Last year my gorgeous husband and I spent three weeks celebrating our wedding anniversary in New York City. During our stay in Manhattan we sampled a lot of food and ate at some incredible restaurants, including the famous Balthazar, Lupa by Mario Batali, Public, DBGB, Peasant, Craft and Inoteca…just to name a few. Naturally one thing we ate a lot of was pizza; because if there’s one thing New Yorkers really know, it’s pizza!

We had many variations, traditional margarita, white cheese and clam and a divine goats cheese, pancetta and caramelised onion pizza by Batali. For me the highlight pizza was a really simple thin crust white cheese, prosciutto and rocket combo from Emporio. It was heavenly! And I have been trying my best to replicate it ever since.

The pizza dough recipe is from an Italian friend that runs a small pizza bar. The secret to the fluffy dough is the addition of milk. Making pizza dough from scratch does take a little effort but it really isn’t that hard. If you’re pressed for time replace with a thin Lebanese pita bread or flour tortilla/wrap.

Continue reading NYC Style Pizza

I have my very last bag of baba’s home grown chillies, so with limited time I decide to make a no-fuss chilli and tomato spread for lunch. It’s similar to lutenka but a fraction of the effort (only 15 minutes), and it’s eaten fresh rather than stored.

The best way to enjoy this village style dish is straight out of the pan, place it in the middle of the table and share with lot’s of fresh bread to mop up all the yummy juices.

Continue reading Easy Chilli and Tomato Spread (Przeni Piperki i Domati)

You’re probably wondering, who is Bill? Bill Granger of-course, the hugely successful self-taught cook, restaurateur and food writer. I’m a fan of Bill’s simple, home-style cooking, I especially love his recipe for Hazelnut and Fig Cake from his book Holiday.

Friends and family well know that I regularly make this cake during summer and early Autumn, while fresh figs are still available. The beautiful combination of sweet honey, gently caramelised figs and hazelnuts makes for a memorable rustic treat that you’ll wish you could eat all year round.

Continue reading Bill’s Rustic Fig Cake

With winter on it’s way, I’m feeling the need for a comforting village-style stew. One that I can enjoy with copious amounts of crusty bread and feta cheese.

My favourite ‘mandza’ (pronounced muhn-juh), is a mix of veal and veggies. I tend to use potatoes, carrots and okra, the deliciously slimy vegetable that so many are afraid of, but I unashamedly love! Although okra is a summer vegetable, I was lucky enough to stumble across some the other day. If you are unable to find okra or prefer not to use it, this stew tastes just as good with green beans.

Feel free to change the ingredients to your taste, other popular combinations are veal and potato, or chicken and rice.

It’s a hearty meal, which like all good stews, thickens and gets better overnight.

Continue reading My Favourite Village Stew (Mandza so Bamja)

I’m super excited to have my first Village Feast mention in the media yesterday! The Herlad, in my hometown of Newcastle ran a feature titled ‘New life for old recipes’. The article talks about the need for us to save our family recipes and the time I have spent with my baba learning to cook […]

Continue reading New life for old recipes

So far I have already posted two maznik recipes, handmade maznik, and cheats maznik with filo pastry. This maznik recipe would have to fall somewhere in between. There’s no yeast required and the process of preparing each sheet is nowhere near as laborious as my mum’s.

This recipe comes from my mother-in-law, although she knows how to roll out each pastry sheet using a long thin rolling pin she prefers the process of stretching the sheets as it takes half the time.

The texture of pulled (tegnato) maznik is much drier and less bread-like, so I prefer it with wet fillings like a combination of leek and feta, or sweet versions with sugary grated pumpkin or apple.

Continue reading Handmade Pastry with Leek and Feta (Tegnato Maznik so Pras i Sirenje)

I love Easter for a number of reasons. I love the message, I love time spent with family and I love the Orthodox tradition of breaking Easter eggs with family and friends.

After a week of fasting and not eating meat, dairy and even oil, the fast ends on Easter Sunday with the celebration of breaking colourful boiled eggs. It’s a competition, one person holds an egg, while the other person tries to break it by gently hitting with the tip of their boiled egg. The person with the egg that doesn’t break is the winner! The competition has been known to get fierce, there are even stories of people using painted wooden eggs to trick their family and friends. It’s a lot of fun and something we all look forward to every Easter Sunday.

Continue reading Traditional Red Easter Eggs

Although a vegan Easter recipe, I enjoy these biscuits all year round. The Greeks, Turks and other Balkan nations have similar recipes which are more biscuit-like. This recipe, although a biscuit is more cake-like and delicious!

Continue reading Vegan Orange Syrup Biscuits (Slatki so Portokali)

It’s Easter this week and I have made it my mission to post as many traditional recipes as I possibly can.

While fasting, a staple is homemade bread, but my baba’s bread isn’t any bread. Many (including myself) have tried to replicate her recipe and technique and although it tastes good, we just can’t seem to get it as fluffy. Everyone in my family agrees that no one makes bread better than baba. We all love it so much that we’ve lovingly named it ‘Baba Bread’. There’s no mystery about the ingredients (flour, water, yeast, salt) but it’s the technique that makes this deliciously soft bread a favorite.

Making bread is easy, it’s an ancient technique and I’d love for you to give it a go. You’ll love the delicious and sweet yeasty smell that fills your home.

Continue reading Baba Bread

Earlier this year I posted a very labour intensive and complicated recipe for Maznik, I promised to follow up with a cheats version, so here it is!

It’s a combination of several recipes recommended by family and friends. It tastes a little bit more like burek than maznik, but tastes delicious nonetheless.

The finished product looks and tastes more complicated than the effort required, so go for it and impress your friends the next time you’re entertaining, they make a lovely entree served with a dollop of lutenka.

Continue reading Cheats Maznik