Srem

Zelnik

Ingredients:

flour, 1 tsp. salt, oil, vinegar, 1 egg, spring onion, dock, rice or groats, mint, eggs, white cheese

Method:

Sift the flour and make a small well in the middle. Add salt, oil and vinegar, and break the egg. Pour a little water and knead soft dough. Roll out the dough into two or more sheets and bake them. Keep the lower sheet thicker and larger than the baking dish so as to wrap up the stuffing and the upper sheet in it. Gradually, brown spring onions, paprika and mint. Add the dock scalded in advance. Pour a little water. Put in rice or groats. Season with salt and leave to simmer. Optional: add eggs and white cheese. Distribute the stuffing between the sheets and sprinkle with oil. Finish with stuffing over the upper sheet and a little oil. Bake in the oven. When the zelnik is ready place a dried or roasted fish on top.

Pounded garlic

Ingredients:

garlic, oil, the middle of a slice of bread, walnuts, salt, water

Method:

Pound the garlic with the salt. Separately, pound walnuts with a little water. Add bread, oil and water until a thin mash is obtained with drops of oil floating on the surface. Stir well and consume with a piece of bread dipped in the pounded garlic.

Moccasin beans

(a very ancient recipe)

Ingredients:

broad beans, onion, flour, paprika, salt, savory

Method:

Soak the broad beans for the night. Wash the beans and then brown them with the onion. Put to boil. When the beans soften, top with the brown sauce made in advance from flour, paprika and salt. Finally, sprinkle with savory.

Sops with trahana cereal

Ingredients:

trahana, oil, milk, salt

Method:

In a pan, brown 1–2 tbsp. trahana with oil. Add water and salt. Let the trahana boil until it swells. In advance, in another pan, put morsels of bread and pour over the boiled trahana. Cover with a lid. Leave for a while to rest, and then top with milk or brown sauce.

Trahana cereal with bell peppers

Ingredients:

3 kg red bell peppers, 3 kg flour, fenugreek, 3–4 onions, savory, salt

Method:

Arrange the fenugreek in a wreath and place at the bottom of a deep pan. Deseed the bell peppers and chop. Distribute them over the fenugreek. Add the chopped onion. Put inside a stick of savory and pour in a little water. Bring to the boil, and when the bell peppers soften, take them out and remove their skin. Mix them with the flour and knead the dough for quite some time. Leave the trahana to rise. Tear in small bits and leave to dry at home for a whole day, in the shade. Grind against the walls of the trough until it is reduced to small balls similar to couscous. Sift in a colander. Leave to dry up for at least 15 days. Store and add to various dishes.