Bulgaria
Bulgarian cuisine is a conditional concept, which implies traditional Bulgarian dishes and modern offerings borrowed from abroad. In general, the term "Bulgarian cuisine" means the main set of dishes and ingredients that are present in the life of the Bulgarian people. One of the most typical products used in Bulgarian cuisine are white brined cheese and yogurt.
The recipes have been formed for centuries, with traditions in flavoring and established methods and techniques for preparation, representing a synthesis of European and Asian cuisine.
Balkan cuisine
Most specialists include Bulgarian cuisine in the general list of Balkan cuisines. Many dishes, typical for the Bulgarian national table, with varieties, are present in the cuisine of other Balkan peoples (Turks, Romanians, Serbs, Greeks, Albanians) - salads ("Shopska"), stewed ("casserole", "kavarma"), sauces ("Lutenitsa"), pastries ("moussaka", "liver sarma"), etc. Grilled minced meat dishes (kebabs, meatballs, karnacheta), as well as mostly syrupy desserts ("baklava", "kadaif") are also similar.
Bulgarian cuisine is rich in soups - vegetable, meat and fish, some of them are prepared depending on the season - for example, cold soup "tarator" is typical for summer. Among the more famous soups in Bulgarian cuisine are "tripe soup" and "sacrificial soup".
Baked and stewed dishes
Baked, hot or grilled foods are commonly called pastries. Pastries can be either a whole prepared dish or a separate element for meat alaminuti or vegetable additives. Unlike lentils, pastries are always a main dish, prepared for both lunch and dinner. The preparation of many of the pastries is associated with ritual events and rituals. Pastries are also all pasta dishes, of which the most popular in Bulgaria is pie.
Specifics
One of the characteristic features of Bulgarian cuisine is that most products in one dish are heat-treated at the same time. This is especially true for pastries, and the explanation is simple - in the past, households had almost no ovens of their own, but took the prepared dish to public ovens. Even with the advent of modern technology after the end of World War II, this tradition of cooking was largely preserved until the late 1980s.Another characteristic feature is the inclusion of many fresh or canned vegetables that are processed simultaneously with the meat.
greece
Pelion is one of Greece’s most popular year-round destinations. Offering a perfect combination of the mountains and the sea and with natural beauty within easy reach of cosmopolitan comforts, this is a place where food lovers will find themselves spoilt for choice with the local cuisine. Here is a list of some of our favorite appetizers, main dishes and desserts that you absolutely must try while on the Mountain of the Centaurs:
Tsitsiravla are the young sprouts of wild pistachio trees collected in April and pickled with vinegar and a touch of garlic. One of the best meze dishes for tsipouro that you will certainly want to take back home. Thankfully, deli stores in Volos sell home prepared tsitsiravla. Warning! They never taste as good as they do in Pelion!
A deep orange cheese spread known as “kopanisti Volou” will brighten up your table and your dining experience.
Kolitsianoi is a sea flower (sea anemone) that is battered, deep fried, and served as meze only in the hard core authentic tsipouro restaurants. This Greek style sea flower tempura will bring to your table the aroma of the sea.
Boubari is a locally made spiral looking sausage baked in the oven and served with potatoes. The sausage is filled with rice and beef meat including the heart and lungs.
Only four ingredients make up the Pelion dish par excellence. Easy to make and a delight to savor, spetzofai’s flavor lies in the sweetness of the home-grown tomatoes simmered in extra virgin Pelion olive oil, the spiciness of the local sausage, and the aroma of the Volos’ green peppers.
Anyone with a sweet tooth will not want to miss these delectable “spoon sweets”! Try the Pelion small apple called “firiki” and pair it with a cup of Greek coffee at the plateia of Makrinitsa overlooking the city of Volos.
The queen of desserts, tall, elegant, and celebratory, blonde baklava is a wedding sweet. If you’re lucky, tavern owners sometimes serve it as a treat at the end of the meal. With almonds instead of walnuts and dozens of super thin homemade phillos, these small diamond-shaped “skyscrapers” crowned with cloves, will be the reason for you to return at the place where you tried them.
italy
Italian cuisine is a mediteranean cuisine consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across the Italian Peninsula, and later spread around the world together with waves of Italian Diaspora.
Significant changes occurred with the colonization of the Americans and the introduction of potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums, maize and sugar beet. Italian cuisine is known for its regional diversity. Is one of the most popular and copied in the world. It influenced several cuisines around the world.
Italian cuisine is generally characterized by its simplicity. Italian cooks rely chiefly on the
quality of the ingredients rather than on elaborate preparation. Ingredients and dishes vary
by region.
