Garlic | Charlotte's VVeb

Recipe: Balkan Ćevapčići Served with Ajvar

21/06/201106/03/2017 by Charlotte J

I can’t lie, ćevapčići is probably one of my favourite finds from Eastern Europe. The ground beef sausage shaped burgers are popular across Yugoslavia and are traditionally served with flat breads, kajmak and ajvar (more of my favourites!). The kind people at Cox & Kings recently sent me a jar of ajvar (an aubergine and red pepper condiment) they picked up while in the region, so I thought it was the perfect excuse to whip up my own ćevapi. I like to add a bit of an Ottoman twist with some cumin and coriander. Find out how to recreate memories from your time in the Balkans below…

Ingredients (serves 6 as a starter, 4 as a main)

500g mince beef

250g mince pork or veal

1 white onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp vegeta (optional)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

25g plain flour

10 tbsp rapeseed oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Mix the mince, spices, garlic and onion together in a bowl

Form into sausage shapes

Roll each sausage in plain flour

Put in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes

Heat the oil in a griddle pan and gently fry each ćevap

Place the ćevapi in an ovenproof dish and heat in the oven for 20 minutes

Serve with flatbreads, sour cream, ajvar, and salad

Of course if you don’t live in a studio flat and have the luxury of outside space (and the sun should appear) you can always barbecue the ćevapi instead!

The ajvar was courtesy of our friends at Cox & Kings who provide fabulous tailor-made holidays all over the world including Serbia and other East European destinations.

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Recipe: Adriatic Mussels in White Wine & Parsley

13/04/201106/03/2017 by Charlotte J

The winter is the best time to indulge in mussels on the Adriatic coast of Slovenia and Croatia. This is a very simple recipe for steamed mussels and ensures the taste of the fabulous, succulent mussels shines through and is not dominated by any other ingredient.

Here’s my foolproof recipe…

Ingredients

1kg mussels, with the beards and any barnacles removed, any open mussels should be disguarded

250ml white wine (Malvasia would be ideal)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tbsp parsley, chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Put oil, wine, parsley and garlic into a stock pot and heat until it reaches a simmer

Place the mussels into the pot

Put a lid on the pot and allow the mussels to steam for 4 to 5 minutes

Serve when the mussels are open, with bread to mop up the sauce

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Recipe: Soča River Trout Wrapped in Pršut

28/01/201106/03/2017 by Charlotte J

When I first visited Slovenia the Detela family took me out to a restaurant one day for lunch. This was the dish I ordered and I love it! It’s fresh, tasty and as I found when I tried to make it recently, not actually that difficult.

Check out my recipe below…

Ingredients

1 trout per person gutted, cleaned and patted dry

4 slices of proscuitto ham per fish

1 clove of garlic per fish, crushed

1 tbsp finely chopped parsley per fish

250ml white wine

50g butter

Seasoning

Instructions

Generously butter a roasting dish large enough to fit the fish laying flat

Place the garlic and parsley into the fish

Wrap the prosciutto ham around each fish to seal it, season with salt and pepper

Place fish into roasting tin

Pour wine over fish

Place in oven on 180°C and roast for 30 minutes

Remove the fish from the oven and keep warm

Simmer the juices until slightly thickened

Serve the fish with the sauce poured over it and a generous wedge of lemon

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Serbian Roast Lamb with Oregano & Garlic Crust Recipe

29/09/201006/03/2017 by Charlotte J

When Serbs celebrate you can guarantee that they’ll either be eating roast pork or lamb. I decided to use my recent trip to Belgrade as inspiration to create a roast lamb dish. Here’s the recipe…

Ingredients

Leg or shoulder of lamb

50g butter

Generous handful of dried oregano

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 lemon, sliced

1 white onion, sliced

500ml lamb stock

50ml red wine

Instructions

Place sliced lemon and onion in a roasting tin

Mix the butter with the oregano and garlic

Use a sharp knife to make insertions into the lamb (this will aid the marinating process)

Slather the butter mixture onto the lamb

Pour in the wine and a little of the stock

Place the lamb in the roasting dish

Cover the tin with foil

(You’ll need to keep adding more stock to the tin every hour)

