Let's talk about...my country, Croatia

music: Mojoj lijepoj zemlji Hrvatskoj by Daleka obala

My country, small but beautiful. Shaped like a flying dove. With green and rich plains on its wings, with high mountains from top of head to the end of tail, with beautiful long coast descends towards the Adriatic sea.

It is beautiful to be a tourist in my country. Where ever you go,  you can find lots of great works of nature, still preserved of destroying human hand.

Northern Croatia
Zagorje, Međimurje and Podravina are three regions on western side, full of green hills with vineyards and vineroads. You can relax there in several amazing spa resorts with warm healing waters. Or you can raft on green waters of two rivers, Mura and Drava. It's also interesting way to go east, towards wide and rich plains of Slavonija and Baranja, ultimate eastern end, reaching river Dunav. Lots of water is making this dark soil so fertile that it could feed a half of Europe with grains. In the far past, there was a sea, Panonian sea. That's why soil is so rich there. The remains of Panonian sea you can find still in a few swamp areas, like Lonjsko polje with thousands of birds nesting there, or Kopački rit with lots of animal species living there. From the east to the west you can enjoy various culinary delights in picturesque villages. And you must see their national costume - it's full of lace and old golden coins! Amazing!


Middle Croatia
Going down from nothern Croatia, you are actually climbing up! Deep forrests of mountainous Gorski Kotar with fast rivers and lakes surrounded by meadows and snowy hills during winter, only less then an hour from the Adriatic coast. Can you imagine that feeling skiing down the hill with almost 1 meter of snow and watching at the same time the glow of the sun reflected on the sea surface? Well, you can do it on mountain Platak! And in the summer you can find refreshment on hiking trails through the woods and mountains. Or when everybody is going to a seaside beaches, you can go to the lakes with beautiful falls, like those on Plitvice lakes in Lika region. You can climb high hills of Velebit and Dinara, or if you have an interest for speleology, the whole region is full of caves.

Coastal Croatia 
Finally, you're going downhills and within a blink of an eye, you will find yourself looking at the amazing blue-and-green heaven. Mountains of Gorski kotar, Velebit and Dinara dissapear in turquoise color of the Adriatic sea, grading to deep blue, but still wanting to cath the last breath, leaving more than 12 hundred islands like a pearls alongside coast. Those island really were peaks of the hills long, long time ago untill melting of ice after the last ice age. The Adriatic sea was then finally shaped and became the most beautiful part of Mediteranean sea. The climate mixture of both mediteranean and mountain type makes this part of the world so pleasant to live - mild winters, but often with a little bit of snow, even on islands, warm and beautiful summers, with hot but never too hot days and warm nights, and sea temperature 23-26°C from june till september. A scent of wild herbs on poor soil is melting in a salty scent of blue water rich with fish - and that's the main scent of traditional dishes from Istria, Liburnia, Kvarner all down to the south part of Dalmatia.

And that, all that is my country. Deep in my heart.

"Šugo" in the old, quarnerian way

music: Kvarneriana by Vivien Galetta and Voljen Grbac on MIK festival 2009 

When the clouds close up the sky above the mountain Učka and the sea rises up all foamy and white, when lightnings and thunders, together with heavy raindrops melt together in one the sea and the sky - that's our true quarnerian storm "nevera s Kvarnera"!
What else can you do than take a bowl, and cook slowly, in oldfashion way, our fine "šugo" with polenta.
And when this strong but short summer storm vanishes, there's nothing more beautiful than the look on the Bay of Quarner right beside a full plate of tasteful homemade dish...

mountain Učka in Quarner, just after the quarnerian storm

In the past there were lots of herds of goats and sheep on the sloaps of mountain Učka. Therefore, the meat of those animals was the most usual ingredient for lots of dishes. For this particular dish it would be good to have a goatling meat, but if not, beef would do just fine.

