Tag Archives: Croatian food

The food in Croatia

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I just realised I forgot to blog about the food I encountered while holidaying in Croatia recently.

There were a few highlights, one of those being the Lobster meal we ate as a family on our last night in Prigradica.

Dad had organised one of the local restaurants to cook us up a three course extravaganza of salted fish, octopus salad for entree, then lobster buzara for our main meal followed by grilled, whole fish and blitva.

Not as glamourous as this special meal, were our daily lunches that I prepared in our little kitchen.

VC was joining on the day this photo was taken, hence the three beers. Thought I better point that out so you didn’t question our drinking habits!

The local beer is Karlovacko. A lovely, light typically European beer.

This next shot is our first night at one of the local restaurants. We’d ordered a little too much food, because we didn’t know how big the serves were.

We did manage to eat it all though. No surprises there.

Whoa…it’s making me hungry looking at it.

And finally, there was AT’s birthday. Obviously I couldn’t get a birthday cake going, so I got some sweeties from the bakery in Blato instead. Mum found a sparkly candle that impressed the boys.

You can see a vanilla slice type of pastry and the two white, rolly cakes on the side were this amazing coconut cake. OMG, I was in heaven eating this. The figs were given to us by the old lady who owned the apartments we stayed in . She knocked on our door with a plate full of these ripe and tasty figs from her tree.

Food History

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I was at my aunty’s house the other night, saying good bye to my cousins before I leave for the UK and enjoying some old movies we used to watch together as kids. VC and I were lucky enough to join my Aunty S and her daughters for dinner that night. Lucky because my Aunty is a survivor of cancer and is still receiving regular treatments to keep her well. Lucky because she was kind enough to accomodate us for a meal when she might not have been feeling like it.

Lucky, because she is a wonderful cook. A cook that has learnt the secrets of her ancestors and brings those secrets to life with each and every meal she makes. Everything from her layered wafer cake, to her salads, or even a simple broth are always so comforting to eat, they remind me of my childhood and my heritage. It got me thinking how family histories can be traced through food. Chances are the chicken soup and paprika I ate with my cousins that night was the very same kind of meal my grandmother and great grandmother had eaten in the years before we were even alive, before there were cars and TV. When mothers were cooking on little wood fired stoves that you can find in the komins that still remain in many houses in the village (of Blato, Korcula).

Funny little techniques and ways of doing are passed down throughout the generations, from grandmother and mother to daughters and sons, from cook to cook. My mum cuts her beans in a certain way. She does it because that’s the way her mum did it. Sort of like the way she folds her towels, which is now the way I fold my towels. I make my spaghetti the way my mum does, because it was her that taught me how. And my great- great- grandchildren will probably eating the same spaghetti and apple cake and chicken & rice that I ate as a child.

Once I made mum a cook book that contained all of the recipes we ate as a family. Not because she needed the recipes – she knew them all, off by heart. I made it to record the food history of our family. The recipes and meals we have shared over the years, the cakes and sweet treats we have indulged in at Christmas and birthdays. Food is one of the most wonderful ways that we can pass down through the generations a taste of who we are, were and always will be.

Broccoli.

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Here is the part where I proudly pay homage to my Croatian heritage.

My dad is from a little island on the Dalmatian coast and the food they eat in those parts is very simple and yet superbly delicious. Mostly the locals eat grilled meats and fish accompanied with bread, salad and a dish they call blitva. Blitva is a vegetable usually made with silver beet or swiss chard and potato, but it can be made with anything from broad beans or zucchini or as I like to use, broccoli.

There are a couple of reasons I use broccoli:

1) The flavour is mild and better for kids…chard and silver beet can taste very strong and earthy.

2) Spinach can be hard to work with because of the fibrous leaves…this one is best left for experienced mamas – as me and VC found out the other night we tried to make it when mum was away.

My mum likes to add whatever she’s got in the crisper to hers, often throwing in a zucchini or green beans into the broccoli.

My kids have always eaten it. It is the only time they EVER eat a green vegetable – needless to say it is regular feature on our weekly menu.

We eat ours with lamb cutlets, or pork cutlets but my favourite thing to have with it is chevapi (or chevapcici). Chevapi is a Croatian concoction which is like a skinless sausage or rissole. It is made with veal and pork mince ( I think) and LOTS and LOTS of garlic. The ones from Coles or Woolies aren’t so good. So if you like those, you will absolutely love the good ones. You can get proper chevapi from Beta Meats in Newtown, or any of the Ivan’s Butcheries across Sydney (as seen on the bbq below).

Broccoli & Potato Recipe

Ingredients:

1 head of broccoli

1 potato

olive oil

salt & pepper

Method:

Put the potato into water and boil.

If you cut the potato small, then boil up the broccoli at the same time. They will be ready at the same time.

If you have larger pieces of potato, then just throw the broccoli in at the end.

Drain – but leave a little water in or it will be too dry.

Cut together with a knife.

Season and drizzle with olive oil.

Notes on the recipe

Now here’s the thing when you’re draining it – don’t drain it dry. Leave a little water in. Just enough to give it some moisture, because if you completely drain it, you will need bucket-loads of oil to make it nice.

Once drained, get a knife (just a regular knife from your cutlery set) and cut the potato and broccoli up. The point is to combine it but not mash it. The pic here is actually over mixed – looks more like broccoli mash than blitva. I don’t sweat it though, it still tastes good.

How much oil you add is up to you. If you’re watching what you eat, don’t use too much. If not, then go for your life, the more the better.

Here is the chevapi on the BBQ.

This is what blitva looks like when my mum makes it. I finally figured out how to do it. It’s all about leaving plenty of water in to mix in at the end. I also like to put some diced spanish onion in too. Add a little extra flavour and tastes soooo good. I have broccoli, green beans, zucchini and English spinach in this photo.