Put the tin in the oven on a low heat (about 140ºC) for at least three hours

After 2 1/2 hours remove the foil from the tin

Place lamb back in the oven for a final 30 minutes to brown the crust

Remove from the oven and allow lamb to rest before carving

Sieve the juices, stock etc. into a saucepan

Heat the stock until it has become concentrated into a thick jus

Serve the lamb with your choice of side dishes

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Hearty Hungarian Mushroom Soup Recipe

23/09/201006/03/2017 by Charlotte J

Hungarians are as passionate about mushrooms as Italians. As the autumn draws in I think about all those hearty winter dishes that will see me through the cold months. There is nothing more warming or tasty than Hungarian mushroom soup. Here’s my quick and easy recipe.

Ingredients

50g butter or margarine

8 shallots cut into quarters

3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

500g assorted wild mushrooms

(I like to use a mixture depending on what is in season. Often I use chestnut, enoki and shitake with some dried wild mushrooms that I’ve soaked in warm water for 20 minutes and drained. I reserve some of the liquid to add flavour to the stock)

800ml chicken or vegetable stock (depending on whether you or your guests eat meat)

1 tbsp cornflour dissolved in 2 tbsp cold water

Handful of finely chopped chives

Instructions

Melt the butter in a large pan and gently fry the shallots until soft (but not brown)

Add the garlic and stir

Add the mushrooms and cook out for five minutes

Add the stock (and a few tablespoons of the liquid from the dried mushrooms) and leave to simmer for five minutes

Then add the dissolved cornflour and allow to cook out for five minutes

Allow to cool, then blend

If you prefer a thin soup pass the liquid through a sieve but personally I like it thick

Reheat when required

Season with salt and pepper to taste

To serve sprinkle chives on the top and enjoy with plenty of crusty bread

Easy, tasty, cheap – everything y0u want from perfect winter-warming food!

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Chanachi po-Gruzinksi – Russian Baked Lamb Recipe

28/05/201022/10/2016 by Charlotte J

This Russian lamb one-pot recipe is a personal family favourite. It’s great to serve in individual dishes so you don’t have to worry about dishing it up. It’s very easy too. Simply a case of putting it together and cooking on a low heat.

Ingredients (serves 4)

600g roughly-diced potatoes

1 large white onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 aubergine, sliced

1 mild red chilli, chopped and deseeded

800g boneless, diced lamb

3 tbsp parsley

3 tbsp coriander

4 bay leaves

8 black peppercorns

50g butter

75 ml tomato puree

1 litre beef stock

3 tomatoes, sliced

Instructions

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius

Lightly grease individual casserole dishes with rapeseed oil

Put onion, potatoes, lamb, chilli garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, coriander, parlsey in casserole dishes

Heat butter in pan

When melted add in tomato puree and stir

Add in beef stock and heat until simmering

Put slices of aubergine on top of each casserole dish

Pour tomato/beef stock mixture over casserole dishes

Place dishes in oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes

Baste aubergine etc. on a regular basis with any left over tomato/beef stock mixture

20 minutes before the end of cooking, remove dishes from oven, top with slices of tomato

Remove from oven and serve with slices of fresh bread

Georgian Khachupuri Recipe with Sulguni Cheese

13/05/201022/10/2016 by Charlotte J

I first tried Khachupuri at Mimino, a Georgian restaurant in Kensington. There are many different types of Khachupuri:

Imeritian (Imeruli) circular khachapuri
Adjarian (Acharuli/Adjaruli) khachapuri, an open boat shape, topped with a raw egg and a pat of butter before serving
Mingrelian (Megruli) khachapuri, similar to Imeritian but with extra cheese on the top
Abkhazian (Achma) khachapuri, with multiple layers
Ossetian (Ossuri) khachapuri, with a potato and cheese filling
Svanuri khachapuri
Rachuli khachapuri
Phenovani khachapuri

My favourite is the most simple, simply dough, filled with the cheese, topped with another layer of dough and then baked in the oven. I opted for a combination of smoked and unsmoked Sulguni cheese from the Russian Kalinka shop on Queensway in London.

