In August 2008 we announced the Best Recipe Competition. We
invited SlovInUS News readers to send us their favorite recipe to win a prize.
In more than three months we collected seventeen recipes and organized
two rounds of voting. On December 15, 2008 the poles were closed, votes
counted and winner announced.
The Best
Recipe 2008 is .......... (drum roll)
Holiday
Slovenian Kiflin.
Congratulations to Shannon Braarud who submitted
the recipe. Congratulations also to
Emi Purger for second place with Chocolate
Orange Cake,
Mary Billingsley for third place with Pumpkin
Dip,
Bernadette Kovacic Fitzsimmons for fourth place
with Slovenian Palacinke and
Pavlina Zajc for fifth place with Buckwheat
dumplings with cottage cheese.
Big thank you to all of you who submitted a
recipe, thank you to all of you who voted, and thank you to the
sponsors:
Tri
Wines, Inc. from New York, which
brings high quality wines from Slovenia to the United States and
Euro
Foods grocery store from Alexandria, Virginia
Make sure you visit their web sites and add them
to your favorites and do not hesitate to contact them if you want to
order any of their products.
Click on links below to learn more about each
topic.
Euro
Foods is a grocery store from Alexandria, Virginia. This
"Bosnian" store offer Fructal juices, Radenska, and Cocta,
kajmak, Turkish coffee, Bajadera and Ledene kocke, Eurocream and hundreds
of other product from Slovenia, Bosnian, Croatia, Macedonia etc. Visit
them at: http://www.eurofoodsalexandriava.com/index.html
or, if you are from Washington, DC metro area, you'll find their address
and contact information here: http://www.eurofoodsalexandriava.com/contact.html
Tri
Wines, Inc. brings to the United States high quality wines from
Slovenia. They offer comprehensive yet very selective catalogue of
Slovenian wines. Their wines will complement any menu and will make even
the most knowledgeable customers stop and take notice. Visit Tri Wines,
Inc. at: http://www.slovenianpremiumwines.com/.
For their contact information click here>>.
Recipes (click on a name to display entire
recipe):
Place
first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium
speed until well blended. Add syrup and cinnamon, and beat until smooth.
Cover and chill 30 minutes. Serve with apple.
Yield
12
servings (serving size: 2 tablespoons dip and 2 apple slices)
Separate
egg whites and yolks and put them in 2 separate bowls. Let them warm up
to room temperature.
Add a
pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat them into stiff foam.
Add sugar
to the yolks and beat well for about 3 to 5 min to get a foamy mixture
(it needs to increase volume).
Grind
almonds and chocolate and add both to yolks and sugar mixture and mix
gently with spatula.Add beaten egg whites and mix
gently with spatula. Final mix needs to have a foamy texture.
Transfer
cake mix into greased 9" cake pan or 9"x11" baking pan
and bake at 325F for 40 min.
When baked,
cool the cake to room temperature and cut it into two layers.
Filling and
frosting:
Slowly heat
2 cups of whipping cream and 1.5 cups chocolate until chocolate melts
completely.Cool it in refrigerator for at least 3
hours. Whip chocolate cream with mixer.
Moisten
both layers of cake with orange juice. Spread1/3 of
chocolate cream between two layers of cake and use the rest of it as
frosting.
1tbsp
paprika, you can add some chili pepper if you like spicier
1 tbsp
tomato paste
1 lb
cubed lean pork meet
3 +1 cups
water
1/3 cup
sour cream
1 tbsp
flour
Roast
onions on some oil till tender, add meat and cook
till meet
is brow. Add paprika, cook for about a minute.
Add
sauerkraut and 3 cups of water. Bring it to boiling, than simmer
for 30
min. Mix 1 cup of water, flour, tomato paste and sour cream in
a kind of
thick paste. Add it to the sauerkraut and cook for 10 min.
Add salt to
taste.
You can
also put chopped onions, spices, meat, sauerkraut and 3 cups of water in
a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours and stir occasionally. Add water,
flour. Sour cream and tomato paste mixture, stir well and cook
additional 30 min.
Heat oven
to 400F. Unthaw Filo dough. Cut leeks (white and
green part) into ½ inch slices and rinse well in plenty of water.
Melt butter
in a pan; add leeks, salt and 1 cup of water. Simmer for15 minutes. Grease
9x13 baking dish.Cover the bottom with 6 layers of
Filo dough. Add 1/3 of cooked leeks, cover with 2 layers Filo and so on.
Cover top with 6 layers Filo.
Mix eggs
and milk and pour over pie. Bake for 40 min, cut into 12 squares.Serve warm.
Filling:
1 kg fresh, smooth, unsalted cottage cheese
2 eggs
4 Tsp whipping cream
3 Tsp dry bread-crumbs
50 g melted unsalted butter
add one cup rasins or sultanas, soaked in dark rum (for dessert only)
0.2 kg sugar (for dessert only)
Scald the buckwheat flour with boiling water, mixing with a wooden
spoon, allow to cool just enough that you can knead the dough with your
hands. Knead in the wheat flour and roll out the dough about 2-3 mm
thick immediately and spread the filling.
