Bulgaria: Elka’s Chicken Stew, Shopska & Banitsa
Shopska salad.
This meal was SO fun to cook- my sweet sister, Joy, actually lives in Bulgaria and she asked her language teach for an authentic Bulgarian recipe. Elka, or “Baba Elka” as my sister’s kids call her, sent a recipe for a veggie and chicken stew that she and Joy translated together. I made the stew, as well as a shopska salad and banitsa! Everything turned out SO good!
This meal was also really special because we had some friends, who we don’t get to see very often, over to enjoy it with us! Thanks Courtney and Keidi for all the chopping, slicing and drink making help!
Baba Elka’s stew was made with chicken, mushrooms, carrots, leeks, onions and tomatoes AND I got to use my new dutch oven to bake it! It also called for savory, which is a spice I’d never used before! From what I read, it’s basically a mix between mint and pepper, but actually reminded me a little more of oregano or thyme. The stew was really filling, especially served over rice, and was really yummy!
The shopska salad is made from tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers and a bulgarian sheep cheese, called sirene, that was very similar to feta. I love a good cucumber salad and this was the perfect light side dish to such a filling and savory main dish.
I also made banitsa, which is a cheese, yogurt and egg filled pastry that’s supposed to be rolled and shaped into a spiral… unfortunately you can hardly see the spiral on my version lol. I’ve learned that I realllllllly SUCK at working with phyllo dough! (Please send me all your tips!!) I used the sirene and sheep yogurt for the filling, which gave it a really unique, tangy flavor that we all loved. I also used about 3x the amount of butter than the recipe called for, because I was struggling to get the phyllo dough to work with me, so it was probably a bit more fattening than usual but was sooooo good!
Lastly, I got this amazing lutenitsa (roasted and pureed tomato, pepper, eggplant, etc) dip from a cute little European grocery store/deli here in Denver and it was SO good on freshly baked bread! I will definitely be making more trips to European Gusto Market for more lutenitsa and other treats!
