Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: dishes and their features

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

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine is distinguished by a variety of flavors that can conquer the heart and stomach of even the most spoiled tourist. In many ways, it is similar to the Mediterranean, because when creating culinary dishes, meat, eggs, cheeses and sour-milk products are often used. The peculiarities of the local cuisine of the Bulgarians are the pronounced taste of dishes, the presence of a large amount of seasonings and spices in them, and many, many greens, vegetables and cheeses of their own production.

Features of Bulgarian cuisine

The basis for Bulgarian dishes are often meat and various vegetables: cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers. Legumes are also often used: beans, lentils.

Vegetables are present on the table both fresh and in the form of marinades and pickles. They are eaten both as a separate side dish and as part of hot dishes. Local chefs masterfully combine vegetables with dairy, flour, meat and fish products.

National Bulgarian dishes often contain fermented milk products. Curdled milk, yogurt and kefirused, for example, to prepare soups and snacks.

Another feature of Bulgarian dishes is the presence of a large number of seasonings and spices in them. Because of this, sometimes food is too spicy, and meat dishes are sometimes too fatty. Those who first encountered the national cuisine of Bulgaria should heed these warnings to avoid digestive problems.

The best Bulgarian cuisine is served in establishments that bear the name mehana. Here you can enjoy the local color and delicious food. In the mehana you can taste appetizers and salads, first and main courses, pastries and desserts. A special place is given to national cheeses. In addition to the fact that this product is added to salads, main dishes and snacks, it is always present in sliced form on the table along with bread.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: salads

Popular Bulgarian cuisine salads are:

1. Milk salad is a milk salad that includes cucumber, garlic, nuts and curdled milk. Another local name for this dish is snowflake.
2. Shopska salad - Shopska salad, consisting of vegetables, olives and national pickled cheese. By the way, shops are a small ethnic group living in western Bulgaria.
3. Ovčarska salad - shepherd's salad of vegetables, eggs and two types of cheese.

These dishes contain vegetables and fermented milk products, the presence of which is famous for the Bulgarian cuisine. Recipes for some of these salads are listed below.

Milky lettuce. Milk Salad

RequiredIngredients for this dish:

• curdled milk - 1 liter;
• cucumber - 3 pieces;
• walnuts - 3 table. spoons;
• dill - 5 sprigs;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• s alt to taste.

Cooking process:

1. Strain the sour milk through a sieve or gauze folded several times. Repeat this process until the curdled milk acquires the consistency of thick sour cream. Transfer the resulting mass to a deep bowl.
2. Cucumbers peeled and finely chopped.
3. Chop the dill, nuts and garlic in a blender with a pinch or two of s alt.
4. Add cucumbers and a mixture of herbs and nuts to yogurt. Mix well.

Shopska lettuce. Shopska salad

To prepare this dish you will need the following:

• sirene (Bulgarian feta cheese) - 150 grams;
• cucumber - 4 pieces;
• tomato - 3 pieces;
• paprika pepper - 2 pieces;
• parsley - 4 sprigs;
• black olives - a few pieces for decoration.

Cooking process:

1. Bake the bell pepper in the oven until light brown. Without cooling, put inside a plastic bag and leave for a while. Then remove the skin and get rid of the core. Cut the resulting pulp rather coarsely.
2. Cut the tomatoes, cucumbers and onions into medium-sized pieces.
3. Put the chopped components into a container, add chopped parsley andmix.
4. Spread the resulting vegetable mixture into portioned plates.
5. Grate Sirene on a fine grater and put on top of the salad.
6. Top with an olive on top of each serving.

Olive oil and vinegar must be present on the table. Bulgarian cuisine suggests that the layers of this dish do not need to be mixed before serving. Everyone will independently add the desired dressing to their portion of Shopska salad.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: snacks

A special place in Bulgarian cuisine is reserved for appetizers, in particular, two types of local cheeses. Sirene is one of them - delicious Bulgarian cheese. The second cheese is kashkaval, made from sheep's milk.

The easiest to make is a siren snack. You just need to cut the product into slices, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with red ground pepper.

