Balkan food is extremely tasty, yet mostly unknown to people outside of the Balkans, which made me think that it would be wonderful if we could spread it more.
At the same time my friend @rumbledoor was telling me about this wonderful community, called steemit, where people are diverse and open minded.
So I decided to make a series of posts about some of my favorite Bulgarian foods and hopefully inspire some people to come and visit our wonderful country.
If you ask any Bulgarian what the first thing they would recommend to a foreigner would be, almost invariably the answer is going to be Banitsa, so I decided to start with that.
Banitsa is a vital part of Bulgarian cuisine and is primarily eaten at breakfast, accompanied by an assortment of jams, yogurt or Bulgaria's favorite cold drink Ayran (a 50/50 mixture of yogurt and cold water + salt to taste). The interesting thing about it, is that it's very simple to make, which in turn makes it perfect to experiment with ingredients.
If you ever happen to visit Bulgaria you are likely to stumble onto banitsa with spinach, cheese, pumpkin or even turkish delight in the eateris that sell this breakfast wonder.
The following picture was taken at a festival dedicated to it in a village called Banitsa and you can see an assortment of sweat and salty banitsa.
The ingredients for banitsa are actually easy to find anywhere in the world, and they are:
400 grams of filo sheets
4 Eggs
400 grams of yogurt
300-400 grams of firm and salty feta cheese
100 ml sunflower oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
Step 1: Beat the eggs and yogurt until you get a homogeneous mixture. After that add 50ml of oil and the baking soda and mix. Finally, break the cheese down into small chunks and add it to the mixture.
Step 2: Spread some oil evenly in the baking pan, add 1-2 filo sheets (personal choice) then use a brush to spread some oil on top of the sheets, and a ladle to spread a layer of the mixture on the top. Add another 1-2 filo sheets, and repeat until you run out of mixture.
Step 3: Place a filo sheet on top of the last layer of the mixture and spread some oil on top.
Once you're ready bake the banitsa in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 30min or until the crust becomes golden.
After you take out the banitsa, cover it with a cotton towel until it cools down (a tip from my mother and grandmother)
And most importantly: sprinkle some love on top :)
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