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Albania (Albanian Recipes)
Baked Lamb and Yogurt (Tavë Kosi)
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
1-1/2 lbs lamb
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
2 tablespoons rice
Salt, pepper
For Yogurt sauce:
1 tablespoon flour
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
2 lbs. yogurt
5 eggs
Salt, pepper
Cooking Instructions:
Cut meat in 4 serving pieces, sprinkle each piece with salt and
pepper, and bake in a moderately-heated oven with half the butter,
sprinkling the meat with its gravy now and then. When meat is
half-baked, add rice; remove the baking pan from the oven and leave it
aside while you prepare the yogurt sauce: Saute flour in butter until
mixed thoroughly. Mix yogurt with salt, pepper and eggs until a uniform
mixture is obtained, and finally stir in the flour. Put the sauce
mixture in the baking pan; sauté it with the meat pieces and bake at 375
degrees F for about 45 minutes. Serve hot.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons flour
15 finely crushed shelled walnuts
2 beaten egg yokes
1 minced garlic clove
1/4 lb. sticks butter
2-3 lbs of Veal or Chicken meat cut up in 1" cubes
Cooking Instructions:
Place the meat or chicken in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until tender. Then remove the meat setting it aside in a dish while leaving the remaining juices in the saucepan. In another saucepan, add the flour and sauté over heat until it becomes light brown in color and add the half a stick of butter. Then, add the finely crushed walnuts, minced garlic clove, and the two egg yokes, stirring constantly. Add the juices from the other saucepan and sauté until all the ingredients thicken. Immediately remove from the heat to avoid solidifying the egg yolks. Then fold in either the meat or chicken. Pan fry the remaining half stick of butter until brown and pour over the four servings.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
2 lbs leeks
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 lb ground meat
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
Mild red pepper
Salt
Pepper
Cooking Instructions:
Cut off the green leaves from leeks; wash and cut leeks slantwise into 1-inch thick slices. Sauté in a little oil and place in a baking pan. Sauté onion and ground meat in remaining oil. Add beef stock, tomato sauce, red pepper, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Pour meat mixture over the Sauted leeks. Bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees F. Serve hot.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
2 cups of dry white beans
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped mint
salt, chili powder
Cooking Instructions:
Boil beans in hot water in an uncovered pot for 5 minutes. Rinse and boil for another 15 minutes in a covered stock pot in 3 cups hot water. Sauté onion in olive oil until it turns yellow. Add 2 tablespoons bean stock from the pot along with tomato sauce, parsley, salt and chili powder for taste. Cook for 10 minutes or until a thick sauce is formed, then pour everything into the pot. Add chopped mint, cover tightly and cool for 2 hours over low heat, or for 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. Serve hot.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
1 lb ground meat
1 slice stale bread
1 small onion, finely-grated
2 tablespoons chopped Feta cheese
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
2 tablespoons oil or melted butter
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt
Pepper
Mint
Oregano
1 cup flour
1 cup oil (olive oil recommended)
Cooking Instructions:
Soak bread in water and squeeze hard to drain. Add ground meat, bread crumbs, oil or melted butter, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and mint. Mix thoroughly, and form into 1-inch thick patties, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and oregano. Roll in flour and fry in hot oil. Serve hot with French Fries or mashed potatoes.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
2 lbs various vegetables (peppers, eggplant, okra, zucchini, potatoes, etc)
1/2 cup oil, divided
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup peeled chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt
Pepper
Cooking Instructions:
After cutting off inedible tips of vegetables, wash and slice them into 1-inch squares. Sauté vegetables in half of the oil and remove them from the frying pan. Sauté onion and tomatoes in the remaining oil, and season with parsley, salt, and pepper. Put everything in a stock pot with a cup of water, cover tightly, and simmer until almost all moisture has cooked away. Serve hot, accompanied by steak, meatballs, or any other main dish.