Also, the snacks that the Bulgarian national cuisine is famous for include:

• kashkaval pane - breaded sheep's cheese;
• liver pigs with garlic - fried peppers with garlic;
• cooked queen - boiled corn.

Liver pigs with garlic. Roasted peppers with garlic

To prepare this dish, you can use both regular paprika and spicy chili peppers. Required Ingredients:

• pepper - 6 pieces;
• garlic - 4 cloves;
• parsley - 6 branches;
• olive oil - 3 tbsp. spoons;
• wine vinegar - 1 tbsp. spoon;
• s alt and pepper to taste.

Cooking process:

1. Wash the pepper well, get rid of the stalk and core.
2. Fry it whole in a preheated pan, greased with butter, until golden brown. Then you need to reduce the heat to a minimum, cover the pepper with a lid and simmer for twenty minutes.
3. Chop garlic and parsley, add s alt, pepper and olive oil. Mix well.
4. Put a layer of prepared pepper on the bottom of a deep dish, a layer of herbs and butter on top, then pepper again and sauce again. In order for the dish to marinate well, you should leave it overnight. Bulgarian cuisine involves serving this appetizer cold.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: first courses

The most common first courses of Bulgarian cuisine, the recipes of which are presented below, are:

1. Tarator - cold yogurt soup with vegetables, nuts and garlic. This dish is very popular in Bulgaria.
2. Shkembe chorba is a thick rich soup made from scars (certain parts of the stomach of cattle). Such a dish should be seasoned with garlic, vinegar and pepper. The peculiarity of this soup is that it facilitates the course of a hangover.

Tarator

To make this cold soup you will need the following ingredients:

• cucumbers - 500 grams;
• drinking unsweetened yogurt - 800 grams;
• sour cream - 250 grams;
• chili pepper - ¼ pod;
• walnuts - 100 grams;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• cilantro, dill - a few eachtwigs;
• vegetable oil - 100 grams.

Cooking process:

1. Wash cucumbers, peel and grate them on a coarse grater.
2. Put the resulting mass in a deep container, add drinking unsweetened yogurt and sour cream. Mix well.
3. Chop pepper, cilantro and dill finely. Transfer to a bowl with cucumbers and yogurt and stir.
4. Chop the garlic. Add it to the total mass along with vegetable oil. Shuffle.
5. Find the nuts, add them to the soup and mix again.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: main courses

Mandatory attribute of food in this country is a large number of spices and seasonings. Most often, hot dishes of Bulgarian cuisine are prepared on the basis of meat and vegetables. The brightest and most popular are the following:

1. Chushka burek - stuffed peppers baked in batter.
2. Moussaka - potato and meat casserole.
3. Gyuvech - meat, cheese and vegetables in pots, laid out in layers.
4. Kebapcheta - small pork or beef sausages.
5. Sarmi - cabbage rolls made from grape or cabbage leaves.
6. Country shot - lamb liver with rice.
7. Sirene Shopska in Guveche – Shopska Bulgarian Brynza in a Pot with Tomatoes and Eggs.
8. Sach is a dish of several types of meat with various vegetables, which is cooked in a special large frying pan.
9. Svinska or kavrma pileshka - roast in pots of pork or chicken, respectively.
10. Plakia– fish stewed with vegetables.

Chushka burek. Stuffed peppers baked in batter

To prepare this dish you will need the following ingredients:

• bell pepper - 6 pieces;
• chicken egg - 4 pieces;
• siren – 300 grams;
• flour for breading;
• breadcrumbs.

Cooking process:

1. Remove the core from the pepper, leaving the vegetables whole and wash well.
2. Bake them in a preheated oven at 200°C for twenty minutes until the skin has darkened.
3. Place the hot pepper inside a plastic bag for fifteen minutes. After this time, peel the vegetables from the skin.
4. To prepare the filling, knead Bulgarian cheese, lightly beat two chicken eggs and mix these ingredients well.
5. For breading, beat two more eggs separately.
6. Carefully stuff the pepper, being careful not to damage it. Slightly flatten vegetables for easy frying. Roll peppers in flour, then in egg, then in breadcrumbs and again in egg.
7. Fry vegetables in a preheated skillet greased with vegetable oil until golden brown.