History
Italian cuisine has developed over the centuries. Although the country known as Italy did not unite until the 19th century, the cuisine can claim traceable roots as far back as the 4th century BC. Food and culture were very important at that time as we can see from the cookbook which dates to the first century BC. Italian cuisine started to form after the fall of the Roman Empire when different cities began to separate and form their own traditions.
Some traditional dishes
Strachitunt cheese made a symbolic journey. Afterwards, a five-layers wheel was shaped, alternating the fresh curd and the previous day’s one, which was skilfully crumbled and put into round moulds in order to keep the «double curd» production aside from the squared classic stracchini. That’s why it is called strachitund, or strachitunt, that means «round stracchino cheese». Strachitunt is a so-called blue cheese, due to its green and blue mould veining. It is gorgonzola’s ancestor and belongs to the stracchini cheese family. It is a raw cheese, produced with cow’s row whole milk by two different milkings and it ripens over at least 75 days. A less-ripened strachitunt, on the other side, has a sweet and delicate taste. Strachitunt is a fantastic ingredient for risotto, crepes, ravioli filling, sauce for meat and also for the so-called chissöl, a small polenta ball stuffed with cheese. quality label, Strachitunt follows a strict production protocol. It can be accompanied by a good wine like Red Valcalepio.
Red Valcalepio is a cabernet sauvignon 60% and merlot 40%. After harvesting, the grapes, harvested manually, are brought to the winery as quickly as possible and subjected to destemming-crushing. The alcoholic fermentation takes place in thermally regulated stainless steel containers, with the addition of selected yeasts keeping the varieties divided. With the static separation of the marc liquid, the wine is racked for 50% of the mass, in barriques and tonneaux of American and French oak, renewed every year for a quota equal to about 50%, and for the remaining part in vats steel. In the same containers it matures for a period that can vary depending on the vintage from 12 to 15 months. After maturing, the cut is made between the two varieties, and assembled in stainless steel containers. After bottling it still remains in the cellars for another 6 months. After harvesting, the grapes, harvested manually, are brought to the winery as quickly as possible and subjected to destemming-crushing. The alcoholic fermentation takes place in thermally regulated stainless steel containers, with the addition of selected yeasts keeping the varieties divided. With the static separation of the marc liquid, the wine is racked for 50% of the mass, in barriques and tonneaux of American and French oak, renewed every year for a quota equal to about 50%, and for the remaining part in vats steel. In the same containers it matures for a period that can vary depending on the vintage from 12 to 15 months.
Pizza
The history of pizza is long and uncertain. The first written attestation of this word date back to the Vulgar Latin. In the sixteenth century in Naples, “pizza” derives from the distortion of the word “pitta". In Naples, pizza was very popular both among the poorest Neapolitans and among the nobles. In 1889, the chef Raffaele Esposito dedicated “pizza Margherita” to Queen Margherita of Savoy, which represented the new tri color flag: the white of the mozzarella, the red of the tomato sauce and the green of basil. From the beginning of the 1900s pizza had a gradual diffusion throughout the south and after the Second World War it became widespread also in northern Italy and in the entire world. Nowadays, pizza is the most consumed and popular food in the world.
lithuania
There are more and more modern restaurants in Lithuania, where they try to go back to the past and look for Lithuanian traditional dishes.
Historical Lithuanian cuisine is very old, simple, delicious and even somewhat original, and over the centuries and the changing geopolitical situation, it has been supplemented by the influence of other countries. For example: Zeppelins, this food is not from Lithuania, but it is the country's traditional food. Over the centuries of our country's history, we have inherited the best from other countries and cultures - ingredients, dishes, cooking traditions and technologies.
Moving food made by great-grandparents in recipe books, we go ahead. In modern Lithuanian cuisine, the new generation of chefs cleverly intertwines traditions and the latest trends in world cuisine, creatively uses what Lithuanian nature and our four seasons provide.
Lithuanians value good food, so there are countless restaurants in the country's largest cities, the seaside, the most beautiful corners of nature and even mysterious forests. The thirty of the best restaurants in the Baltic States, the prestigious Scandinavian restaurant guide White Guide, has as many as 7 seats for Lithuanian restaurants.
Lithuania is divided into 5 ethnographic regions - Aukštaitija, Dzūkija, Žemaitija, Suvalkija and "Little Lithuania". They all have different food traditions.
First region is „Aukštaitija“
Aukštaitians have always been very famous for their flour dishes: pancakes with various fillings, dumplings, dumplings, caskets. In Aukštaitija, both simple and very original soups (such as beer soup) were cooked well, and poultry was well prepared. The hostesses of Aukštaitė baked and cooked sweets that melted in their mouths - donuts, donuts, they did not spare time or great fresh products. The Aukštaitians were famous for their excellent beer and wine made from apples or berries.
