Baka Zitkovic's Strudel
This is from me watching Baka make strudel in Molvice, June 2006. If you get good strudel out of this, let me know what you did!
1 egg + domestic cheese in a bowl (how much cheese? "enough")
grate tart apples, set aside in bowl (how many apples? "when you've been making strudel for 20 years, then you'll know how much")
prepare:
1 tsp salt
1.5 cups vege/sunflower oil
~1 kilo flour
room tempertature water (how much? about 1 small tea kettle... maybe 2 cups?)
Mix flour, salt, oil, & water. Add more flour as needed. Note that Baka used two kinds of flour - one was "regular" flour and the other was very fine grained. When mixing, slowly add more flour (more regular than fine, but add both). Mix constantly for ~1/2 hr with wooden spoon while sitting on couch in kitchen, adding more flour & water as needed. In the end, she had added an extra ~3/4 kilo flour. You will know when it's done because it will be very fine & delicate dough.
If you've gotten this far, great! Put down big towel or tablecloth completely covering the table. Put lots of flour on the towel (2x as much fine flour than regular flour). Kneed dough and, of course, add more flour as needed. Divide into three parts and make each into nicely formed balls (should be about size of a soccer/football ball). Cover dough with end of towel/tablecloth and let sit for ~1 hour but kneed every ~20 min.
While waiting for the dough, melt ~5-6 heaping tablespoons of fresh lard (yummy!!). You can use vege/sunflower oil instead if you prefer. Squeeze water out of grated apples and mix ~3-4 tablespoons sugar with the apples. Mix cheese & egg (the amount might have been ~3/4-1 8oz box of cream cheese).
And now the fun part! Each dough ball becomes one strudel. So do this three times. Put more flour on the tablecloth (all over the tablecloth!). Gently flatten and slightly spread dough out into circle. Drip the melted lard around edges of flattened dough. Then, using your fingers, keep spreading the dough out (see left picture now) until it's paper thin and forms a large rectangle. Then use a knife to cut off the rounded edges.
Now spread the cheese or apple mixture along one long edge of the dough-rectangle. Then do "the flip". See the middle picture. The main point of "the flip" is to cover the filling. Then drip more lard on top of the dough-covered-filling. Pick up the towel edges and roll the dough. See right picture. Cut length-wise to fit into whatever size pan you have (note that you should use at least 1/2 cup of lard to grease the pan!).
Bake at 200 degrees (CELSIUS) until the color is dark, then lower heat to 150-160 deg (CELSIUS) until it looks done. Voila!
Baka making strudel (see text) |
Baka making strudel (see text) |
Baka making strudel (see text) |
Grandma Pozgay's Famous Patica
A delicious walnut filled pastry roll still famous after all these years... we remember Grandma's strong hands stretching the dough to a paper thin layer atop a large kitchen table... then transforming it to a ta... serve to an eager audience!
Ingredients
2.5 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 lb butter
3 eggs, well beaten
3 oz yeast
1/2 cup warm water
9 cup flour
4 tsp salt
Filling
2 lbs ground walnuts
1 cup honey
1 cup sugar (white or brown)
hot milk (on hand)
Combine walnuts, honey, sugar, then add enough milk for spreading consistency. Set aside.
Heat milk to lukewarm, add sugar and butter and blend well. Add eggs. Dissolve yeast in warm water ... add yeast mixtures. Add sifted dry ingredients and knead until smooth. Allow to rise until double in b... floured board, divide dough into 2 large balls. Let rise 1 hr. Cover table with large pastry cloth, stretch dough out very very thin. Spread filling, raise cloth by one side, peel away dough and roll. Butter a 10 inch tube pan, coil dough around and around in the pan. Let rise for 1 hr. Bake at 250F for 2 hrs, or until done.
Traditional Christmas Eve Supper
from Anniversary Slovak-American Cook BookThe traditional Christmas Eve Supper is prepared with home grown crops. The menu, therefore, varies in different parts of the country. For example, some people serve mushroom soup, others sauerkraut soup with mushrooms poured over mashed potatoes, which were combined with browned onions. Another soup commonly eaten was lima bean and prune soup. The dried fruits would be those grown on their own soil.
Some of the typical foods could include:
wine
oplatky*
honey
mushroom soup
pagach*
bobalky*
fish
beans
peas
sauerkraut
mixed dried fruits or prunes
assorted fresh fruits
mixed nuts
nut and poppyseed rolls
rozky
* denotes recipes Patty was going to look up. Check back in a little while after I have time to find them...
Rozky
from Anniversary Slovak-American Cook BookINGREDIENTS for dough #1:
1/2 lb sifted flour
2 egg yolks
1 tsp powdered sugar
1/2 c water, about
1 oz glass whiskey
DIRECTIONS for dough #1:
Add to flour, yolks, sugar, water, and whiskey. Knead dough until it is smooth and elastic. Place in refrigerator.
INGREDIENTS for dough #2:
1 lb butter, prefer sweet
1/2 lb sifted flour
DIRECTIONS for dough #2:
Sift flour, work in butter until a large ball is formed.
METHOD:
Roll out dough #1. Spread dough #2 on rolled dough with knife. Fold into square. Roll out throughly and fold into square again. Wrap in towel and place in refrigerator for 1 hour. Remove, roll out and fold as before. Place in refrigerator for 1 hour. Repeat process again. After removing from refrigerator the third time, place dough on well-floured board and roll out. Cut as desired. Fill with any desired filling. Bake in hot oven 450degF for 8-10 minutes, or until nice and brown.
Traditional Easter Breakfast
from Anniversary Slovak-American Cook BookSome of the typical foods could include:
sausage
baked ham
hard cooked eggs
beet horseradish
sweet butter
paska*
sirok
home baked twist
nut and poppyseed rolls
coffee
* denotes recipes Patty was going to look up. Check back in a little while after I have time to find them...
This page was copied from Patty's old website.