Serbian cuisine: recipes and their features

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The national cuisine of any country arouses interest and desire to learn its traditions and culture. This is the part of life that is able to unite warring peoples, because "war is war, but lunch is on schedule"! So, today we will learn about traditional dishes of Serbian cuisine.

Features of Serbian cuisine

The traditional cuisine of the people of Serbia is similar to the dishes of other Balkan countries - Montenegro and Yugoslavia. The formation of these traditions in different periods of the history of the Serbian people was influenced by the cultures of the Middle East and European countries.

Serbian cuisine (recipes) is characterized by more than one feature, to name a few:

total use of cheese in cooking - it is added to the first, second and sweet dishes;

• vegetables - there are a lot of dishes from them in the traditional culinary of the country, primarily due to their cheapness;
• simple recipes for sweets, often baked goods and masses reminiscent of jams and marmalades;
• naturaldrinks - herbal teas, fruit drinks and juices from berries and fruits are popular;
• self-brewed alcoholic drinks - tinctures, cordials, wines, brandy.

Rakia is a traditional strong alcoholic drink for the Balkan countries, made from fruit and berry juices by distillation using a primary fermentation system of raw materials.

About raw materials for dishes

The most common foods used in cooking are those provided by the country's subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry.

This is lamb, pork, lamb and goat meat. The meat is prepared in whole pieces for chops, in portions - for stewing. There are also many recipes for kebabs, smoked or fried sausages made from natural meat. Meat products are cooked and cured.

Soups, stews and fried dishes are prepared from fish and seafood. Despite the geographical proximity of the sea, Serbian cuisine offers recipes from simple and inexpensive river fish.

Milk and dairy products. Cow's and sheep's milk is widely used. Almost every day of any resident of the country begins with it, regardless of his property status. From milk (cow's, sheep's, goat's) hard, smoked cheese and feta cheese, surprising in taste, are made, bread and bakery products are baked with milk. Liquid fermented milk products are also prepared, which are rich in Serbian cuisine (see recipes with photos below).

Vegetables are the most popular among the inhabitants of the country. They are served everywhere in Serbia andalways. Breakfast is either lunch, dinner or afternoon tea - you can always see a lot of fresh vegetables on the table of every family. Traditionally they are served as a simple chopped green salad with olive oil dressing. But sometimes there are complex recipes in which some vegetables are first boiled or fried. Among the most used vegetables are tomatoes, onions, potatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, cabbage, lettuce and many others.

For dessert, the recipes of Serbian national cuisine offer an abundance of pies with cottage cheese, cheese, vegetable or meat filling, donuts, pies, baked nuts and plums, jam, cookies and many, many sweets.

National cuisine

Serbian cuisine is characterized by the following national dishes:

• bread - its baking and eating are similar to a national ritual (the first thing that is offered to a guest in any home is homemade bread and s alt) - these are loaves, bagels, flat cakes, carpets, pies (of various sizes), "family" from small buns;
• soups - fish soup, meat, vegetable and cereal first courses;
• second courses - fried meat dishes, sausages, thick cereal porridges with cheese ("Popara"), meat rolls with ham and cheese, meat stews with vegetables, stuffed vegetable dishes;

• salads of fresh or fried vegetables with cheese, "Lutenitsa" - an appetizer of baked sweet peppers (this is an analogue of vegetable caviar, a dish usuallyprepared for future use);
• desserts - rice pudding, gingerbread, "Palachinke" - a version of national pancakes, "Tufakhia" - apples stewed in sugar syrup with walnuts, cherry pies with nuts and her many different delicacies;
• one of the traditional drinks is "Boza" - a mixture of fermented corn with water and yeast, often made from oatmeal - the drink is considered low alcohol.

What spices and seasonings are used?

Serbian cuisine (national dishes, recipes) does not have a stable tradition of using any kind of spices and seasonings. In a broad sense, this is due to the temperate climate of the Balkan Peninsula.

Recipes are dominated by regular ground black pepper or dried herbs (bay leaf, coriander and some others).