Sirene Shopska in gyuveche. Shopski Bulgarian Brynza in pots

For this dish you need to take the following:

• siren – 500 grams;
• tomato - 2 pieces;
• bell pepper - 1 piece;
• chicken egg - 6 pieces;
• chili pepper - 6 pieces;
• parsley;
• vegetable oil.

Cooking process:

1. Grease the inside of clay pots with vegetable oil. Put a siren on the bottom, then a layer of sliced tomatoes and sliced \u200b\u200bbell peppers, pour vegetable oil on top.
2. Cook for 6-7 minutes in a well-heated oven until the vegetables release their juices.
3. Get out the pots, drive one chicken egg into each, pour vegetable oil again and insert a chili pepper into the middle.
4. Cook in the oven until the egg is completely baked. Serve hot, garnished with parsley.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: pastries and desserts

Perhaps the most famous Bulgarian pastry is banitsa. This is the name of the national layer cake. Its filling can be both s alty and sweet. But the principle of cooking in both cases is the same. Thinly rolled dough is interspersed with layers of the appropriate filling, then the whole thing is baked in the oven.

Also, traditional Bulgarian pastries are represented by the following dishes:

1. Parlenki - thin cakes, bread substitutes. They can be served both in pure form and with the addition of garlic, siren or kashkaval.
2. Drinks - as well as parlenki, they are eaten instead of bread. Additives are used similar. The only difference is that the drinks are much fluffier and softer.
3. Mekitsa is a fried dough that Bulgarians eat for breakfast, adding powdered sugar, jam, honey or siren to it. This is a kindnational alternative to American donuts.

The most colorful desserts in Bulgaria are as follows:

• sour milk with honey and nuts – Bulgarian yogurt with honey and nuts;
• tikva with honey and nuts - pumpkin baked with honey and nuts;
• Bulgarian halva.

Bulgarian cuisine is famous for such pastries and desserts. Recipes for some of these dishes are presented below.

Parlenki. Grilled tortillas

These cakes are present on the table instead of bread. To prepare them, you need the following ingredients:

• flour - 450 grams;
• chicken egg - 1 piece;
• drinking unsweetened yogurt - 400 milliliters;
• fresh yeast - 20 grams;
• sugar - 1 teaspoon;
• s alt - 1 tablespoon;
• soda - 1 pinch;
• vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons.

Cooking process:

1. From the listed ingredients, knead a fairly stiff dough and put it in a warm place for 30 minutes.
2. Divide the dough and roll it into cakes one centimeter thick. Brush them with vegetable oil and grill them. You can also bake parlenki in the oven.

Milky Banitsa. Milk layer cake

Bulgarian cuisine involves serving this dessert chilled, cut into pieces. Required dough ingredients:

• flour - 400 grams;
• chicken egg - 1 piece;
• vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon;
• vinegar - 1 tablespoonspoon;
• water - 250 milliliters.

Required filling ingredients:

• milk - 1 liter;
• sugar - 250 grams;
• butter - 150 grams;
• vanillin.

Cooking process:

1. Knead soft, stretchy dough from the listed ingredients.
2. Roll out very thin cakes. Grease each of them with melted butter, carefully collect in a pile and place these impromptu flowers in a greased baking dish next to each other.
3. Pour the remaining melted butter on top and bake in the oven at 170°C until golden.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. To do this, heat the milk, add sugar and stir until it is completely dissolved.
5. Beat the eggs well with a whisk, then pour in the milk mixture in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Add vanilla.
6. Pour the mixture into the pastries and place in the oven at 170°C until golden brown.

What is the true Bulgarian cuisine? Its peculiarities lie in the fact that vegetables, local cheeses and sour-milk products are widely used for cooking. There is also a lot of meat. Pot cooking technology is often used. The above recipes for Bulgarian dishes are quite easy to use, but the end result will surprise you with its unusualness and will allow you to feel the taste of Bulgaria.