When you are bottling apricots, it's best to use fruit that is ripe but firm. If you find a few softer pieces or even bruised ones, put them aside. Remove the blemished parts, and either make a jam or prepare these yummy apricot balls sprinkled with hot chocolate. That's exactly what I did a few … Continue reading Apricot Filled Cheese Balls
The best place to see traditional Slovak cheeses being made is definitely Zázrivá Salash. There are quite a few salashes (or kolibas) around Slovakia, but none of those I have been to provided such a complex experience of our folk culture and cuisine as the salash between Zázrivá and Terchová - two villages well-known for their … Continue reading How traditional oštiepok cheese is made
This year's shepherd's season is drawing to a close with days getting shorter and nights palpably colder. Summer greens are still a prominent colour in our countryside, but they are slowly giving in to a rich array of autumnal hues. It's a wonderful time to be out and about, especially when the weather is as … Continue reading At Zázrivá Salash
When I was preserving cucumbers a few weeks ago, some of the vegetables were not suitable for pickling, mainly because of their size. So I had to put them away in the fridge, and use them either in salads, or cooking. Here's an example of what I did with the last one left in stock. … Continue reading Cucumber Patties with Parenitza Cheese
Most of you will probably associate cranberries with turkey and Thanksgiving, but in Slovakia, we prefer to serve them with game and, quite often, they will also garnish grilled or roasted cheese. It should be said though that only certain types of cheese are suited to pan-roasting, and for this recipe in particular, the choice … Continue reading Roasted ‘Encian’ with Cranberries
If you've been to Slovakia, the chances are you tried our korbáčik, parenica or oštiepok - the three cheeses that are still being made the traditional way at Slovak salashes and small mountain farms. Depending on the place and time of year, they can be more or less salty, but that's exactly how most Slovaks like their … Continue reading Traditional Slovak cheeses
I introduced our famed cheese in the post on Bryndza Cheese Sticks last year. With this year's sheep farming season in full spate and some fine weather over the last month, our mountain meadows have turned into luscious pastures, so we are getting fresh supplies of bryndza cheese again. The May bryndza, as we in Slovakia call it, … Continue reading Bryndza Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
Although it's a small country when compared to its neighbours, Slovakia's landscape varies quite dramatically as you travel from the High Tatras mountains in the north to the Danube Lowland in the south. A similar variety can be perceived in regional cuisines, local accents and the people's mentality as you go from one Slovak region … Continue reading Exploring Liptov
Bryndza (pronounced as brinsa) is a soft variety of sheep's milk cheese that our Slovak ancestors developed at the end of the 18th century. Although the cheese had existed under different names and in varied forms from the 14th century, the first bryndza-making factory in Slovakia, which was set up in 1787, is seen by … Continue reading Bryndza Cheese Sticks
