Bulgarian Sunday Lunch In The Slow Lane

Snails are free food, but the appeal certainly isn't a favourite with most people and that’s not just vegetarians either. The thought of the slow, slimy, slippery creatures as a meal just puts many if not most people off. Snails are land lubbers where whelks are seafaring with a more popular following as a snack, but essentially they are the same in both physical looks, texture although having a more distinctive taste. So why the big ‘Yuk!’ to garden snails on the dinner plate?

It was snails on the menu this weekend for Galia and I as we stopped just outside Yambol after a night of rain together snails that large and abundant. Free food, but not restricted to Bulgaria, in the UK garden snails are edible albeit more polluted. We knew the snails we were picking up were healthy and succulent on the fresh green spring growth that had dinner written all over it for these lucky snails and the snails in turn had dinner written all over them for us. Oh the food chain is wonderful thing isn't it?

We must have picked about 30 to 40 snails and took them the farmhouse where we put them in a bucket with an iron grill off the barbecue system and weighted it down with a Skalitsa healing stone we had picked up last year whilst being healed, so any ill snails would be cured, but they couldn't escape. They could poke their heads though the grate but their shell houses couldn't be dragged through with them. To eat snails you need their digestive system to be clear and that means starving them for two days. It was Friday so they would be ready to cook on Sunday; this was our plan for Sunday lunch.

Each morning and evening I washed them out with water and put them back in the bucket. Sunday morning after their last wash they were put into some boiling water then winkled out with a skewer. Then the snail meat was fried in butter and home grown green garlic with a little rakia and turned out in a couple of ramekin bowls. Each bowl of snails was covered with breadcrumbs and grilled until brown.

Outside, Galia had set the table outside in the sunshine that had come out after the rain we had had for two days. This had some cold Sofia beer called ‘Ariana,’ waiting on the table to greet us along with the snail dishes that were ready to serve. We spend the next 20 minutes enjoying out free feed in beautiful surroundings being washed down with cold beer. Yambol snails and Sofia beer - A great combination!

I recommend snails for Sunday lunch to anyone, it is a superb no cost chemical-free food with little if no fat and no animal rights campaigners in sight! Notice I haven't mentioned the French - Oops I just did!

My own step-by-step snail recipe is being prepared in next post.

Singing and Dancing Bulgarian Peppers

Peppers in Bulgaria are barbecued in the main, this is a national pastime in late summer through to the autumn and an event I see every day in the Yambol area. The smell of freshly picked and cooked peppers is unmistakable and for me and many other walking by a home that is cooking peppers on a barbecue, conjures up mix of major jealously and a great deal of dribbling. The lucky recipients of the food are in for a regular treat that is beyond description in a blog. Such a simple food and such an effective treat and celebration of nature's food prepared in such a natural manner.

It is only in the last two years that the potential of peppers has been realised. Before Bulgaria eating peppers wasn't the choice of foods in the UK. They were a food that didn't appeal at all from the point of taste and uniform in shape. So when arriving in Bulgaria, from that background of pepper eating experience growing peppers wasn't really on the agenda. They were, as far as I was concerned, far more tasty food to grow. What's the point of growing food that had no character and didn't give a culinary event to look forward to?

Then one day, about a year on, Galia put a simple pepper dish in front of me. This was another major event in the food experiences in Bulgaria. There have been so many! The peppers were sweet and tasty with a melt in the mouth sensation; a party was in full swing on my mouth from that point of the peppers gate crashing in. This was a moment I shall never forget as all my prejudices that had built up against UK peppers sudden diminished, just like the peppers that also diminished in a short space of time.

After that event it was a pepper fanatic on the prowl and a pepper section for growing them set aside on the farm. For two years now peppers have been eaten like there is no tomorrow, you just can't get bored with food like this in a country that seems to have a magic element in all that grows here.

I have found that barbecuing the peppers, in the traditional Bulgarian way is the best way to appreciate the full pepper experience. I mentioned a party before; well I have also found that the peppers have their own party whilst being prepared. They sing and dance all the way to the dinner table.

The Barbecue is set up and the peppers are always the first to be cooked. As they lie there and the heat hits them they start dancing, then not long after they start singing. It is fun to watch and hear as they party on until done. They are taken off the heat to cool down then the women peel the skins that come off very easily. Finally they are laid on a dish and a drizzle of oil, a squirt of vinegar and a sprinkle of salt are added. The end result is heavenly!

The dancing peppers are caused by the heat making the skin blister, raising the pepper, the blister bursts and the peppers fall, many little blisters rising and falling make the peppers jive around the hot barbecue grill.

The singing peppers are cause by the heat boiling the moisture inside the peppers creating steam. This steam is built up and needs to escape so the pepper pops. Alongside the big pops of the whole pepper are the little pops of the skin blisters popping. This I suppose could be pepper pop music! Going on, some peppers already have an escape route for the steam and just like a woodwind instrument the steam is force through a small outlet and the vibrating flap produces vibration, hence a tone and music is created. The greater the heat the more pressure from the steam and a higher pitch note results a symphony of oscillating tones result. Watching an listening we do actually hear and see singing and dancing peppers respectfully; well what else would you expect from Bulgarian peppers!?

A Perfect Bulgarian Day

Today was a wonderful day in Bulgaria what's more nothing went wrong all day. As far as days go here most are a joy but today it was Saturday we we at the Skalitsa farmhouse and there wasn't much to do on the farm. The only chores were picking the ripe vegetables from the land.

After a lay in to 9:00 and then baking Skalitsa Banistas, a bike ride was taken from Skalitsa to General Toshevo and back with the scenery en route absolutely stunning on this clear sunny day. I couldn't help noticing the sliva trees full of sliva along the main road.

Colours from bright yellow, rose, red and purple it was like sweets on a tree. Then there were a few trees with the big victoria plum type fruit, I couldn't resist stopping and picking a few to bring back to the farmhouse as the sweetness just hit me on trying one. There is nothing like just going out and picking free fruit better not only that fresher and better tasting than anything you can buy in the shops.

After an exhilarating bike ride it was a little sleep mid afternoon, something that most Bulgarian do but I still have trouble getting into that routine.

The evening brought out the barbecue as Galia and I for once didn't have any visitors this evening. An evening alone with good food excellent home made grape rakia I made two years ago and Bulgarian music from the radio. Both Galia and I agreed, the end of a perfect Bulgarian day

The end of a perfect day for relaxing but looking around most of my neighbours do this most of the time at weekends during the summer. Well the men do anyway.




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