Plum Damplings (Knedle sa sljivama)

 

Ingredients:

3 russet potatoes

1 egg

semolina

white flour

butter/oil

salt

bread crumbs

9 prune plums

 

Wash plums and take the pit out without breaking the plum in two halves. Open it just as much as to take out the pit.

 

In a frying pan put some oil and bread crumbs. Fry until bread crumbs get deep golden brown color.

 

 

Boil potato. When it's done peel it and mush it together with 1 scrambled egg. Add 1/4 cup of butter or oil. Add about 1 cup of semolina and then add some flour. Add salt to taste and mix everything together. You should get soft dough that is not sticking to your hands.

 

Take the handful of dough and make a ball. Press one plum in the center.

 

 

Now, cover the whole plum with dough and make a ball with plum in the center. Roll it in some flour and leave aside. Repeat with the rest of plums.

 

 

In a deep pot bring lots of water to boil. I say lots of water, but be sure to leave the space for dumplings. When water is boiling, lower the heat to medium and add as many dumplings as can fit in one layer in the pot. At first, they will sink to the bottom. Continue cooking and they will "swim" to the top. Once they are at the top, and water starts boiling again, continue cooking for 10 more minutes. Take them out with a slotted spoon and drop into fried bread crumbs. Roll them around.

 

 

Take them out on the serving plate. Serve with regular sugar. Once you cut open the dumpling, sprinkle with sugar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spaghetti Squash Soup

 

 

Ingredients:

1 small spaghetti squash (this kind is not sweet)

1 russet potato

1 cooking onion

1l chicken stock or 1 chicken or vegetable soup cube

salt

black pepper

oil

yogurt for serving (optional)

 

Peel vegetables and cut into pieces or slices. Put oil and cut up vegetables in the pot and turn the heat on. Cook for about 5 minutes moving vegetables around with a cooking spoon.

 

 

Then add chicken stock. If you don't have chicken stock, add water and one chicken or vegetable soup cube. Cover and simmer until vegetable is soft. Take hand held blender, with a metal wand, and bland all. If you want, add more water or stock. Add salt and black pepper. If you like you can add little bit of lemon juice.

 

 

You can serve it plain like in this picture or with a dollop of yogurt and some croutons.

 

 



Garlic Bread

 

Ingredients:

1 baguette bread

1/2 cup or less butter

3-4 cloves garlic

salt (if you are using unsalted butter)

 

 

Turn the oven to 375 F (180 C). Cut bread horizontally. Melt butter in microwave for 20 seconds. Take garlic press and press garlic into butter. Add salt and mix it. Spread garlic butter on both sides of bread and then put them together. Roll bread in aluminum foil.

 

 

Put it like this, directly on the oven rack and bake for 15 minutes. When you take it out of the oven, unwrap immediately and leave it to cool a bit.

 

 

Then slice and serve.

 

 

 

 



Eggplant Fritters

When you are buying eggplants, look for shiny ones. That means they are fresh.

 

Ingredients:

 2 eggplants

2 eggs

rice bread crumbs

salt

oil for frying

 

Cut top and bottom of eggplant and peel it.

 

 

Cut 1/2 inch (about 1cm) thick slices and lay them on the baking sheet covered with baking paper. Spread salt over all slices. Turn the other side and salt it, too. Leave it like that for at least 1/2 an hour for bitter juices to come out of eggplant.

 

 

With a paper towel, wipe moisture from eggplant slices. Now they are ready to be battered and fried.

Beat eggs and put bread crumbs on a dinner plate.

 

 

Put oil in a frying pan and turn the heat on. When oil is hot, lower the temperature to medium.

First put eggplant slice in egg wash, then roll it into bread crumbs.

 

 

Now it's ready for frying. Put them into the frying pan. After a minute or so, turn over and prick with a fork all over. After a while, turn them over again and do the same thing with the fork. I find that this way they fry faster. They should be mushy inside and crispy on the outside.

 

 

When done, transfer them on the plate covered with paper towel to absorb excess oil. Then transfer them onto serving plate.

 

 

My son is a huge fan of eggplant fritters. He stated: "I don't understand how someone doesn't like eggplants. They are vegetable meat!"

 

Serve eggplant fritters with feta cheese and tomatoes or make sandwich with all these ingredients. In a crusty bread, of course :)

 

 

 

 

 



Romano Beans With Smoked Meat

 

 

Ingredients:

 

300-450g dried romano beans

3-4 smoked bones with meat on them

1cooking onion

4-7 garlic cloves, depending on their size

few whole black peppercorns

salt

1tsp red pepper powder

 

Cut onion into slices and put together with rinsed smoked bones in a big pot. Add enough water to cover all ingredients and some more. Put on the stove and turn heat up. Add peppercorns. Cover and start cooking.