Serge Markovich

Dishes of Serbian cuisine and recipes for the Russian review were opened by the famous Serbian chef and restaurateur Serge Markovic. He is the author of several cookbooks and many thematic master classes on cooking national dishes of the Balkan country.

If you like Serbian cuisine, you will also like Serge Markovic's recipes. All of them are mostly lined up in a video sequence and do not have specific descriptions, however, we have found for you some original recipes from a famous chef.

"Torator" - cold soup recipe

"Torator" is a kind of analogue of the Russian traditional okroshka. Its invariable components can be called cucumbers, unsweetenedyogurt (kefir) and walnuts.

What products are needed:

• unsweetened yogurt (or low-fat kefir) - 0.5 l;
• fresh cucumbers - 2-3 pieces;
• young dill greens - 100-150 g;
• garlic - 2-3 cloves;
• walnuts - 100 g;
• olive oil - 2-3 tbsp. l.;
• s alt, ground black pepper - to taste;
• cold boiled water - optional.

How to cook:

1. Rinse cucumbers, dill and garlic. Skin the last one.
2. Grate the cucumbers, finely chop the dill and chop the garlic into a pulp.
3. Smash the walnuts in a blender or food processor into large crumbs.
4. In a saucepan, mix yogurt, cucumbers, dill, garlic, nuts, olive oil. Season everything with s alt and ground pepper.
5. Attention! The dish is already ready to eat. But if it seems to you that it turned out to be thick, add chilled boiled water and mix.

This soup is served cold.

"Splash" - recipe with meat

Meat recipes Serbian cuisine highlights in a separate chapter of its history. "Pleskavitsa" is one of the most popular meat dishes of this country.

What products are needed:

• lamb (or lamb) - 300 g;
• pork - 100-150g;
• onions - 50-70 g;
• garlic - 1-2 cloves;
• s alt;
• olive oil.

How to cook:

1. First, rinse all meat and peeled vegetables. Then scroll in a meat grinder with a fine grate. Need a gentlesmooth minced meat with vegetables.
2. Mix the resulting mass with s alt and divide into two approximately equal parts.
3. Form each piece of minced meat into a flat patty about 2-2.5 cm thick. Brush it with olive oil and fry in a hot pan for 4-5 minutes on each side.

Traditionally, such meat patties are formed about the size of a human palm (or oblong sausages) and fried on an open fire or grill.

"Tufahia" - the national dessert

What products are needed:

• apples - 2-3 pieces;
• lemon - 1/2 piece;
• walnuts - 50g;
• sugar - 150 g;
• water - 100 ml.

How to cook:

1. Apples peel and finely chop. Mix with water and juice of half a lemon (you can take any citrus fruit, but the juice should be at least 50 ml). Add sugar and simmer until thickened.
2. Meanwhile, chop the walnuts. Serbian cuisine does not say anything about peeling nuts from dark skins, but you can do this if you wish.
3. Add nuts to apples and mix.
4. When the mass is thick, remove from heat and put in bowls or portioned jars.

This dessert can be prepared in the form of stuffed apples. Then follow the step by step preparation:

• apples in general, but peeled and core, boil in sweet water with lemon juice (water will need more than 100 ml - it shouldcover apples);
• grind the walnuts into crumbs and mix with a small amount of sugar, sauté in a pan until the sugar caramelizes - stuff the apples with this mixture and serve.

If desired, sprinkle some cheese on top of these apples.

Drinks

There are many alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in Serbian culture. Many of the latter are prepared on the basis of rakia. One of them we present to you - "Shumadi tea" - hot or cold sweet brandy.

"Shumadi tea" - recipe

What products are needed:

• rakia (40-45°С) - 500 ml;
• water - 750 ml;
• sugar - 50g

How to cook:

1. Mix all ingredients and bring to a boil. All grains of sugar should dissolve.
2. Pour into glasses immediately and drink hot. Or leave to cool and serve cold.

Serbian cuisine (recipes and cooking traditions) is a wide topic for review and perhaps we will return to it in future articles.