Ingredients:
1 rabbit, jointed
2 tablespoons tomato puree or 4-5 fresh tomatoes, approximately 350 gr., chopped
2 bay leaves
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
150 ml olive oil
0.25 teaspoon sugar
4 cloves garlic, peeled
300 ml hot water
small piece cinnamon stick
salt and black pepper
700 gr. small onions, peeled but left whole
1 sprig of rosemary
1 small glass of red wine
Cooking Instructions:
The same recipe can be used for hare, with excellent results, by increasing quantities of other ingredients, since hare is much heavier than rabbit. Rabbit or hare should be treated in exactly the same preparatory way, i.e., being soaked in vinegar. (This only applies to wild varieties.) Served with fried potatoes on the side, this is a piquant dish, or if you prefer a milder taste to counterbalance the richness of the rabbit, serve with plain while rice. A green salad is always welcomed as it adds a refreshing note. Rinse the rabbit pieces and put them in a salad bowl with the bay leaves. Sprinkle the vinegar over the pieces and let them marinate for at least 2 hours or preferably in the fridge overnight. Heat half of the olive oil in a saucepan, pat the rabbit pieces dry and fry them in it until they are quite brown on both sides. Take out and put on to a plate. When all the rabbit pieces have been fried, put them back into the saucepan along with the garlic cloves, bay leaves, spices, rosemary and the wine. Then add the tomato puree or tomatoes, sugar and the hot water. Season, cover and cook for about 1 hour. In the meantime, heat the remaining olive oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onions. Stir them occasionally, in order to make sure they turn golden all over, for about 15 minutes. Add the contents of the frying pan to the saucepan, and shake it so that the onions spread evenly. Then cover and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Serve with fried potatoes or plain white rice and a green salad.
Ingredients:
250 grams ground meat (lamb)
1/5 glass rice
1 tablespoon margarine
1 bunch parsley
2 1/2 glasses water
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons salt
1 large onion
Sauce:
2 egg yolks or 1 egg
1/3 glass of water
1 lemon (the juice)
Cooking Instructions:
Grate the onion. Boil rice in 3 glasses of water and drain. Chop the parsley. Add the onion, rice, black pepper and 1 teaspoon salt to the ground meat and knead for 3 minutes. Moisten hands and form walnut sized balls of the meat, put them in a pan containing chopped parsley leaves and shake gently to coat meatballs with parsley. Add 2 1/2 glasses of water, the margarine and 1 teaspoon of salt to the pan and cover. Cook over moderate heat for 30 minutes. When the meatballs are cooked, put the egg yolks or the egg, the lemon juice and water for the sauce into a bowl and beat gently. Add the sauce to the pan, stir a couple of times to blend and serve. Instead of parsley you can put dried mint.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
Green or Red Peppers, half- pound
Red Tomatoes, one pound
Salted Cottage Cheese or Greek Feta Cheese, half-pound
Flour, one tablespoon
Butter, one quarter-pound stick
Virgin Olive Oil, 3 tablespoons
Add Salt, Black Pepper, and Chili Pepper to your taste
Cooking Instructions:
Peel the skin off the tomatoes and peppers. Sauté them in a saucepan for 5-7 minutes only in the olive oil and then set them aside to cool down for 15 minutes. Dice them the way you like. In another saucepan, melt the butter. Add flour, cottage or Feta cheese, and black pepper, salt and chili pepper to taste. Mix all the ingredients together and place them in saucepan. Put saucepan in a preheated 350 oven for 15 minutes. Take out and serve immediately.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
Veal Cutlets, one pound
Salted Cottage Cheese or Greek Feta Cheese, half-pound
Flour, one tablespoon
Butter, one quarter-pound stick
Virgin Olive Oil, 3 tablespoons
Onion, one medium-sized
Add Salt, Black Pepper, and Chili Pepper to your taste
Cooking Instructions:
First, cut the veal cutlets into small pieces and then dice the onion. In a saucepan, preheat the olive oil and Sauté the meat and onion for 15 minutes. In another saucepan, melt the butter and then add flour, cottage or Feta cheese, and black pepper, salt and chili pepper to taste. Mix all the ingredients together (adding the Sauted meat and onions) in the saucepan and place in a preheated 350 oven for 15 minutes. Take out and serve immediately.