After spreading the filling on the dough, roll the dough tightly, making
sure that there are no air pockets in the roll. Moisten a thin linen
cloth, wringing out excess water, spread the cloth on a flat surface and
dust lightly with dry bread-crumbs. Wrap the struklji tightly with the
cloth and tie both ends.
Bring 1 litre salted water to boil, drop the roll into boiling water and
cook for 1/2 hour. Remove immediately, unwrap and cut into serving
pieces. Brown some bread-crumbs on butter and pour over struklji, serve
hot.
FOR THE DOUGH: 2 c. sifted flour
1 stick margarine
1 pkg. regular dry yeast
2 egg yolks (reserve whites)
1/2 c. sour cream
FOR THE WALNUT FILLING:
2 cups ground nuts (or more, as needed)
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 stiffly beaten egg whites
Vanilla wafers, ground (optional, as needed)
Cut margarine into flour in bowl until mixture is crumbly. Add yeast to
cream. Add beaten yolks and cream mixture to flour. Mix well. Knead on
floured board until smooth. Wrap in foil and chill in refrigerator,
preferably overnight.
WALNUT FILLING:
Combine 2 cups ground nuts, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/8 cup melted butter and 1
teaspoon vanilla. Fold in 2 stiffly beaten egg whites to combined
mixture. This filling must not be too soft. Add more nuts if needed to
make a stiff paste. Vanilla wafers (ground) may also be added to
thicken.
ASSEMBLY:
Sprinkle board with powdered sugar. Form chilled dough into 3 balls of
equal size and roll into very thin circles. Cut 16 pie shaped wedges per
circle. Place a teaspoon or less of filling on wide end of each wedge.
Roll from wide edge to point. Place on greased baking sheet with space
between each cookie.
Bake at 375 degrees F until golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Dust
or lightly roll each baked cookie in powdered sugar.
Make a yellow sponge cake. Break it into crumbs or small pieces.
Peel 4 large oranges and separate them into carpels, or segments. Remove
the pith and break each carpel into pulp vesicles. Mix these with the
sponge cake crumbs.
Make a vanilla pudding using 2/3 cup milk. Let it cool.
When cold, mix the pudding with the cake crumbs and oranges.
Line the inside of a 1 ½-2 inch-deep dish with clear wrap. Transfer the
mix into the dish, fill it up completely by pressing firmly to create a
homogenous layer, and cover with clear wrap. Refrigerate for 24 hours,
or at least overnight.
Next day: take off the cover. Place an appropriately-sized cake plate or
tray over the dish with the firm cake. Turn it upside down, take off the
dish, and carefully peel off the clear wrap.
Melt 2 bars (about 8.5 oz) of dark chocolate with 1-2 oz milk and 1oz
unsalted butter over mild heat. Pour it carefully onto the cake.
Decorate as you desire and refrigerate. Serve with or without whipped
cream.
Less than
pinch of cayenne pepper – unless you like your dish very spicy
Pinch of
Oregano
Pinch of
Cumin
Pinch of
Nutmeg
Saute the
onions on medium fire for about ten minutes, add meat cut in cubes, when
it becomes brown, add Stew spices with the tomato paste and garlic,
simmer for about five minutes, then add the wine, simmer for another
five minutes in between add the chopped tomato and red peppers. Let the
tomato release a little bit of water and then slowly start adding the
water to the dish, ½ cup, let it broil, another ½ cup and let it
broil, keep adding water like that until the meat is covered. Let it
simmer for about ½ - 1 hour and then add chopped carrots and potatoes.
Let it cook for another hour. Serve with the sour cream on the side and
white French bread.
Mix
all ingredients just enough so you can shape into a ball
Chill
for several hours
Combine
¾
cups sugar
1
teaspoon cinnamon
¾
cup chopped walnuts
Sprinkle
board lightly with flour. Divide dough into three balls. Roll out one
ball at a time into a large circle about 1/8 inch thick.Sprinkle with filling.Cut
into small wedge shape sections.Roll
up each wedge starting with the wide portion. Place rolls on lightly
greased cookie sheets.
Bake
in 375 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly gold.
Cream
butter and sugar.Add
remaining ingredients and mix, adding enough flour to form a stiff
dough.Press well-chilled
dough into wooden cookie molds or use cookie stamps designs and
carefully place them on cookie sheet.Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.Cool and store in sealed container to keep crisp.
I use wooden St. Nicholas (Sveti
Miklavz) and
angel (angeljni) cookie molds
or any other mold or cookie stamp.
This recipe
was a ribbon winner for the “Ethnic Desserts” category,
Montgomery
County Fair, Gaithersburg, MD - August, 2005
The
recipe can be alteredby
adding 1 cup whole-wheat flour and ½ cup flaxseed meal in place of all
purpose flour.
Blend
together until smooth.
Spray
cooking spray on baking pan and add ¼ slice butter
Heat
pan to medium.Swish butter
around until melted.Add
approximately ¼ cup batter to pan for each palacinka and hold the pan
so the batter spreads over the entire baking pan.Be ready to flip in a couple of seconds once it’s golden brown.Once opposite side is golden brown, flip to plate and fold in
thirds.Melt another1/4
slice butter for the next palacinka.Repeat until all batter is gone.Makes approximately 8-10 palacinke.Serve plain or with flavored marmalade or warm melted chocolate.
