Lazy Fresh Adriatic Fish

How young and naive I was on that January 1st. I woke up full with energy and hight hopes of better me. I was sure I'll change, that in 2008 I'll be more discipline and diligent, I'll post more regularly. I decided that I do not need new year's resolution to make a positive change in my life, I need to decide what I want and just do it!

Well... you see the date, you can figure out yourself.

You do not need me to tell you...

...I'm in mess. It's always like that when I come back from Split to Zagreb, I always need at least two weeks to "get together".

That shouldn't surprise me or you if you know that only few weeks ago this was my breakfast in sunny Split...

and this was my breakfast in foggy Zagreb few day ago...

Don't get me wrong, both cakes were tasty, but the scenery was quite different... you know.. sun and sea on one side, and fog, rain and asphalt on the other...

Today, finely, it was sunny in Zagreb too so I feel like I have "wake up" after two weeks of fog and rain and I'm now ready to dedicate some of my time and energy to bloging!

Zucchini From My Parents Garden

Last year my parents started small garden in their beck yard. They are complete novice to gardening. While I was with them in Split I wanted them to try to develop bio-dynamical garden and I bought some books on bio-dynamical gardening, but I have to admit that it was all little bit SF for us, city slickers!

I'll try again when I go beck to Split, but I do not have high hopes.

Anyway, they do have small garden but with a help of their neighbor, who is experienced garnered, they do grow some very tasteful vegetable like: zucchinis, paprikas, beans, cabbage, beetroot, melons, tomatoes...

So, here it is, risotto with the zucchini form my parents garden. This summer was their very first harvest! And this zucchini is maybe the last one form this season. All we can do now is wait next spring and new zucchini.

Brown risotto with the zucchini
1 big zucchini
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1 cup of brown rice
3 cups of hot vegetable stock
1 cup f sweet corn
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, to serve
freshly grated parmesan cheese, to serve

Toast brown rice on low heat in fraying pan. Toast rice for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly so that grains do not burn. Rice should turn a medium brown. You will know that it is ready when you smell "bread like" aroma.

Toasting rice will reduce cooking time of rice. Also, I was told that it is good to toast rice in fall and winter because this way rice will give more energy to your meal and keep you warm.

Slice the onion and zucchini. Heat the oil in a large, heavy based saucepan and fry onions over a medium heat until softened. Add the zucchini and fry until zucchini let its fluid. Add a pinch of cinnamon.

Stir in the toasted rice. Pour in the stock and simmer, stirring, until the liquid has been absorbed. Add more stock and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed. Continue adding the stock and simmering until all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice becomes soft as you like it (some people like rice to be "al dente" and some like to be little overcooked).
Add sweet corn and stir into the risotto. Add salt and pepper. Sparkle with some olive oil. Serve with freshly choped parsley and Parmesan cheese.

I'll submit this recipe to this months Grown Your Own blogevent.

SHF: Going local - Bobici

I know it is not that time of the year yet, but when I read about this month SHF hosted by The Passionate cook with the theme “Going local!”, Bobici just jumped in my mind and I desperately wanted to participate!

Well, traditional Dalmatian sweets in general are very tasteful. The main ingredient are local fruit: figs, raisins, almonds, walnuts… honey is often used instead of the sugar…

If you ever visit Dalmatic coast, island or inland you just have to try some of these: Mandulat, Rafioli, Smokvenjak (Hib), Rožata (in Split it is called Rožada), Fritule, Kroštule… and many, many others delicious sweets, cookies, cakes…

But today, I’ll write about Bobici, since their background is so fascinating!

Bobici, meaning “little broad beans” (“broad beans” = “bob” in Croatian), are small cakes that got its name form the old believe that the beans represent some sort of media for the direct communication between the world of dead and the world of living. Because of their ability to bring alive the souls of the dead the beans were present in the funeral ceremony in old Greece, Egypt and Rome, but also in other parts of the world. So baking and sharing the cookies in shape of beans - Bobici represents the symbolic reunion of departed and alive.

