Bosnia and Herzegovina

 Welcome to Bosnia and Herzegovina!  I still can't say "Herzegovina" correctly, and Handsome Husband has to correct me every time.  It's been a while since we've made some meals, and it will likely be a while again - lots happening in this household!  We will try to squeeze some in here and there.  But, back to Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The pictures look beautiful - like they are out of a story book.  There are no words to their national anthem, no official language, and their currency is not able to be exchanged anywhere in the world.  According to Google, their population is around 3 million people, and their capital is Sarajevo.  Their national dish is...

 

Cevapi!

We made something similar when we did Serbia - it had the same sauces and meat.  However, this time around, the meat was made into thick little sausages and eaten in a pita.  I made the Ajvar sauce, but used cream cheese for the other sauce.  We also made "pitas", which turned into flat bread...joys of gluten free cooking!  For dessert, we made Tufahije, which is similar to a baked apple.  This was a meal that we had to start the day before, to let the meat mixture meld together.  Here's what we did:

CEVAPI

2 lb ground beef

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp water

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1. Combine all the ingredients into a bowl, cover, and let sit overnight in the fridge.
2. Take about 2-3 tbsp of the meat mixture, and roll into a sausage shape with your hands.  Repeat until all the meat mixture is gone.
3. Grill the sausages until cooked completely.
4. Serve with ajvar, pita, cream cheese, and sliced onions.
5. Enjoy!

(Source: Cevapi)

AJVAR

2 Red Bell Peppers

1 small Eggplant

1/4 C Avocado Oil

8 Garlic Cloves, crushed

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

1/2 tbsp Sugar

1 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

1. Roast whole eggplants and peppers until soft and skin is black.  
2. Put roasted eggplant and peppers in a plastic bag and let them steam to loosen the skin.
3. Peel the eggplant and peppers.  Stem and de-seed the peppers.
4. Place the eggplant and peppers in a food processor and make a puree.
5. Pour the eggplant-pepper in a sauce pan.  Add oil and bring to a boil while stirring consistently.
6. Add salt, pepper, sugar, and red wine vinegar.  Cook for about five minutes.
7. Add crushed garlic to sauce and turn off heat.

(Source: Ajvar)

PITA

2 tbsp psyllium husk
1 C lukewarm water

1 cup brown rice flour
2/3 C tapioca starch
2 tsp sugar

1 tsp instant yeast
3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp avocado oil

1. In a bowl, mix together the psyllium husk and lukewarm water. After about 30-45 seconds, a gel will form.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the brown rice flour, tapioca starch, sugar, instant yeast and salt.
3. Add the olive oil to the psyllium gel and mix well to combine, then add them to the dry ingredients.
4. Knead everything together into a smooth dough that comes away from the sides of the bowl (it shouldn't be too sticky to the touch). 
5. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 6 equal portions.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each dough ball into a round pita bread about 6 inches in diameter and just under ¼ inch thick.
7. Arrange the rolled-out pita breads on the counter, cover them with a clean dish towel and allow them to proof for about 15 minutes at room temperature.
8. Pre-heat a large pan or skillet over medium-high to high heat.
9. Place the pita bread on the hot pan or skillet and cook it for about 30 seconds, until it starts bubbling up in places and you can see dark brown spots underneath.
10. Flip it over and cook for a further 30 seconds until it’s golden brown underneath.
11. Flip it again and your pita bread should now fully puff up (mine did NOT puff at all). 
12. Cook it for about 45-60 seconds longer on both sides until it’s deep golden brown and maybe even a bit charred in spots.
13. Enjoy!

(Source: Pita)

TUFAHIJE

2 apples 

2 C water
3 1/2 C sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup hot cream

2.5 oz walnuts, ground

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp sugar 

Whipped cream, for garnish

Whole walnut kernels, for garnish

1. Peel the apples, keeping them whole.  
2. Reserve the peels of the apples. 
3. Core the apple, not entirely, so as to prepare a small cup for the filling. 
4. In a pot, pour the water, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon juice and apple peels.
5. Bring to a boil over high heat and stir regularly. 
6. Lower the heat to medium and add the apples. 
7. Boil the apples for 5 to 7 minutes (maximum) on each side. Do not overcook!
   
8. Remove from heat. 
9. Using a skimmer, gently remove the apples from the pot and place them on a tray to allow them to cool and reserve the syrup.
10. In large bowl, cover the ground walnuts with warm cream and let stand for 15 minutes. 
11. Melt the butter over medium heat, add the sugar and mix well. 
12. Add the butter and sugar mixture to the walnut mixture and mix well for 2 minutes. 
13. Fill each apple with about 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling. 
14. Pour the syrup over the apples.
15. Top with whipped cream and a walnut kernel.
16. Enjoy!

(Source:  Tufahije)

 

 

 

The verdict?  It was actually pretty good!  We turned them into "tacos", since the pita bread didn't puff like it should have.  But the combination of meat, cream cheese, onions, and the sauce was really good.  We ate an artichoke and roasted potatoes as well, but there wasn't anything special about those things, so I didn't put them in the blog.  I'm not sure that the spices that we added to the meat did much.  I also think that by doing half ground beef and half pork may have given it some more flavor as well.  We loved the apples.  The syrup that was made was delicious, and the apples were very good.  We probably could have split one, and they probably could have cooked a little more than they did, but the flavors were delicious.  

 

ME

Taste of the Cevapi (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 7

Spicy (hot) (1 is not spicy at all, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 6

HANDSOME HUSBAND

Taste of the Cevapi (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 7

Spicy (hot) (1 is not spicy at all, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 7

ME

Taste of the Tufahije (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 8

Spicy (hot) (1 is not spicy at all, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 8

HANDSOME HUSBAND

Taste of the Tufahije (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):6

Spicy (hot) (1 is not spicy at all, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 6

Join us next time in Central African Republic!