Bosnia and Herzegovina: Begova Čorba, Sogan Dolma, Somen and Tufahije
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a beautiful, mountainous country in southeastern Europe, surrounded by Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Bosnia is the northern inland region of the country and has a cooler climate with snowy winters. Herzegovina is the southern region with a small 12 mile coastline along the Adriatic Sea.
Begova čorba, AKA Bey’s soup, is a chicken and okra soup traditionally served for royalty (Bey’s were province governors when Bosnia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire). I’ll be honest- I didn’t love this soup at first, which was surprising because I LOVE okra. It was a bit watery when I first finished it, BUT! it was much better on the second day! It thickened up a bit and I think the flavors just needed some time to meld.
Now the sogan dolma, on the other hand, was soooo GOOD! I’ve never eaten/made anything like this but it was delicious!! The onions are boiled until they are just soft, the layers are peeled apart so that they form little cylindrical bowls, then they’re stuffed with a ground beef, dry rice and tomato mixture, and then baked. They were kind of a pain to make, but so worth it!! I served these with a garlic yogurt sauce, which was the perfect addition.
Speaking of a pain to make, the Balkan flatbread (or somen) was super time consuming and the dough was very sticky and difficult to work with. You have to knead it, then let it rest 3 separate times, so it ended up taking 3 hours to make! But the bread was tasty and really fluffy on the inside! I also sprinkled nigella and sesame seeds on the top.
Ok, lastly is tufahije and y’all, I did not make this meal easy on myself- this stuffed apple dish may have been the most difficult of all! You core the apples- but not all the way because you don’t want the filling leaking out the bottom (I PROMISE, this was harder than it sounds), boil them in sugar water, then stuff the apples with walnuts that have been cooked in milk and sugar. The stuffed apples are served with homemade apple simple syrup and whipped cream and they were really good, but I will not be making these again any time soon!
