results frying in oil. It makes so that they peel off in layers. This is desirable cause Indian food is often eaten with the fingers and this makes for good pieces of bread to create a vehicle for the different sauce and foods. This bread goes great with everything not just Indian food. Also, I call it fried naan but it is more accurately called something else when fried.

The upma is a kind of semolina whole wheat that I get at the Indian grocery store. It is very carefully toasted in a dry pan till light brown. Then it is set asside. There are all different recipes that it is added to mostly for breakfast dishes. The one above is made wit onions, carrots, peas, raisins, garam masala, salt, pepper and a few curry leaves. After the veg and spices have sauteed a little enough water is added to cook like rice. About one part water to two parts wheat.

Good stuff, great for a healthy microwave lunch.


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