I love cooking with seasonal ingredients, especially when they are locally sourced and therefore at their freshest. This recipe is a good example of sustainable cooking: it features the iconic Slovak cheese, the asparagus grown in local farms, and bear garlic - a herb that is widely available in our woods and forests right now. … Continue reading Asparagus with Roast Potatoes and Garlicky Bryndza Cheese Sauce
I first heard about spravovník two years ago, when I was shooting Christmas wafers for the Winter Book at a country house in Mačov. It was one of the few abandoned houses in the village that had been turned into a museum of traditional folk culture. While I was documenting the wafer baking, we chatted … Continue reading Cheese and Potato Bread Cake from Mačov
Smoked pork is an essential part of Slovak Christmas. Often in the form of rolled pork shoulder or pork neck, it is cooked in kapustnica (Christmas sauerkraut soup) together with sausages. We also serve slices of smoked pork alongside the potato salad. Mäsové guľky na kyslej kapuste - as this dish would be called in … Continue reading Minced Pork Potato Balls on Sauerkraut
Springtime brings fresh herbs to our forests and meadows. Many of them are edible and we not only use them to flavour food, but also cleanse our bodies and boost our immune systems after winter. Wild garlic, or bear garlic (medvedí cesnak), as we call it in Slovak, appears in our latitudes towards the end … Continue reading Millet Stir-Fry with Walnuts and Bear Garlic
Patizón - the Slovak word for summer pattypan squash - is probably derived from the French pâtisson. The vegetable has become quite popular among Slovaks, who like to coat and fry it like these Fried Zucchini Rings. However, there are a few recipes on Slovak cooking websites that use the unpeeled and hollowed out patizón as a … Continue reading Stuffed Pattypan Squash
I know how difficult it is to find bryndza cheese outside of Slovakia. I've been told that Polish shops in the USA and the UK sell a close alternative, but I can't say how close it is to the real thing. Those who have been to Slovakia and tried Slovenská bryndza may be able to … Continue reading Slovak Bryndza Filled Pirohy with Fried Bacon
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people have turned to home cooking instead of dining at restaurants or buying fast food meals. Thanks to the virus we have become more aware of what we put on our plates, and some of you may have discovered that cooking and baking also have therapeutic qualities. … Continue reading Cheesy Potato Bread Cake
A recent email from an American lady with Slovak roots reminded me of another dish my paternal grandma used to make. She lived in the south of Slovakia, in a small settlement close to the Hungarian border where people still spoke a local Hungarian dialect. Her cooking, too, was Hungarian-oriented and I remember that a … Continue reading Chicken Paprikash
Missy from the USA is a family keeper of her Slovak grandma's recipes. Unfortunately, she didn't manage to put down on paper a recipe for 'kipperskraut' her grandma used to make before she passed away a few years ago. Missy wrote in to ask about the recipe with a short description of the dish which … Continue reading Roast Sausages in Yellow Squash Sauce
It's bryndza time again. The first bryndza cheese of the year comes to our shops in the month of May, a few weeks after the flocks of sheep have been put out on mountain pastures to graze the new grass. Their milk is turned into cheese by shepherds at salashes - wooden cottages close to … Continue reading Gluten-Free Halushki with Bryndza Cheese
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