Ingredients

50 dag nice lowfat beef or goatling meat
1 dl of olive oil
1 large onion
1-2 carrots
slice of celery root
15 dag of bacon
5 dl of red wine
1 teaspoon of ground sweet pepper (paprika)
3 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp quarnerian herbs - parsley, celery, rosemary, lavender, basil, bay leaf
 water to add during cooking
Salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut the meat into cubes.
Cut onions and bacon in small pieces, wash and grate carrots and celery, chop finely garlic and herbs .
In a bowl (with lid) heat the olive oil. Fry onions on it briefly. Add meat and fry it short. Add some salt to help the meat to soften. Cover bowl and reduce heat so meat will release its juice.
Then add the carrots, celery, garlic, paprika and bacon, pour good wine, stir and cover again.
The heat must be completely reduceed to stew very slowly. Occasionally add some water and stir every time. The right home šugo "šufiga" quite a long time until all ingredients pervade at least 1.5 to 2 hours.
Toward the end, add herbs, pepper and if necessary some salt. Again add some water. Cover and cook for another ten minutes to thicken the meal.

Serving

Along with this "šugo" - version of goulash from croatian quarnerian coast (or maybe vice versa) - it is best to serve polenta, either common or baked, or polenta "kompirica" (polenta with potato) that in Quarner and Grobnik is usually cooked, and homemade pasta will also fit perfectly.

My original recipe in croatian is on Coolinarika - "Šugo po starinsku z Kvarnera"

Egg on chard in a sandwich

Ingredients for 1 person

2 eggs
a bunch of chard
1 tablespoon of olive oil
half of teaspoon of spice mixture of Kvarner 
or Vegeta Mediterranean spicemix
little bit of salt and pepper
1 slice of bread

Preparation

Prepare the nonstick pan with a lid.
Wash the chard, drain slightly and cut into thin strips. Do not throw the white parts of the leaves! Cut them also.
In a pan - warm up the olive oil and throw the chard on it. Add spice mixture and stir. Reduce heat and cover the pan - water that is retained on the leaves from washing is quite enough to boil a chard a little.
As soon as all the liquid wither, throw two eggs on the chard, add salt and pepper according to your taste, cover and fry until all the eggwhite is "squeezed". The lid will keep the hot air in the pan, so eggs will be nice and quickly fried from the top .
Cut a slice of bread and warm it up briefly at the hot pan, and put on it fried eggs with chard.

Serving

A flavor of this simple and quick "sandwich", wich is tipical for coastal croatian region (especially Kvarner), will be completed with tasty scent of fresh tomatoes with a drop of good olive oil ... and a glass of local wine too...

My original recipe in croatian is on   Coolinarika - "Jaje na blitvi - primorski snack"

Spice mixture of Quarner (Kvarner)

Traditional quarnerian cuisine is full of scents and tastes of aromatic herbs and spices. Whether you are looking at a plate of soup, a fish stew or "brodet", salsa, or just scrambled eggs, those plants, mostly wild with traces of salt, are the main detail whish gives the old dishes of Quarner this special, distinctive tone. That abundant use of herbs is making cuisine of Quarner so different from other parts of croatian coast. A breath of past time in these flavors remained still an attractive gastronomic experience


Ingredients:

a bunch of parsley
a bunch of celery
5 branches rosemary
5 bay leaves
10 big leaves of basil
10 big leaves of sage
10 big leaves marjoram
bunch of fennel leaves
half the bunch of wild onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of salt
olive oil
and optional
1 teaspoon of lavender buds



Although originally not quarnerian herb, lavender has been a "resident" of this region for a very long time and is used in many medicinal purposes. With its rich scent and taste, lavender will enrich this spice mixture of typical quarnerian plants.

Shortly wash from any impurities all the plants you have collected. Dry before further processing.

Preparing in the mortar

Chop all the finer herbs and pistillate them well to be more fragmented, almost turned into a pulp. Essential oils of these plants will quickly moisten the mixture and kneading will be easier.
Add salt and olive oil just how much is needed to be absorbed by plants. Again stir well.

Modern way of preparing with the help of a blender

In a high narrow container chop all the herbs to very small pieces. Add salt and olive oil.
Mix the plants with a hand blender as long as possible to convert the plant into a pulp. Pour some more oil as needed to be absorbed by the herbs and still to remain on the surface a little bit. Once again, stir well.

Serving

Put a mixture made of aromatic herbs in a clean jar, close tightly and keep in the cold. When useing, it will suffice to add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon to a food near the end of cooking.

My original recipe in croatian is on  Coolinarika - "Kvarnerska začinska mješavina"