Gastronomy

BANITZA

Banitza is one of the most popular and typical Bulgarian dishes, more of a breakfast or snack thing than a main course. There are many shapes and varieties of banitza - with cheese, spinach or butternut squash, but the cheese one is the most common and famous one.

Ingredients:

10-12 sheets Filo pastry (it is difficult to roll the sheets in the correct thickness, so I suggest you buy the ready made ones from your supermarket)
500 gr white cheese (you can use Feta although it is not quite the same as the Bulgarian White Brined Cheese - see below for info on how to purchase on the Internet)
1/2 pack butter (melted)
3-4 eggs
250 ml soda water
pinch of salt

Instructions:

Oil a medium size deep oven dish, cover bottom with a sheet of filo pastry, sprinkle melted butter, sprinkle crumbled white cheese, and continue layering filo pastry with butter and cheese. Finish with a layer of filo pastry and butter. In a separate dish beat the eggs, add salt, and soda water. Pour slowly over the dish with the banitza and let it soak in. Cook in a preheated oven (180-200 C) for about 40 minutes or until the banitza has risen slightly and has nicely browned on top. Leave to cool for about 30 minutes and serve. I like it with greek yoghurt on the side.

If you wish you can add sauteed spinach when layering the banitza.

BULGARIAN FOOD

Bulgarian cuisine (Bulgarian: българска кухня, bulgarska kuhnya) is a representative of the cuisine of Southeastern Europe. Essentially South Slavic, it shows Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern influences, and to a lesser extent Armenian, Italian, Mediterranean and Hungarian ones. Owing to the relatively warm climate and diverse geography affording excellent growth conditions for a variety of vegetables, herbs and fruits, Bulgarian cuisine is particularly diverse.Famous for its rich salads required at every meal, Bulgarian cuisine is also noted for the diversity and quality of dairy products and the variety of wines and local alcoholic drinks such as rakia, mastika and menta. Bulgarian cuisine features also a variety of hot and cold soups, an example of a cold soup being tarator. There are many different Bulgarian pastries as well such as banitsa.Certain entries, salads, soups and dishes go well with alcoholic beverages and the alcohol of choice for some is Bulgarian wine.

KAVARMA KEBAP

Ingredients for 3-4:

3/4 kg of tender pork
1/2 cupful of lard or oil
4-5 leeks
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup red wine
1 onion,
parsley,
1 small chilli

How to cook:
Chop the meat and brown it in the oil. Take it out of the pan in a dish and leave. In the same oil, fry the finely cut leeks. Add salt, the tomato paste, paprika and pepper. Pour in 1/2 a cup of water, add the wine and the meat.
Let it stew on low heat until the juice has thickened. Serve sprinkled with chopped onions, parsley and a small hot pepper. You can also serve it with boiled potatoes or rice.