In Catholic world the Bobici were traditionally served on Day of Dead (or All Souls day) that is always on November 2. It is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away. In Italy there are similar cookies called "Fave dei morti" meaning "Beans of the Dead".

Today in Split Bobici are very popular in everyday life and they are considered Split’s gastronomical souvenir. They are even industrially produced and are the most popular product of Bobis, the oldest pastry industry in Croatia, based in Split.

So if you ever come to Split find Bobis shop and ask for Bobići (Bobichi). You can find them in many others souvenir or delicates shops were you can fined home made Bobici that are for sure more tasteful than those form Bobis which are industrially produced. Or even better, buy local ingredients and bake them yourself!

Bobici

250 g Unbleached and unpeeled almonds
250 g Sugar
1 egg
1 spoon of Maraschino
grated nutmeg
½ lemon zest
1 spoon of biscuit or Savoiardi crumbs
1 spoon of grated dark chocolate

Lightly toast the almonds and let them cool. Half of the almonds grind until they get flour like consistency (if you are doing this in a food processor be careful not to overgrind since almond are quite oily and they can easily get creamy. We do not want that!). Other half chop finely using knife (so that crumbs are size of couscous). Mix both halves back together.

Mix sugar with egg yolk. Grate some lemons zest. Add almonds, maraschino or some other domestic brandy, nutmeg, and beaten egg white (the “snow” from whites should form firm foam. Test it by turning the bowl upside down. Whites should stay in bowl.).

Mix it till you get firm dough and divide it in two halves. For white Bobici add same biscuit crumbs or grated Savoiardi. To the other half add grated dark chocolate.

Damp your hands and roll the dough between them to get long rolls about 1,5 cm thick. Cut them in 2 cm long pieces and then shape them into small balls. Lightly press each ball with finger to make a shallow pit.

Grease the baking dish or paper preferably with natural bee wax but butter or oil will do just fine. Place carefully the balls on it. Dry them in the oven on 50°C for about 3 hours.

This is basic recipe based on recipe form “Dalmatinska kuharica” by Dika Marjanović-Radica. There are lots of variants depending of the place you visit.

Picture of the thousand flavors

This bunch of old, yellow, grassy papers is my parents' cookbook collection.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousands words. Well, I don't know about words, but I know that between these shabby pages, all tastes, smells and senses of my childhood are hidden.

And we are not talking about delicate Proust's Madeleine, but about rich, savory domestic food, prepared in domestic traditional way of our grandparents. It is Mediterranean, it is Balkan, it is Dalmatian. So many flavors… so many different cultures and histories... all hidden in the food.

The backbone of the collection is The Bible of Dalmation cuisine called "Dalmatian cookbook" written by Dika Marjanovic - Radica. The book is the equivalent to "Silver Spoon" in Italian cuisine. It's the book that was usually gifted to newly married, to new cooks, young wifes...

If Dika's book is backbone of my parents cookbook collection, my mother's wonderful, handwritten private collection of recipes is the flash. These recipes are collected for almost forty years and they are mostly named after the source of the recipe, so we have Ana's yellow cake, Nardeli's tart, Margi's fritule, Nada's krostule...

The sources are my mothers friends and her clients from her hairstyle saloon that she runs for more than 35 years. And you know there is some serious "recipe traffic" going on in hairstyle salons.

This summer I'll spend with my parents in their wonderful house in my hometown Split in Dalmatia (coastal part of Croatia). My plan is to explore their recipe collection and to use Internet and blogging to digitalize it, so that I have them at disposal wherever I go and that I can share it with my friends who all like my parents cooking.

I decided to write this blog in English for several reasons. The first one is my "broken English" that desperately craves for some practice. So, feel free to correct my grammar and wrong spelling.

The second one are some of my "international" friends that I keep neglecting, so this seams as a good way of "keeping in touch".

At last, but not least, since I noticed that there is a small number of cookbooks about Dalamtian, and Croatian cuisine in English and I decided to make my humble contribution to change this regardless my "linguistic limitations".

That it's for my first post!

I'll be back!