skampi or how I sent my Aunty Boja broke

When you're a guest anywhere in the balkans you are King and I mean that literally, you have never experienced hospitality like it,  family members who will sleep on the couch in their OWN home so you can have the bed, the piles of food and drink, when I'm in Croatia I quite like staying in rooms let by little old "baka's " ( grannies ) who needs a concierge when you have a granny who's only lived oh say 50 years in the medieval sea side town you're visiting, and bakes biscuits and cakes for you in the morning before you hit the town, and has a shot of rakija waiting for you when you come back...anyway many years ago whilst on a visit to Croatia I stayed with my Aunty Boja who is an exceptional cook, and after a few days of catching up and reminiscing, filling her in on her sisters life in faraway Australia she asked me what I wanted for a farewell dinner I don't know if it was the slivovitz but I grinned like an idiot and shouted out "SKAMPI," the room went silent for a moment before my Aunty said " sure of course " so the next day I wandered the well laid out streets, admired the buildings from the Austro-Hungarian era and came across the fish market where I noticed these tasty little mini lobster like crustaceans which Rijeka is famous for, were the equivalent price per kilo of my Aunty Bojas Oh I'd say MONTHLY meagre wage  !!!, now I felt really bad but I knew there was no way she was going to NOT buy some, even if she had to borrow the money from the neighbours. So that night I turned up to dinner with plastic bags full of cartons of Marlboro's, Champagne and Whisky we smoked and drank till dawn and man I tell you those scampi tasted good...this recipe is from my good friend Ino Kuvacic head chef and owner of Dalmatino restaurant here in Melbourne Australia and his great blog.


http://inokuvacic.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-max=2011-11-20T05:37:00-08:00&max-results=7

Sarma saved my life.

I know the title of this blog sounds over the top, but when you are a struggling fine arts student ( what other type is there ) at University and the pantry is bare, your stomach is grumbling so loud it sounds like a plane taking off, and your housemate is holding up two potatoes so way past their prime that they resemble prunes more than potatoes, that he reckons he can turn into a " stew " despair and melancholy set in.... but wait what was that your mother was holding in her hand, last time she came over to visit ( and clean up ) was it a Tupperware container that she put in the freezer, as you waved your hand whilst watching TV and said  "yeah whatever " that's right it was, so you dive at the freezer compartment and there it is under all the ice frosted like that guy they found in the alps perfectly preserved, you chip away at it with a dinner knife until it comes free and like Indiana Jones you are holding the holy grail...4 cabbage rolls and a pair of Kransky sausages starvation is averted, peace rules the world and your housemate Dan is on his knees begging you to share....

Sarma

1 whole head pickled cabbage
800g minced pork neck ( aah the magic meat once again )
1 tbsp chopped parsley
3 tbsp soda water
1 tbsp of salt & pepper
60g rice
2 cloves garlic chopped finely
2 tbsp smoked paprika
800g sauerkraut
2 pairs of Kransky sausages
200g smoked pork hock or kaiserfleisch, ribs etc..
1 onion sliced
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 tbsp flour
stock to cover the rolls ( vegetable or beef stock )

Separate and wash the cabbage leaves in warm water. Cut off the outer ribs without damaging the leaves. Set the aside.

Place the minced pork in a bowl and add parsley, soda water, salt & pepper, rice ,garlic,and half of the paprika. Place enough filling about 2tbsp into the centre of each cabbage leaf and roll it up tucking in the edges. Cut any remaining cabbage leaves into very fine shreds and combine with the sauerkraut toss , wash in cold water and drain. Line the bottom of the pot with some of the sauerkraut mix. Arrange cabbage rolls around the edge of the pot leaving the centre free. fill the centre with the Kransky and smoked meats, cover the top with rest of sauerkraut.

In separate pan fry sliced onion until golden, add flour and fry for 1-2 min add remaining paprika and 1 cup of water, allow to boil stirring to prevent lumps forming, pour the roux over the cabbage rolls and pour enough stock to cover rolls. shake the pot to allow the sauce to combine. cover and allow to boil then reduce heat to low simmer and simmer for 3 hrs shaking pot occasionally NEVER STIRRING serve with mash potatoes ( not the ones mentioned above )

My frien Ino who is the chef and owner of the Croatian restaurant in melbourne DALMATINO has a great regional variation of this recipe on www.inokuvacic.blogspot.com check it out.

