Halusky Recipe

This has to be my all time favourite meal! I can never get enough of it. When we have this for dinner I'm the one having double portions. Honestly, I can't control myself!
I must have been Central or Eastern European in a past life because I'm so drawn to foods like this.

Halusky (pronounced ha-loosh-kee) is the Slovak version of gnocchi. It's a pasta made with potato dough. The difference between the dough is that halusky is more like a thick batter than a roll-able firm dough. So, perhaps a more similar comparable would be Austrian or German 'spaetzle', except that spaetzle isn't made with potato.

There are many different ways to eat Halusky. Two of the most popular kinds are bryndzove halusky (sheep cheese with sausage or bacon) and kapustove halusky (sour cabbage - "saurkraut"), or more commonly named Strapacky (pronounced sh-tra-pach-kee).
Bryndzove halusky is Slovakia's national dish, and I certainly don't wonder why. Yum! This is the one in the photo.

Halusky
2-3 potatoes
4-5 tbsp flour
1 tsp of salt
1 egg

Instructions:

1. Peel potatoes and finely shred them
2. In a bowl combine potato, salt, egg and flour. The dough shouldn't be too tough but also not too watery. You may add more or less flour, or a bit of water if the dough is too tough
3. Boil a large pot of salted water
4. You have to work quite quickly here: With a halusky sieve (called a halsukar - see image to the right) or a strainer with large holes, put the dough in it hovering over the pot of boiling water. Stir the dough in the sieve with a wooden spoon. Little bits of dough will drop into the water as you stir. If the dough starts to get tougher you can quickly dip the strainer into the water as you go to loosen the dough a bit. Continue stirring the dough until all of it has dropped into the water. NOTE: If you do not have a haluskar or strainer with large enough holes you can instead, cut off  1/2 tsp size dough pieces and drop them into the boiling water
5. The halusky is cooked when all the dumplings are floating
6. Prepare halusky with flavour and topping of your choice (2 possibilities below)

Bryndzove
3-4 tbsp sheep cheese (or goat cheese as alternative)
2-3 tsbp milk
1 smoked sausage or 6 strips bacon, chopped and fried, reserve the juices

Stir the sheep cheese, milk and some of the reserved frying juices with the halusky. The cheese will melt in quickly. Top with the bacon or sausage.

Kapustove
1 jar (no more than a litre) of sauerkraut, drained
1 medium onion, chopped
1 smoked sausage or 6 strips bacon, chopped 
1 tsp caraway seeds
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the sausage or bacon, remove and set aside. Then fry the onion and sauerkraut with caraway seeds, salt and pepper. Stir the sauerkraut mixture with the halusky and top with the bacon or sausage.

I am proud to send this one in for Presto Pasta Nights' 200th roundup! Hosted this week by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. Congrats Ruth, on reaching #200! How time flies!!

Sauerkraut Soup

This is a traditional Slovak soup which is served commonly with Christmas dinner. But of course can be eaten any time really, especially nice on a cold winter night.
This soup can be served as a starter or as main in a larger portion. Either way It's always a big hit!
This year was Marek's first Christmas with my (British) family in Canada. My Mum doesn't like Sauerkraut but she liked this soup! That sort of outcome feels great.

(Feeds 4-6 people)
1 large bottle sauerkraut (approx 700g)
5 cloves garlic (sliced)
1 medium onion (sliced)
2 mushrooms (sliced)
Smoked ham (500g)
2-6 smoked sausages (Eastern European SMOKED sausages, such as Slovak or Hungarian etc. If you can't find these types Spanish chorizo also works really well)
3/4 tsp caraway seeds
10-15 peppercorns
1 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp marjoram
salt to taste
6 cups water (approximated) - add more if necessary, as long as the soup has flavour and isn't too thick

Cooking instructons:
- Cut ham into thinck steak-like sliced
- poke holes in sausages with a fork (this is to allow the flavour from the sausages leak out into the soup - yum yum!)
- Put all ingredients together in a large pot, but adding water bit by bit through the cooking process (do not let the pot get dry at all!).
- Cook on low-medium heat for 2.5-3 hrs
Stir soup occasionally while cooking

You can serve the sausages and ham in the soup or on the side. Look at these beauties!

Serve soup hot on a cold winter night, mmmmmm!!