Second region is „Dzūkija“
Many mushroom dishes have always been produced in this region of Lithuania: boiled mushroom soups, stewed, fried, marinated, fermented, mushroom cheeses, stuffed cakes and dumplings. And Dzuk has been making a great dried sausage since ancient times.
Third region is „Suvalkija“
It is a region of Lithuania that can show authentic meat products made according to an old recipe. Probably the most famous is the traditional minced meat skilandi (fermented in cold smoke from a few months to a couple of years!), As well as excellent smoked sausages, hams, "kindziuliai";. The people of Suwalki have long cooked rattles with ears, which became popular all over Lithuania. As a traditional Suvalkian drink we will mention homemade black currant wine.
Fourth region is „Žemaitija“
The most famous Samogitian dish is „Kastinis“ (sour cream and butter sauce) with boiled potatoes, as well as boiled potatoes with peel, painted in hemp crackers or linseed salt. Samogitians perfectly prepared dishes from fresh meat, especially various stews, baked sophisticated cakes with berries, fruits, jams, and made a great horn.
Fifth region is „Mažoji Lietuva“
A unique dish in this region is Curonian smoked eel. The ancient ways of cooking fish are interesting, when a wooden board of the appropriate species is used to fry each type of fish (for example: what is suitable for pike, not suitable for cod). This area has long been famous for its restaurants with summer and winter gardens, famous promenade trails with cafes. Even nowadays, not only in Lithuania and all over the world, the famous Memel herring scones in tomato sauce are well known.
poland
We owe some of the greatest polish flavours to our neighbours and to the minorities that have lived in Poland for centuries. Polish cuisine is very rich in flavours. We can find there traces of oriental, sweet and spicy taste of Jewish cuisine. The Lithuanians taught us the art. Od dry – curing meat giving us dry sausages like „kindziuk”. French cuisine has influenced our desserts. Today young chefs are combining the centuries old traditions of Polish cuisine with contemporary culinary trends.
The most commonly used cereals are wheat, rye,buckwheat, and barley. They find their way into dark bread, noodles, dumplings, and other everyday foods. Other important agricultural products include potatoes, beets, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, and cucumbers. Boiled potatoes are the most commonly eaten side dish with meat, poultry, or fish. Our recipes are also known for using fish. A wide variety of vegetables was introduced to Poland by Italian born Polish queen Bona Sforza. They are served boiled, as a salad or raw.Cucumbers, seasoned with the herb, dill, are the raw ingredients of dill pickles, for which the Poles are known throughout the world. Cucumbers are also eaten in a salad with sour cream, another staple of the Polish diet. Vegetables are usually eaten boiled. Meat is an important part of the Polish diet. Pork is the most popular meat. Beef, ham, and sausage are also eaten regularly. Most of Polish meals start with one of Poland's many soups. These range from clear broth to thick soup so hearty it could be a meal in itself. The best known ome os definitely “rosół”.
Without a doubt the most spectacular meal you could enjoy in Poland is the traditional twelve course Christmas feast. Number twelve symbolizes the twelve apostoles, twelve months of the year and wealth. Some dishes can be different in other regions of Poland but many of them are universal. The most common ones are „barszcz czerwony” (beetroot soup), Karp (fish) or dumplings. Polish Easter can be equally charming. The feast consist of smoked meats and ham. Biała kiełbasa takes the centre stage. Biała kiełbasa is an unsmoked minced pork sausage covered in a pork casings. Eggs are served in every way that is possible. Typical cakes are also baked in enormous numbers. Furthermore, guests of traditional polish weddings are pleased with a very long and filling evening. The wedding lasts usually lasts from twelve hours to even 2days and there are served between four and five hot entrees along with pastries, cake, apetizers and fruits.
Let’s be honest, when we are writing about polish cuisine we could not forget about alcohol. Culture of drinking is very well developed in Poland. Polish People really like when they have some sort of % on the table, because it can make conversations which are having place there much more interesting. Maybe we can not appreciate good wine like people from southeast part of Europe, but we are able to appreciate good vodka or beer. We also really like to experiment by creating our own alcohols, one of the most popular self-made alcohol in Poland is tincture.
To eat well in Poland there is a golden rule : ask around. Even though Poles are not inclined to smile to strangers they are helpful and will assist you in a quest to find the best neighbourhood restaurant. In case you did not get any satisfying answer you can always try to spot where the “locals” are having meal.
