Cooking Recipes and Gastronomical Information

Croatian Cooking Recipes

North of legendary Greece and across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, the world capital of Cuisine, and in the heart of the Slavic countryside, Croatia blends cuisine with zest, gusto and heartiness, making it one of the world’s best kept culinary secrets. Here are some completely scrumptious recipes from Croatia.

Dalmatian Lamb
This is a classic dish for the beautiful Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, where shepherds tend their flocks and gaze out into the breathtaking Adriatic Sea. Many fine dining locales serve this exquisite, authentic dish. When you can’t be in Croatia, here’s how to approximate the experience:

Ingredients:
· 4 tablespoons olive oil
· 2 onion, chopped
· 2 legs of lamb, or 1600 grams
· 300 grams tomatoes, skinned and chopped
· 1 kilogram scrubbed or peeled potatoes
· 2 chopped rosemary sprigs
· 2 bay leaves
· 500 grams of frozen peas
· 10 milliliter lamb stock (see accompanying recipe)
· chopped parsley
· ground ground black pepper and salt to season


Ingredients for the lamb stock
· 2 sliced onions
· 2 lamb bones
· 6 chopped cloves of garlic
· 2 chopped carrots
· 2 rosemary sprigs
· 2 chopped celery sticks
· 10 black peppercorns
· 2 bay leaves
· 3 liters of water

Directions:
Pull the meat off the bones and cut it into bite-sized chunks. After preheating the oven to 190 degree centigrade, use a large pan to heat up the olive oil and sauté the onion until soft, but not necessarily translucent. At that point throw in the chunks of lamb and the chopped garlic and sauté until brown, and be sure to season with the pepper and the salt. Pour in half of the lamb stock and boil it before transferring that to a heat-safe terracotta. Cook this for 90 minutes in an oven until just before the lamb becomes tender, then add more stock, as well as the peas and cook for 10 more minutes. Then serve it up with bread and parsley. Enjoy!

Directions for the lamb stock:
Using the lamb bones cut from the flesh of the self-same lamb you will be cooking, and add the bone in with the carrot, rosemary, peppercorns, onion, celery, bay leaf and water. Boil it then bring the heat down and let it simmer for two hours. Use a sieve to strain out all the particles

Prsurate – Croatian Doughnuts
A departure from Dunkin’ Donuts, these are a spicy, flavorful and totally unique take on desert, and completely Croatian. Cook a lot of these because once you set them out, they are guaranteed to go fast!

Ingredients:
· 2 quarts hot water
· 4 pounds Flour
· 1 cup brandy
· 2 cups sugar
· 1 nut grated nutmeg
· 4 teaspoons Vanilla
· grated peels of 2 lemons
· 2 cups raisins
· 12 teaspoons dried yeast
· 1 cup lukewarm water
· 3 quarts light oil (such as soy)

Directions:
Soak the yeast in the lukewarm water, then start on the flour. The flour is your foundation. Use a large bowl and slowly pour in the hot water as you mix it, beating constantly until all the dry flour from the sides of the bowl is integrated into the mix. Don’t stop whipping, but do add the brandy, nutmeg, grated lemon peel, sugar, vanilla and raisins.

At this point mix in the cup of lukewarm water and yeast, heat up the oil soy (about 3 inches high, ideally) while the yeast begins to work its way into the dough. After fifteen or twenty minutes and when ready drop the dough into the oil and let it cook for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown. Douse with confectioner’s sugar and serve immediately and/or save for an upcoming holiday. These will go fast.