Ingredients

250ml sour cream

150g melted butter

1 egg lightly whisked

400g plain flour

(this can vary depending on the flour, best to put in small amounts at one time and wait until it comes together)

Pinch of salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

For the filling:

100g smoked and 100g unsmoked sulguni cheeses, grated

1 egg whisked

2 tbsp sour cream

2 cloves of garlic crushed

1 egg yolk for glazing

Instructions

Mix sour cream and melted butter

Add salt and baking soda

Whisk in the egg

Add the sifted flour slowly

Knead until the dough comes together and is maleable

Divide the dough into two and roll out

For the filling:

Grate the cheese, mix with egg, sour cream and garlic

Place one length of dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper

Put the cheese filling on the dough, leaving about 1 cm from the edges

Place second sheet of dough over the top of cheese filling

Use a fork to press edges down, then make a few holes in the top layer of dough to allow steam to escape

Brush with beaten egg yolk to glaze dough

Place in oven for 20 minutes at about 180 degrees Celsius until golden brown

Serve warm with salad garnish as starter or snack

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Harcho – Georgian Lamb Soup Recipe

14/12/200918/10/2016 by Charlotte J

This is a great hearty dish, perfect for a big party of people and ideal served with chunky fresh bread. The best bit about the dish is it is easily adaptable to cooking in a slow cooker so when you come home from work, your home smells great and you can sit down to a home-cooked meal even when you’ve had a hard day at work!

Ingredients

600g lamb chunks

1.5l lamb stock

3 large white onions chopped finely

5 garlic cloves crushed

3 tomatoes cut into quarters

5 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 tbsp tomato puree

5 tbsp long grain rice

5 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

3 tbsp coriander for garnish

Instructions

Heat the oil in a pan and seal the lamb chunks

Place the lamb chunks into a slow cooker with the stock and garlic

Fry the onion in the rest of the oil for 5 minutes

Add the puree and tomatoes for 1 minute

Stir and add to the lamb and stock

Add the chili and parsley and cook for 4 to 5 hours

The rice can be added initially to the slow cooker, but if you are at home add 30 minutes before you want to serve

To serve, distribute the lamb between dishes (serves 4) and add equal quantities of liquid and rice mixture to each one

Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with chunky bread

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Jewish Biblical Chicken

03/11/200918/10/2016 by Charlotte J

A good old fashion roast chicken is a staple to many a Jewish meal, particularly across Eastern Europe. This is my take on Biblical Chicken, combining several elements to traditional Jewish recipes and a few of my own personal touches.

Central European Chicken with Wild Mushrooms & Garlic

15/09/200918/10/2016 by Charlotte J

While a great British roast on a Sunday is all very well and good, sometimes my family and I crave something a little different. This roasted chicken dish with aromatic herbs proved a great alternative. With wild mushrooms, celery, white wine and chicken stock, the wonderful sauce is then combined with that traditional Russian flavour of sour cream.

This is perfect for the ultimate feast and great served either with fresh steamed green beans alone, or with an extra side of boiled new potatoes (my preference being the crumbly the better!)

Ingredients (serves 4)

45ml olive or vegetable oil

1.5kg/3lb whole chicken (you could use chicken pieces, just make sure it’s thighs etc. on the bone)

3 celery sticks (peeled so it is not stringy)

1 garlic cloves, crushed

275g wild mushrooms (personally, I wouldn’t bother slicing, even if large but is up to personal tastes)

1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

250ml chicken stock

250ml dry white wine

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I tend to prefer flat leaf)

120ml sour cream

Salt and ground black pepper

Flat leaf parsley to garnish

Fresh green beans to serve

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius, 375 degrees Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 5

Heat the oil in a roasting tin and brown the chicken all over

Remove the chicken temporarily

Fry the onions for about 2 minutes in the roasting tin

Add the celery, garlic, wild mushrooms and thyme and cook for 3 minutes

Pour in the chicken stock, wine and lemon juice into the roasting tin (or foil dish as in my case)

Sit the chicken on the top of the stock etc.

Sprinkle over half the parsley

Season well

Place the chicken in the oven for 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 hours or until tender

Baste occasionally to prevent drying out

Remove the chicken from the roasting tin and keep warm

Put the roasting tin on the hob and stir in the sour cream over a gentle heat until you make a thick pouring sauce

Arrange the chicken on a plate, surrounded by the cream and mushroom sauce

Garnish with parsley sprigs