Bulgarian Pasta for Breakfast

This morning I dropping off my partner to work as usual, only to find something was different when I got back home. On the kitchen table was a plate of steaming hot pasta. The word 'Zakooska' was thrown at me from Baba who was folding up the bedsheets in the living room. This word means breakfast. Baba had taken it upon herself to prepare me a traditional Bulgarian breakfast this morning. She came into the kitchen to explain that see had seen that I hadn't any cornflakes left and we were totally out of home baked banitsas, which is what I normally eat for breakfast.

Well how can I refuse this specially cooked breakfast lying on my place on the kitchen table. The thought of pasta 7:30 in the morning didn't really appeal at this point. It wasn't normal in my previous UK life to have such things this early the morning. I did occur that this was probably the most healthy eating option of all breakfasts, it did made sense to eat food like this first thing on a regular basis to give a steady energy level to lunchtime. Right now though I wasn't looking forward to eating it, but didn't want to upset Baba who had gone to so much trouble.

As I sat down, then Baba fetched and put by the plate of pasta some sirene (white goats cheese) and some sugar. She urged me to put some on the pasta dish before I start eating it. Adding sirene to the pasta wasnt' a problem, I didn't need much persuasion with this. The sugar addition was a different story, I just couldn't bring myself to add it to the dish. Pasta to me should be a savoury dish. The addition sugar to the sour taste of sirene would just confuse my taste buds which hadn't even had a chance to wake up yet.

So pasta and serene was my zakooska at this moment. The first few mouthfuls felt quite alien as the slimy pasta slipped and slide down into the empty depths of my stomach. I've had warmed up curry for breakfast before now in my student days, but that was a long time ago, this is different. By the time the pasta had been half eaten, my taste buds got a second wind. This food was great! Pasta and sirene, without sugar, I now couldn't get enough of it. The combination of bland tasting pasta and sirene which just brings many meals alive worked wonders with this dish. It reminded me of a simple boiled potato and sirene dish we sometimes have here.

Baba never makes food for one, its not economical to do that, she had made enough for three days. This will see us through to the weekend she said. It looks like pastas for breakfast is here to stay and with winter upon us what better way to start the day. Another revelation in the simplest of foods discovered today.

Tikvanik - Bulgarian Pumkin Banitsa

Food, that’s all I seem to be blogging about at the moment, but you can’t expect anything else in the season where food is coming from all directions. Right now it prime time for pumpkins and walnuts, I won’t mention all the other goodies that are still pumped out in the Bulgarian kitchens and summer houses, I’ll need a good couple of days to cover it.

This weekend was a strange one, it was the first weekend we hadn’t had any guests in Skalitsa this year. Can you believe that? We were so used to catering for others that by the end of the weekend we were absolutely stuffed with home cooked food made from home produced ingredients.

The highlight of the weekend’s courses was the tikva (pumpkin) banitsa that Galia delicately made. Actually they are called tikvanik. It is such a simple dish but aren’t the favourite dishes just that? It was made this weekend by accident as stupid me being at the farmhouse on my own for a couple of days previous, forgot to make the sirene as I was too preoccupied with digging the land over in preparation for winter. This is really uncanny as tikvanik actually also means ‘fool’.

So it came to be that we had given to use three pumpkins that had been given to us the weekend before. We had the filo pastry the sunflower oil, sugar, walnuts and cinnamon. This was all we needed for the sweet banitsas that were about to be conjured up by this angel of a cook of mine.

No Skalitsa banitsas this weekend as I took a reluctant back step from the kitchen area. Galia doesn’t like me watching her cook, as she gets nervous. “It’s only curiosity!” I tell her, ‘Not a judgement.” It doesn’t make any difference me telling her though as I walk with my tail between my legs back in the living room and carry on blogging, but my mind is on what is happening in the kitchen.

To be quite honest I know exactly how these tikvanik are made, as well as having seen Galia and other friends here making them each year during the pumpkin season, I’ve even made them successfully myself on a number of occasions. Despite this, it is the love of being involved in the process as well as watching that is a passion. Before in England it was me who did all the cooking, I’ve never had a woman who could cook before and I was obviously still trying to come to terms with that.

It was a near disaster today though, as we both got distracted outside with neighbour talk. We forgot the banitsas were in the oven and it was a couple of Linford Christies up the flight of stair and into the kitchen when we twigged. We had just saved them in time as we put cloth over the well-cooked tikvanik to cool down and keep the moisture in.

We knew this was going to happen right from the moment of the conception of the idea of making these melt-in-the-mouth tikvanik. In fact is was more a case of melt-the-mouth as 10 minutes later we both had burnt tongues!

I suppose you are expecting the recipe to follow now. Well it isn’t! For tikvanik to taste as good as they do, you need to make and eat them in Bulgaria. And if you are in Bulgaria you wouldn’t need the recipe anyway as any Bulgarian worth their salt knows how to make them anyway.