Ingredients:
1250 gr. eggplants
1500 gr. zucchini
salt
a piece of cucumber finely chopped
250 gr. yogurt
2 tablespoons salt
4 cloves of garlic
salt
Cooking Instructions:
Peel the eggplants in lengthwise strips at 1 1/2 cm intervals, then cut either in circles or in long slices. Sprinkle salt over and place the eggplants in salted water for half an hour to drain off their bitter juices. Squeeze each eggplant before putting into hot oil. Fry both sides, drain away excess oil and place on a serving plate. Scrape the skin of the zucchinis until their green parts can be seen, sprinkle with salt and leave aside for 1.5 hours. Put flour and water into a bowl and blend together. First place the zucchini in flour-water mixture and then into the hot oil. Fry until both sides are golden. Place them with the eggplants and peppers. Mix cucumber and yogurt, pour over the fried vegetables (if desired, crushed garlic can be added to the yogurt).
Ingredients:
1/2 kg (about 18 ounces) of ready made rolled dough
200 g (about 7 ounces) of pressed walnuts
3 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Cooking Instructions:
Spread the rolled dough, and sprinkle the walnuts with the cinnamon, then cover it with another layer of dough. Cut the baklava in equal squares or diamond shapes. Cover the baklava with melted butter and leave it to bake in a hot oven. Afterwards, leave it to cool. Prepare the syrup with the water and the sugar, using the amounts given above. Let the syrup boil for 5 minutes. Before removing the syrup from the heat, add the juice of half a lemon. Let the syrup cool for about 5 minutes, and then spread it on the baklava.
Ingredients:
1 glass flour
1 glass margarine
1 1/4 glasses granulated sugar
5 glasses water
Cooking Instructions:
Heat the margarine in a saucepan very gently, and Sauté the flour until golden brown in the margarine for 40 minutes over low to moderate heat. When the flour turns light golden, put the sugar and water in a separate saucepan and make syrup by boiling gently. Add the syrup to the saucepan with flour and simmer for 20 minutes, and then take out small pieces of the Hallva with a wooden spool, form into balls and place on a serving plate. Serve warm.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons melted margarine
1 glass flour
3 tablespoons water
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 glasses olive oil
Syrup: 2 glasses sugar
1 3/4 glasses water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Cooking Instructions:
Syrup:
Put the sugar, water and lemon juice into a saucepan, and after melting the sugar by stirring, allow it to boil until moderately thick. Set aside to cool.
Pastry:
Heat the margarine in a saucepan, add the water and salt and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and add the flour at once. Stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spool and continue until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. This should take 6 minutes, then remove pan from heat and set aside to cool. When cool, add the eggs and knead for approximately 10 minutes, using a pastry bag with a large nozzle, put 7-8 pastries in a pan containing the heated olive oil. Start frying the pastry over low heat, increase heat when pastry puffs up a bit and fry until golden. Remove fried pastry with a perforated spoon, draining away the oil, then put into the syrup. Strain off the syrup, place Tulumba on serving plate and serve cool.
Ingredients:
1 cup of yogurt
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of butter
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 packs of vanilla or the peel of half of a lemon
1 kg (about 35 ounces) of flour.
Cooking Instructions:
Mix the baking soda in the yogurt, add the above mentioned products one by one and prepare the dough. With hands covered with melted butter take pieces of the dough and shape into ovals about the size of a walnut, then place them on a butter covered baking pan and leave spaces in between each piece of dough. From above cover the pieces of dough with beat eggs, sprinkle sugar and cook in a medium-heat oven.