Slovak Coconut Balls

This is a recipe I got from my boyfriends mum. This was the biggest hit of them all at Christmas AND there is no cooking or baking required :))))

1 packet sponge fingers (175g) - crushed
1 packet tea biscuits (200g) - crushed
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp jam (flavour of choice)
1 1/4 cup cold coffee
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup sweet liqueur (liqueur flavour of choice
3 1/2 Tbsp(approximated) crushed nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnut, or a mixture of various nut together)
Crushed coconut - enough to cover balls

Instructions:
- Mix both biscuit types together in a bowl
- pour coffee over top, then pour in liqueur
- add jam, honey, raisins, and nuts
IMPORTANT NOTE : nuts must be added last....the amount will determined by texture. Put enough to be able to roll mixture into balls.
- Stir all ingredients together
- Roll mixture into balls just a bit smaller than the size of a golf ball. The roll into coconut to cover whole surface of each ball.

Enjoy!

Bublanina (Czech-Slovak Cake)

This is a typical Czech and Slovak cake made with different fruit depending on the season. Examples of typical fruits used for this cake are cherries, blueberries, plums or apricots. This time Marek asked if I would use pears.

The cake part turned out really tasty but I have to say the pears seemed to lose their flavour. I also didn't add nearly enough pear. I chopped up a bunch of small pieces but silly me didn't add and push them into the batter. I thought the batter seemed shallow in the pan that I must have done something wrong (I doubled the ingredients because my pan was larger than the recipe I had). Turns out it's actually suppose to be a shallow cake anyway. This was a time I didn't do as much research as I normally do before making something new.
 I definitely love this cake but will be certainly using a more traditional fruit next time. I think plums.....oh oh, or how about strawberries come summer time yummmm!!

So even though this cake didn't turn out quite how I wanted it I still want to share this recipe because it is delicious.....just don't be like me, follow the directions and don't doubt yourself ;)!

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs divided (room temperature)
1 tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of cream tartar
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups fresh fruit (blueberries or plums etc)

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 350 F with rack in centre
2. Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan
3. In a medium size bowl cream together butter, sugar and yolk until light and fluffy. Add liqueur (if using), orange zest and salt. Mix well
4. In another medium bowl beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff
5. Alternately fold in egg whites and flour into the butter mixture
6. Pour batter into the baking pan and scatter fruit pieces over top, then lightly press fruit into the batter
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean from the cake's centre

Cut into square pieces and dust with powdered sugar or top with a berry sauce. Or just eat as is, it's so good it really doesn't matter how you eat it!
Oh, and if you didn't notice I sprinkled sliced almonds on top before baking.

Sweet Bread (Slovak Christmas Bread - Vianocka)

This year is Marek's first year away from home during the holidays. It was my priority to make it as special as possible. This meant spoiling him with plenty of slovak baking!
The first thing I made was this gorgeous sweet bread Slovaks call 'Vianocka' (pronounced vee-a-noch-ka). I haven't got too much experience with bread making so I was crossing my fingers with this one, and you know what? it worked! The bread turned out brilliantly! Marek had the biggest smile on his face when he saw it. He said it looked and tasted authentic.
I have to admit I am quite proud of this one ;)

1 pack active dry yeast (8g)
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cup warm water
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 large egg yolks (keep the white for glazing)
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup raisins
zest of half a lemon
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, mix together yeast, 2 tbsp sugar and warm milk. Set aside for 15 minutes

2. In a large bowl or stand mixer combine flour sugar and salt. Add the egg yolk, softened butter, raisins, zest and yeast mixture. Using a dough hook or by hand, knead until dough is smooth and elastic.Transfer to a greased bowl, cover with greased plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to let rise until doubled in size

3. Punch dough and knead until all air pockets are removed. Divide the dough into atleast 3 strands. Cover and let rise for another 15 minutes. Braid the strands and tuck the ends under. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover again with greased plastic wrap and let rise until almost doubled

4.Bake in the oven at 375 F for 30 minutes. Reduce oven to 325 F. Lightly brush bread with beaten egg white and sprinkle with almonds. Bake an additional 30 minutes or until bread is medium golden in colour. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack

Toast a slice of this and coat in butter = H-E-A-V-E-N

Sekeli Gulas (Croatian Sauerkraut Stew)

I'm sitting at home, anxiously awaiting for my guy to get home from being away on business for a week. I try to always have a nice meal waiting for him whenever he comes home from a trip away from me. No matter how late he'll be getting home, there's always that possibility of 'tired from travel' hunger strike.

This time I thought I'd attempt at making the dish his Mum often makes for our arrival when we visit her in Slovakia. One of our favourites! We call it the 'white goulash'.

This isn't a Slovak dish, but a Croatian dish, which is broadly enjoyed in Slovakia and other Eastern European countries.