Weekend Feast of Bulgarian Food

Whenever I write about food some of the feedback I get says that there is better food in other parts of the world and that what I say is a distortion of the truth about food in Bulgaria. To me these critics can say what they want. Most that doubt my word haven’t even tried the food I have experienced here. Some may have, but they have only been to restaurant and bars that cater for a more western tourist taste. Until someone has tried home cooked and prepared Bulgarian food in a Bulgarian home with Bulgarian company these ‘mouthful self-righteous’ comments can just be ignored and the writers that compose them have pity taken upon them as they will never ever know.

Just to rub noses into the Bulgarian food scene again, this weekend past turned out to be a feast of wonderful food as my farmhouse in Skalitsa. It was opened to family guests, all female Bulgarians bar me. Every woman knew how to cook and cook well. Bulgarian food was on the table from the very first moment we arrived and never stopped right through to Sunday evening when we went back to our Yambol home. Even when we arrived there, Bulgarian food was waiting for us on the table from Baba.

The weekend menu started that very Friday evening:

Local cabbage and carrot salad, (Yambol grown)
barbecued peppers. (Skalitsa Farmhouse produced)
Homemade Barbecued Kyufte (Skalitsa goat based mince)
Local chemical free bread, (Skalitsa made)
Aryan (buttermilk) from Skalitsa cow milk
Homemade Sliva (Plum) Rakia (from Skalitsa sliva )
Ariana Beer (Sofia)

The following morning’s menu:

Homemade pancakes dressed with Skalitsa honey
Banitsa made with sirene and Yambol leeks
Menthe Tea

Lunchtime:

Kyufte (Yesturday's Leftovers)
Cucumber and tomato salad (Yambol produced)
Lemonade (Made in Yambol)

Late afternoon:

Sunflower seeds (Skalitsa produced)

The evening menu:
Shopska Salad
Rakia (Skalitsa Farmhouse Grape based)
Ariana Beer
Oven baked
Baked Yambol Rabbit with fried liver, heart kidney and rice stuffing. Accompanied with onions, garlic, potato carrots and broccoli

Sunday morning:

More freshly cooked pancakes
Menthe Tea
Brazilian Coffee!

Sunday Lunchtime (Late):
Sarma made from Goat mince, Skalitsa Farmhouse vine leaves and Bulgarian rice

There were so many feasting highlights this weekend it was hard to choose the best. The Baked stuffed rabbit got the accolade of the best presented feast. We had to improvise a bit as I didn't have needle and thread in the house being an Englishman's house, so we used a metal skewer to sew up the rabbit stomach to keep the stuffing in.

Also I hadn't mentioned about the pickling that went on as well during the weekend. We now have lots of vegetable in store to last us through the winter. The cabbages will be stored in the massive 240 litres barrels, where the wine has was feremented and turned into Rakia a few days ago.

After a fabulous feasting weekend, it was back to Yambol for more food and drink in the evening. All I can say is Phew! What's more, because all the Bulgarian women about, I didn't have to lift a finger, even though I tried and got told off!

Skalitsa Banitsa Recipe - Now World Recognition

Skalitsa Banitsa Recipe - Now world recognition

This is probably the most famous Bulgarian recipe bar shopska salad and with the pastry now bought in a ready to use form from shops is very simple to make.

This particular recipe was given to me by my Bulgarian neighbour Rosa who is also local nursery schoolteacher. It is as far as I'm aware only local to my village Skalitsa which has in my totally unbiased opinion gives better results than the original National recipe. Hence the name 'Skalitsa' Banitsa

Ingredients Needed

All the ingredients are readily available in most villages and every town and city in Bulgaria.

One packet (500 gm) of filo pastry
3 eggs
1 cup Plain flour
1 cup yoghurt
1 tspn Baking powder
Sunflower oil
Sirene chopped up (Bulgarian white cheese)

If you are not in Bulgaria you can use self raising flour instead of the plain flour and baking powder and feta or cottage cheese (adding a bit more salt) instead of sirene.

Step by Step Method

- Turn the oven on to a temperature of 170C.

- Put the eggs, flour, baking powder and yoghurt in a bowl and mix well together and put to one side.

- Unwrap the pastry and lay all the sheets on the plastic wrapping on the work surface.

- Lightly grease a baking tray big enough to take the width of the pastry when rolled up.

- Trickle oil over the whole area of top layer of the pastry and then dribble the mixture randomly over the pastry.

- Sprinkle sirene evenly over the oil based pastry.

- Roll two layers along the length of the pastry and place it on the baking tray - Make sure you roll the pastry very loosely.

- Repeat the same process until all the sheets of pastry have been used.

- If there is any mixture left over brush the top of the parcel rolls in the tray, if there is none left brush some oil over the tops of the skalitsa banitsas.

- Place the tray in the now hot oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Suggested Serving

These are best eaten hot or can be reheated or eaten cold later in the day. I make mine every Saturday and use them reheated a couple in a microwave for one minute every morning for breakfast.

A Good Bulgarian Tip

To get the oil evenly spread over the pastry - pierce a small hole in the top of the sunflower oil
plastic bottle cap and use it as a squeezy bottle.