Slovenian Recipes

Menu Chicken Ajmoht II (with red wine) Greens Latkes (Potato Pancakes) Chicken ajmoht, sometimes called obara, is a simple stew or ragout. Its special tang comes from a dark roux, something that my mother recalled from her childhood.  For my first attempt, I had used a simple recipe from the Progressive Slovene Women of America.  This time, I wanted to add some additional vegetables and seasonings. For inspiration, I consulted a couple of traditional sources.   The Food and Cooking of Eastern Europe had an obara recipe with a few more vegetable choices.   Slovenian Cookery included a recipe for chicken stew with cviček, a unique Slovenian red wine. So I added a few new touches to my earlier recipe:  Carrots and leeks. Lemon peel and red wine.  For quicker cooking, I used boneless, skinless, chicken breasts. For the result, read on. Chicken Ajmoht II  (chicken ragout, kurji ajmoht, obara) 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts...

Menu Chicken Rižota Green Salad Challah Tuesday of Week 37 fell on the evening of Yom Kippur.  For Jews, sundown would mark the beginning of a day of fasting and repentance. Although the Yom Kippur Eve meal doesn't have ritual significance, some foods are traditionally chosen.  Simple, mildly seasoned foods are said to make the fast easier.  In many communities, chicken and rice are favored entrees. I wanted to make a meal that would fit within these two traditions, Slovenian and Jewish, that are a part of my family life. I immediately thought about rižota.  Slovenian risotto. Months earlier, I had made a delicious meat version. In doing research for the dish, I recalled some mention of substituting chicken for the more usual beef, veal or pork.   But I wasn't sure. So I went back to the handful of recipes I had found in my vintage Slovenian American cookbooks.  Yes, one of those recipes made a passing reference to using chicken instead of ...

Menu Mineštr a (Slovenian Minestrone) Coleslaw French bread Suddenly that Slovenian minestrone seemed like a perfect choice.   Easy comfort food.  And I had almost everything on hand.  So why not? I made a few changes in the recipe from that 1950s cookbook.   As usual,  I used olive oil instead of lard or drippings. I was a little more generous with the vegetables.  As a short cut, I used canned beans instead of cooking them from scratch.  At least they were those genuine, hard-to-find Roman beans.  Instead of canned peas, I used frozen. The recipe called for smoked sausages or chopped ham.  I used smoked chicken apple sausages from the butcher shop around the corner. 1 medium onion, chopped 1 large clove garlic, minced 2 T. olive oil ½ head cabbage (part green, part red) sliced 2 smoked chicken apple sausages, sliced 1 can Roman beans (borlotti beans) 1 c. baby carrots 1 medium potato ¼ c. fresh parsley cherry tomatoe...

Djuveč Menu Djuveč (Lamb, Pork and Vegetable Casserole) Green Salad Bread Djuveč ("ju-vech") is found in one form or another throughout the Balkans.  But I had never heard of it until I started poring over my vintage copy of  Treasured Slovenian and International Recipes , the cookbook put together by the Progressive Slovene Women of America. The origins of the dish are probably Turkish. The Romanian version, ghivetch, is often considered a Jewish dish, one I recall seeing on menus in Israel.   It sounded like a mildly spiced version of ratatouille, although djuveč usually adds meat and a little rice to the familiar vegetable mix.  The Progressive Slovene Women included two versions in their cookbook.  I was surprised to find one of them in the Slovenian section, since the dish probably reached Slovenia by way of Serbia. The second one, called Serbian Djuveč, was included in the International section.  At first glance...

Menu Chicken Paprikash (Kokošli Paprikaš) Green Salad Chicken paprikash is familiar to most Americans.  It is another one of those Slovenian dishes with Hungarian origins. The Progressive Slovene Women offered a straightforward recipe along with the proper Slovenian name: kokošli paprikaš. I made just a few adaptations.  Instead of a whole cut up chicken, I used chicken breasts. I browned the onions and paprika before adding the chicken, not after.  I used light sour cream, just because it was on hand. The other change was unplanned.  I ended up using more flour to coat the chicken than the single tablespoon the recipe suggested.  That is probably why the sauce was a little heavier than we would have liked. 3 lb. chicken breasts (bone in) salt to season chicken flour to coat (1-3 T.) 2 T. oil 1 onion, chopped 1 1/2 T. paprika 1/8 t. cayenne 1 1/2 c. hot water 1/2 c. sour cream Cut up chicken pieces, salt them, and coat with flour. ...

  My grandmother used to bake bread and distribute the loaves to people in their Slovenian neighborhood in Cleveland.  As a little girl, my mother used to accompany her mother, when she made the rounds. "She just gave it away?" This puzzled me, because  I knew the family didn't have much money, especially during the Depression. Yes, my mother assured me.  My grandmother was an open-hearted woman who believed in sharing what she had.  Oh, one more thing.  Somewhere along the line, she got some training as a hairdresser.  So she also used to give free haircuts. These stories do fit with my own memories of my grandmother's generous spirit.  Still,  I can't help but wonder if there might have been some bartering going on, or if she had a little business on the side. Grandma's Homemade Bread, as we always called it, was a high point of our regular Sunday afternoon gatherings at the little bungalow she shared with Grandpa.  They co-...