 

 

Now rinse romano beans and put them in the smaller pot. Cover with water and cook until it starts boiling. Wait few seconds, then rinse it in a colander, return to pot, cover with new water and repeat the process. Repeat one more time. This process is needed to get gases out of beans. If you want to avoid this part, be sure to soak the beans night before and rinse them before cooking. I always forget to do that, that's why a cook them this way. Once, beans are ready for cooking, add them to the pot with onion and smoked meat.

 

 

Add minced garlic. Today I had big garlic cloves so I used only 4. If they are on the small side use about 7. Don't worry, you will not see it or taste it later.

 

 

Cover the pot and simmer until it's almost cooked. Add salt and red pepper powder and continue cooking until beans are soft.

 

 

Serve with crusty bread and roasted pepper salad.

 

 

 



Chicken Nuggets

 

 

 

My son requested that I post this recipe.

 

 

Ingredients:

chicken breasts or thighs, skinless and boneless, cut into smaller pieces

2-3 eggs (depending on how much meat you have)

bread crumbs (I find that rice bread crumbs are crispier)

salt

oil for frying

 

Beat the eggs n a big bowl, add pieces of meat, mix with the spoon or fork so all pieces are saturated with eggs, and set aside.

 

Pour bread crumbs onto dinner plate. Put oil in the frying pan and turn the heat on. When oil is hot, turn the heat to middle. Take meat pieces one by one out of eggs and roll each in the bread crumbs. Transfer to frying pan. Don't do this step in advance because you will not get crispy coating or it even might fall off. Fry until you see from the side that meat is done to the half. Then turn over and fry the other side. You can turn it over again but don't do this more than few times or you'll end up without coating.

 

Get another dinner plate and cover it with few paper towels. When meat is done, transfer it to plate lined with paper towels. Paper will absorb excess oil. After few minutes, transfer nuggets to the serving plate.

 

 

Chicken Soup With Semolina Dumplings

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 Cornish hen or chicken or any part of the chicken (with skin!)

few carrots

few celery stalks

1-2 parsnips

1 cooking onion

1 potato

salt

whole black pepper

parsley

For dumplings: 1 egg, semolina, salt and oil

 

Peel carrots, potato, onion, celery, parsnip, parsley (reserve some parsley to add at the end) and put all together with chicken into big pot. Add enough water to cover all ingredients. Add several whole black peppers. Cook until chicken is cooked. Add salt.

 

Now take all vegetables and meat out of the pot. Keep the pot on the stove. 

 

 

 

In a small bowl beat one egg with a splash of oil and while beating add little by little semolina.

Add just as much as to get a paste that's not too thick.

 

 

Use a teaspoon to take dumplings out. Scoop les than full teaspoon and dip the spoon into hot soup on the stove. Repeat until you have egg and cream of wheat mixture. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes on very low heat.

 

Now, my mother would NEVER do this but this is how I do it. Cut cooked carrots, meat, potato, celery and once dumplings are done, add them into the pot. Cut up reserved parsley and add it to the soup.

 

When I was a child, we ate cooked vegetables and meat without soup. Soup was always eaten clear with dumplings or extremely fine egg noodles.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Roasted Peppers Salad

Ingredients:

 

peppers, any kind you like

salt

few garlic cloves

white vinegar

oil

 

Turn the oven on broil or roast. Put the aluminium foil onto your baking sheet. Wash and dry peppers and put them on the foil.

 

 

Put peppers into the oven. Check every 5 minutes. When first side is browned, turn them with a thong and continue broiling (roasting). When they are done on all sides, take them from the oven, scoop together with aluminium foil and put them into the pot. Cover with lead and leave it to cool completely.

 

 

 

 

This should be done very fast because you want them covered in that pot as hot as possible. That way peeling peppers will be a breeze.

 

When peppers are completely cool, take them out of the pot and peel the. Take a bowl and layer peppers. Put salt and minced garlic over. Pour some oil and then add white vinegar as much as you like it to be sour. If your bowl is big and you added enough vinegar but peppers are not all covered or it's too sour, add some water. Take a fork and swish a bit each peppers so salt, garlic oil and vinegar get mixed. Let it stand for awhile on the counter top. Then cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

 

 

 

 



Phyllo Pastry Meat Pie

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 package phyllo pastry (450g)

500-600g ground beef

1 cooking onion

100ml oil + 1Tbsp

salt

black pepper

200-250g sour cream

5 eggs

 

Dice the onion and put into the pan together with 1Tbsp oil. Sauté it until onion is translucent, then add meat and brown it. Add salt, black pepper and when it's done, add one beaten egg and mix it fast. 