Two R's don't make a Q but its the best I could do.

Ok ok so its not going to win any poetry prizes but I thought the title of this post was quite cute, the reason we are skipping the letter Q is because in the various alphabets of the Balkans it doesn't exist, search all you want you won't find it anywhere, so I have included two recipes beginning with R

Number 1........Raznjici

Now followers of this blog may remember an earlier posting about cevapcici where I extolled the virtues of the "pola-pola" you can't have one with out the other, so what exactly are raznjici, well my friends they are bit sized morsels of porky goodness, the recipe is dead easy, the cut to get is pork neck now if you go to the Chinese butchers around town that's what they will have it displayed as, if you venture to a purveyor of fine meats or similar establishment they will have it displayed as "scotch fillet" and priced accordingly.

1/2 kilo pork neck diced and trimmed of excess fat ( I like to leave a little fat on )
1/4 cup of olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 Onion sliced but not into onion rings if you know what I mean.

In a bowl season pork with salt and pepper, add olive oil and smoked paprika add onion and leave in the fridge covered for a few hours.

Heat a BBQ grill plate or pan, seal with a little oil and place meat on the pan turn meat until its browned an all sides serve with bread, kupus, ajvar and a cold beer......lovely.

Next..... Riba ( Fish )

"Picture this if you will ( apologies to Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone ) you are small child no more than ten years old, you are fast asleep dreaming of things ten year olds dream about suddenly you are woken by your father he looks into your half open eyes and says "Its a full moon and tides a metre twenty" it can only mean one thing you're going fishing if you like it or not." I can't begin to tell you how many times this happened to my brother and I, bundled out of bed at 3am car ready with fishing gear to drive 3hrs somewhere to catch fish, but it worked and now I am a full blown fishing tragic, the countless nights spent at middle harbour or the northern beaches in Sydney, or my favourite Sydney spot nestled amongst the millionaire and odd billionaires mansions of Point Piper pulling in leatherjacket. Being from the coastal part of Croatia called Dalmatia fishing and cooking fish is in my blood, now you all know what to look for in fish, should smell of the sea not a fishy smell, nice clear eyes etc etc the following recipe is for snapper just recently I overheard someone saying that they were "over" snapper as its quite a popular fish here in Oz. Well as Samuel Johnson said " Sir if a man tires of snapper, he tires of life " or was he talking about London ? ......whatever.

1 snapper season with salt inside and out.
 very finely chop a cup full of continental parsley drizzle with olive oil, add zest of one lemon and smear inside the fish.
Get the BBQ coals glowing ( fish always tastes better over the coals )

Make a brush of a bunch of rosemary and in a small bowl squeeze the juice of the lemon zest ed earlier and add a dash of olive oil place the fish on the grill and use the brush to baste the fish with the juice/oil mixture. fish is done when the meat starts to fall of the bone. The snapper in the photo accompanied by the scampi cost the princely sum of $40 AU in Split Croatia.

Palacinke. the bed rock of any good house wife.

In a similar vein to my earlier musing on this blog " What is a man without a moustache " I give you " Who can call themselves a Domacica if they cant make palacinke " now domacica roughly translates into English as housewife so before the feminist sisterhood rallies the lynch mob and marches on my home with flaming torches in one hand and a noose in the other LET ME EXPLAIN !!!! In the Balkans the real power resides in the kitchen as a woman's skill in the art of being a domacica was much more relevant and important than a mans whose days were spent staring at an oxen's behind as he plowed the fields, a domacicas skills could bring income into the family home by the way of her baking ( catering for less skilled domacica ) preserving foods and sewing skills that kept the family clothed and maybe even sell a few pieces of lacework, my grandmother was, and my mother and my wife are all great domacica and I thankfully don't have to stare at a oxen's arse, anyway this recipe for palacinke is not our families, as that recipe will be whispered to my daughter and kept in the family for another generation. But its a great recipe none the less.

PALACINKE S ORASIMA I COKOLADOM )

( crepes with walnut and chocolate )  I'm on a walnut thing OK.

