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.

LJ imagine inventing your own letter.

By all accounts the letter LJ was invented by Ljudevit Gaj in the early 1800's, fancy inventing a letter you can keep your micro processor, penicillin, or instant coffee ( like really WHY would you invent that ) anyway thats all ancient history, and back to the here and now and Ljute paprike or hot peppers are very popular in the balkans they come in all sorts of varieties, dried or pickled great to add a bit of heat, now this recipe calls for Kajmak which is a sort of creamy ricotta which you can find in middle eastern delis particularly turkish ones.

20 hot peppers ( the long thin variety )
30ml verjuice or white wine vinegar
1.5 ltr water
3 tbsp olive oil
300g kajmak
1 tsp salt

clean the peppers by inserting a knife at the top and cutting away the " crown " scrape out seeds being careful to not make to big a hole

bring the water to boil adding salt and vinegar

add peppers for 1 minute NO MORE

remove and place on paper towel to dry

when dry fill with kajmak to 2/3 rd. anymore and you will have kajmak oozing out.

arrange in a ceramic or pyrex baking tray let the salted water cool and pour over peppers will keep for about a month in the fridge but i guarantee they wont last that long.

best eaten as part of an antipasto or mezze platter with some ice cold beer to drown the peppers heat

These are the type of peppers or capsicum you want we are not talking Birdseye chilli here

Lignje a test of a mans worth

In Dalmatia they have a couple of sayings one of them is " Sto je muskarac bez brkove " what is a man without a moustache, I would say clean shaven but what they actually mean is that you can't call yourself a man without some facial hair and you can't call yourself a man OR a Dalmatian unless you can cook, much like the paella ritual in Spain which is the domain of men. In Dalmatia being known as a good cook is an honour  and being in charge of the BBQ is a given, with Lignje otherwise known as calamari a staple,  my Dida (grandfather) Tadija was a superb cook whilst my fiercely anti communist grandmother would take the children to church on Sunday my Dida who held a government job and hence if he was seen in church would have got the sack, remembering we are talking about Tito's communist Yugoslavia, would instead be preparing the Sunday lunch on their return and for whoever else might pop in ( communist or anti- communist he was a bit like that ever the diplomat) so this recipe was one they would have often and is in his honour. So all you blokes out there get cooking.

As many calamari as you like the smaller the better do not buy squid tubes they are an abomination.

Clean the inside of the calamari removing the "quill" which is the hard backbone, remove innards, and beak,a good trick is to use a spoon to scoop out the innards

Pat dry the calamari, keep the wings on ( the flaps either side of the main body )

marinade for a few hours in a gremolata which is olive oil, finely chopped parsley, finely chopped garlic, lemon zest, and a chopped Birdseye chili if you like it hot.

Fire up the charcoal on the BBQ wait till the coals are glowing and have gone white, place the lignje on the grill and char nicely all over they will go a beautiful pink colour, baste with a fresh batch of gremolata not the one they were marinading in.

to serve drizzle slightly with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

best served with Blitva which is silver beet sauteed served with boiled potatoes and drizzled with olive oil , lemon and salt and pepper.

Kiseli Kupus..... a love affair

I think of the great love affairs during the ages, Richard Burton and Liz Taylor, Marc Anthony and Cleopatra ( hang on weren't they the same couple ? ) my wife Erica and I, and then I come to that wonderful joyous love affair I have with kiseli kupus otherwise known as sauerkraut, during the winter months I keep a jar well actually a largish jar on hand to add to schnitzels, sausages, pork ribs or what the hell just straight out of the jar, I have it on good authority the reason sauerkraut is so popular with pork dishes is that it aids in the digestion of the pork in no small way aided by the beer, now kiseli kupus is very popular in Croatia especially the Continental part due to the long association with the former Austro - Hungarian empire, we during the winter months have made our own using the plastic barrels as shown in the picture which is a 120ltr barrel

12 heads of cabbage or as many that will fit in the barrel that you are using.
2 1/2 cups of salt per cabbage or there about
1 garlic clove per head
bay leaf per head

wash cabbage heads and remove any tough outer leaves and reserve, core each head and fill with salt, bay leaf and garlic, place one layer of cabbage leaves on bottom of barrel and place a layer of cabbage heads, and keep adding layer of cabbage heads repeating the process of adding salt etc until barrel is full cover with cabbage leaves.

Fill barrel with as much water as it will hold, place a clean UNTREATED timber lid ( you might have to make your own to fit the circumference of the barrel ) and weigh down with large rock or similar weight about 25kg leave barrel in garage or somewhere suitably cool after about ten days skim the foam off the top of the water and repeat every few days or so during the fermenting process which should take about 40 days heads can be frozen once done , before using them rinse leaves and chop finely for your very own kiseli kupus. Note this is best done during the winter months when temperatures are better suited.