 



 

Turn the oven to 375 F (200 C). Open phyllo pastry package, take two sheets, fold them in half and put into the baking pan. Spoon 1 or two cooking spoonful of browned meat and spread over it. Take next two sheets and put over meat filling. Continue repeating until you use all phyllo pastry and meat filling.

 

End with phyllo pastry sheets. Cut the pie into same size squares.

 

Take 100ml of oil and drizzle over pie. In a bowl, beat 4 eggs and add sour cream. Mix well and put over pie spreading it evenly.

 

Put into the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until top is nice golden brown colour.

 

 

Let it cool for awhile. Cut as big pieces as you like.

 



Late Summer Side Dish

There's no translation for this dish's name. Originally it has few names: Bechar Paprikash, Satarash, Chuspajz. Google translator gave me this translation: Bachelor Stew. It sounds weird to me  so I am calling it here, Late Summer Side Dish. Late summer is the best time to make it because big meaty tomatoes and Hungarian peppers are in season. It takes long time to cook this dish but at the end it's worth it if you ask me (it's my favourite food at the end of summer).

 

 

Ingredients:

 

tomatoes

Hungarian peppers

1-2 chili peppers (optional)

cooking onion

salt

1 egg

oil

 

I didn't put exact amount for vegetables but there should be approximately the same amount of each (maybe little less of onion).

Put the oil in a big pot (not with very high sides) and add sliced onions.

 

 

Turn the heat on low so it's starts cooking while you are preparing tomatoes and peppers.Wash tomatoes, core them and slice them and add to onions. Wash peppers and clean them from steams and seeds. Slice peppers and add them to the pot.

 

 

Stir and continue cooking stirring from time to time. Toward the end of cooking, when there's no much liquid left, you will need to stir constantly. You should end with about third of original amount of vegetables. Add salt and when it's done but still on the stove, add 1 beaten egg. Stir for few seconds and remove from heat. It's done!







 





 

Phyllo Pastry Fruit Pies

These pies can be made with different fillings: sour cherries, apples or banana squash. I make all three kinds the same, except for apple pie I mix sugar with cinnamon. Some people add cinnamon to apple pies as well, but I prefer it without.

I've read and heard about phyllo pastry drying out fast so you need to cover it with damp cloth, blah, blah, blah...Don't worry. As long as you don't open it and then take a break to watch TV or chat on the phone or FB, while it seats on your counter top, you will be fine. Prepare all the ingredients, then open phyllo pastry package and work continuously. Also to save time and space, don't count sheets and separate them from the whole pile. Just keep it all in one pile, put the filling on top and then count as many sheets as you want to use and roll them, leaving the rest in the same pile. I use three sheets per roll.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 package (450g) phyllo pastry

sugar

oil

butter for baking pan

cinnamon (for squash pie)

icing sugar for dusting

 

For cherry pie:

3 jars of 680g pitted cherries drained

 

For apple pie:

6-7 Granny Smith or some other crispy and sour apples, peeled, cored and grated

 

For squash pie:

 200g banana squash, peeled and grated 

 

I made cherry pie today, so pictures are for that kind.

 

 

 

Drain cherries.

 

 

Find a baking pan that fits your phyllo pastry length.

 

 

Take a very small piece of butter and butter the pan.

 

 

Turn the oven on 375F (180C). Open phyllo pastry and spread out on the counter top.

 

 

Spread 1Tbsp oil over the top sheet. Put some cherries and then add 1-2Tbsp sugar over them.

 

 

Separate three sheets from the rest and roll tightly. Put in the pan.

 

 

Continue until you have cherries. Ideally you will fill the pan. Maybe count at the beginning how many sheets you have and divide by three and see how many rolls you can get and if that will fill your pan. If your pan is bigger and you don't have enough sheets, use only two per roll. When all is packed, spread some oil (about 2Tbsp) on top.

 

 

Put it into the oven for about 40 minutes or until it becomes golden brown.

 

 

Take a small fine sieve and put some icing sugar in it.

 

 

Dust icing sugar all over pies. Leave it to cool down.

 

 

Cut and serve. It's good slightly warm or at room temperature.