I don't have the recipe from my guys' Mum but knew most of the ingredients that goes into it, and after some web research I was inspired and confident to go at without following any recipe at all. I 'eyeballed' it and judged texture and taste as I went along.

It's very difficult, if not impossible, to re-create the 'Mum's touch' taste, but I have to say I'm pretty proud of this one :)

(Feeds 4-6 people)

2 rump steaks (fat removed and cubed)

1 cup smoked bacon lardon (cubed)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion (chopped)

500g sauerkraut

2 tbsp ketcup

1 tbsp peppercorns

2 tsp paprika

1 tbsp caraway seeds

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 cup white wine

1 cup single cream (I always use soy cream)

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp flour

salt and ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

- In a large stew pot saute the onions with olive oil. Once they are softened add the bacon. Once the bacon in cooked remove onion and bacon, setting aside. Brown the beef in the pot then throw the onion and bacon back in. Stir in the flour, paprika and caraway seeds.

Now add the white wine. Leave cooking on medium for a few minutes then add the sauerkraut and peppercorns. Continue cooking on low-medium for about 10 minutes, stirring every couple minutes.

Stir in the cream, milk, vinegar and ketcup. Add the bay leaf and turn down to a simmer.

Allow to simmer, covered, for a couple hours, stirring occasionally and adding salt and pepper to taste.

In Slovakia this is a delicious stew (gulas) to serve with knedliky - traditional Slovak bread dumpling.

Since I don't have any and haven't attempted to making my own yet, a good replacement is simple sliced bread. I found ciabatta to be a good match.

Pour the stew over top of the bread (dumplings) and allow the stew to be absorbed. yummm!!

I think my guy (recipe guines pig) will be very pleased with this one, for sure!!

Food is the way to a man's heart. Especially if you attempt at making food from his home country!

Pierogi

I AM IN LOVE WITH PIEROGI!! ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE!!.


Where are they from? Many places. They could be Ukrainian, Russian, Slovakian, Polish...there's a variation in most Eastern European countries, and I love them all! Well, I haven't tried them from all the countries where they've developed, but, I can be certain I would love each and every single 'yummy in my tummy' one of them.

I ate them so much growing up. My parents would buy the frozen ones from Safeway...mmmmm, yuummm. Good times! But now since living in London, they're not so easy to find, store bought. There is a polish deli not far from my house which sells them but I'm not always travelling in that direction and as I love cooking so much I've tried out a few different recipes to make them myself. And I have found the perfect dough recipe from fellow blogger Mark at Eating Cleveland. Check it out here

For the filling I made two kinds, one potato and onion and one potato and sauerkraut.

3 large potatoes
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sour cream
1 cup sauerkraut
1 medium onion
salt and pepper to taste

- Boil the potatoes
- Mash the potatoes with 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp sour cream
- Chop and fry the onion with 1 tbsp butter until soft and browned
- Mix half the mashed potato in a bowl with the onion. Season with salt and pepper
- Fry the sauerkraut with 1 tbsp butter for a couple minutes.
- Mix sauerkraut in a separate bowl with the remaining mashed potato. Season with salt and pepper

Of course you can make all the filling just potato and onion or all just potato and sauerkraut, just double up the onion or the sauerkraut.


My favourite way to serve pierogi is fried (boil them first of course) with onions and bacon bits, and a side dipping of sour cream....oh yeah!!

Hungarian Chicken Goulash

As my boyfriend is Slovak getting the hang of cooking Eastern European cuisine is obviously called for. This certainly doesn't bother me :))) I love Eastern European foods and nothing beats a wholesome goulash.

When looking around for different recipe ideas I hadn't realized actually how simple making a goulash is. It takes few and very simple ingredients.
Seeing as we're getting into summer season I figured I'd leave the potatoes out of this goulash, so it's not too heavy.
Goulash has the same concept as a bolognese sauce or stew....it's taste better and even more heavenly a day or two later.

(FEEDS 4 PEOPLE)
8 chicken thighs
1 large onion (chopped)
1 red pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 x can 14 oz (400 g) tomatoes
1/2 pint (285 ml) chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
- Remove skin from each chicken thigh. In a frying pan cook skins with 1 tbsp olive until crispy, then remove and discard. Add chicken thighs and cook chicken thighs until they are brown all over
- In a large stewing pot cook onions with some of the oil from the chicken pan, caraway seeds, paprika, salt and pepper. Cook until onions begin to soften then add the tomatoes and chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Now allow to simmer and add the chicken and red pepper. Cover and simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally

Serve with egg noodles of your choice

note: for an even healthier choice discard chicken skins completely and brown chicken pieces in a pan with olive opil instead.