Palacinka batter

1     cup plain flour
1/2  teaspoon baking powder
2     tablespoons caster sugar
2     teaspoons vanilla sugar
1/2  teaspoon salt
2     eggs
1     cup milk
1     tablespoon butter

Filling

100g  dark chocolate
2        tablespoons whipped cream
2        teaspoons of Rum ( we will find any excuse to use alcohol )

Topping

3/4 cup ground walnuts
2 tablespoons icing sugar

Sift the flour, baking powder, caster sugar, vanilla sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Add eggs milk and melted butter, beat well to make a thin batter. Preheat a frying pan lightly greased, pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot pan tilt the pan for the batter to cover the bottom, when lightly golden flip and brown the other side. Repeat with the remaining batter greasing the pan before adding more batter place in a ovenproof dish and cover and keep warm in oven.

Melt the chocolate over low heat in a saucepan, stir in the cream and rum. When well combined remove from heat spread chocolate mixture on left half of palacinka roll to form a cigar shape sprinkle with the crushed walnuts and icing sugar on top.

Enjoy with a nice glass of kruskovac ( pear liqueur )

I'm back a short story about walnuts ( Orah )

I know its been a while but I've been busy OK, now that we have got that out of the way lets continue. In the part of Croatia that I was born the Bilogora hills walnuts abound as they do in most parts of the Balkans and are used extensively in cooking cakes, biscuits and making the fabulous liqueur Orahovac  ( which you can find in Australia through the Dan Murphys chain see recipe below ),  I remember visiting my cousin Dragan who was the last of our family to be still left on the farm and who looked after his bedridden mother and how behind the mud brick house with the thatched roof and whitewash walls in which they lived, was a walnut grove from which he made a small living, and as we sat in the house in the half light as there was only one tiny window to let the afternoon sun in, I wondered how different our lives were solely for the fact that my father had decided to emigrate and take us to Australia and how hard life was for Dragan and what might have been had we stayed, anyway as I got up to leave Dragan looked desperately for something to give me as a parting gift but all he had was a small bag of walnuts which he thrust into my hands as I left, I shared those walnuts all but one of them with the rest of my cousins when I got back to the city, that one walnut I still have......( just don't tell customs )

Half fill one whisky tumbler with ice add shot of Orahovac and a twist of lemon then drink.....and behold you shall see the face of God !!!

Something to go with a nice chianti N is for Noklice od dzigerice ( liver dumplings )

" A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. " Aaah Hannibal Lecter I'm with him on the chianti, but if he had this recipe I'm sure he would have forgone the fava beans, I've found that kosher butchers stock the freshest livers, these are great added to your favourite clear or chicken soup recipe.


1 1/2     tablespoons lard
1/2        onion minced
300g     livers finely minced ( use a food processor )
1 day old sourdough bun
milk for soaking
1          egg beaten
1 1/2    tablespoons bread crumbs
1         sprig parsley, finely diced
salt and pepper to taste


Heat the lard in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute. When lightly browned remove from heat and cool, the stir into the liver. Soak the roll in some milk until soaked , drain off excess, and finely chop. Now add the liver mixture, egg, bread crumbs, parsley salt and pepper to a mixing bowl. Mix well and let stand for 30min. Shape the dumplings with a spoon and add to your soup that has been brought to boil for about ten minutes

Forget about the dog...a donkey is a mans best friend.

The ubiquitous donkey or Magarac was till not too long ago a familiar sight in the balkans, now sadly less so my Baka ( grandmother ) had a donkey very similar to the one pictured on this blog, and when we would visit she would take us on rides to neighbouring villages where us kids would get up to no good whilst my mum would tell horror stories about Australia (the wine is terrible, suns too hot, crap shade under gum trees etc etc.) Anyway one particular summers night it was time to go and my grandmother put me on the back of the donkey for the ride home....except she had forgotten to take off the hobble which was a leather strap shaped in a figure 8 that you slipped on the back legs of the donkey to stop it wandering off, so I go on the back of the donkey which freaks out because it cant move and bucks so violently that I fly through the air laughing my head off and land in a freshly hoed garden bed, I get up my head spinning and watching my Baka beating the living daylights out of the donkey hey she loved the donkey but I WAS the eldest grandson.

Seeing as we are up to the letter M I thought I would mix things up and offer a cocktail recipe, featuring Maraschino cherry liqueur from my home town of Zadar

Commonly used ingredients	2 oz. gin 1/2 oz. lemon juice 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
Preparation	Add all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry. and sprinkle with a pinch of caster sugar.