One of the most popular dinners in Poland is for sure “rosół” which we already mentioned before for a first dish and for the second one is pork chop with boiled potatoes and some kind of salad. We also love to have something to drink during such a meal, one of the most popular choices is compote. This meal is the most regular one for us and sometimes we eat this almost every day besides Friday because it is a day when don’t eat meat.
recipes
Delicious moussaka
NECESSARY PRODUCTS
potatoes - 1 kg
minced meat - 700 g
of the mixtureonion – 1
headtomatoes - 2 pcs.
paprika
savory
Pepper
Oil
sol
FOR TOPPING
yogurt - 400 g
eggs - 3 pcs.
flour - 1 tbsp.
soda - 1 pinch
Finely chop the onion and fry it in hot oil. Add the minced meat and fry until done, while adding the finely chopped tomatoes. Season with savory, paprika and salt. Pour about 100 ml of warm water, sprinkle with black pepper and cook until the liquid evaporates. Cut the potatoes into small cubes and place them in a greased pan. Pour the minced meat on top and pour hot water over the moussaka to cover the products. Bake in a preheated 180 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Mix the products for the filling and pour the moussaka. Bake until golden brown.
Banista with cheese
ground crusts - 400 grams
eggs - 4
pieces yoghurt - 400 grams
cheese - 300 grams
oil - 3/4 tea cup
baking soda - 1 teaspoon
The first step in the recipe for a pie with cheese and ready-made crusts is the preparation of the filling. Stir in the eggs (previously removed from the fridge), yoghurt, cottage cheese / cheese, ½ a cup of tea oil and baking soda. You can also use cottage cheese. If you use cottage cheese, add about an equal teaspoon of salt. Mix the products well until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. In a greased pan put 1-2 leaves of the crusts, on which put about a ladle (for soup) of the mixture. Then sprinkle with a few drops of the remaining oil. On top again put a sheet or two of the crusts and again of the mixture, and finally oil. Repeat the procedure in this sequence until the crusts and mixture are finished. Grease the last sheet of crusts with oil and very carefully cut it into pieces with a sharp knife so that you can cut the pie into pieces more easily after baking. Bake the pie in a preheated 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes until the pie turns golden. After removing the pie from the oven, cover with a cotton cloth until cool.
Tripe soup
belly 300 gr
fresh milk 300 ml
cow butter 30 gr
red pepper 2 tsp
flour 1 tbsp
black pepper 1/2 teaspoon
garlic 1 head
vinegar 1 cup coffee
The first step in the recipe for tripe soup is the preparation of the tripe. You can use ready-blanched or boiled tripe and save time for cooking the tripe. The abdomen must be washed and well cleaned. You can prepare tripe soup with both pork and beef or lamb tripe. Depending on what the belly will be, you will need a different cooking time. The lamb belly is boiled for about an hour, while the pork and beef should be cooked for hours until soft. Boil the belly without salt until soft. and you can also use ready-blanched tripe, saving your cooking time. Remove the belly and add hot milk, 2 teaspoons of salt and a teaspoon of black pepper to 1 liter of broth. Finely chop the cooked belly. In a deep frying pan, heat the butter, add the red pepper and flour and fry for about a minute or two, then add a few tablespoons of the broth and stir until smooth. Pour the porridge into the broth, add the chopped belly and let the soup cook for a few minutes. Serve the tripe soup with crushed garlic mixed with vinegar.
Rosół
Chicken pieces on the bone
1 small piece of beef bone
4 -5 Carrots
1 -2 Parsnips
Celery root
Leek
2 yellow onions
1/4 of Cabbage head (either savoy or green)
Parsley
1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
5 Allspice
2-3 Bay leaves
Salt and Pepper
Step 1: Gather all your vegetables. Peel carrots, parsnip, and celery. Clean and trim your leek and wash your parsley. Heat up a skillet and add unpeeled onions in to get some burn marks. The yellow onion skins help with the nice color for the broth. If you get some burn marks it even intensifies the color.
Step 2: Place chicken pieces, beef bone, allspice, and bay leaves into a large pot.
Step 3: Add vegetables and fill the pot with water.
Step 4: Set it on medium to low heat. Do not boil it! Let it simmer for two hours. A few times during the cooking, skim off anything that accumulates on the surface.
Step 5: Boil the noodles separately, according to instructions. Once cooked, rinse with cold water to remove starch. Add noodles to a bowl. Remove a carrot and piece of chicken from the broth, cut it up and add it to your bowl. Ladle the broth into your bowl; first letting it pass through a with a meshed strainer. Add chopped parsley and serve.