LITTLE BISCUIT BREAD / BUKË POGAÇE E VOGËL

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups flour
1.5 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. oil
1 cup of Greek style yogurt
¾ cup water, lukewarm
1 tsp. salt

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. In a deep mixing bowl combine flour, salt and the baking powder together.
3. In another bowl dilute yogurt with lukewarm water and 1 tbsp. oil.
4. Make a well with flour mixture and gradually add diluted yogurt into the middle.
5. Knead dough with your fingers or mixer for at least 15 minutes until dough is soft, moist and pulls from the side of the bowl.
6. Oil and lightly flour bottom of baking pan and place bread in pan.
7. Brush bread with oil on top.
8. Reduce heat to 375°F and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 275°F in and leave bread for another ten minutes until golden brown.
9. Serve hot with a side of Feta cheese or any of your Albanian favorite dishes.

© Besa Kosova / www.facebook.com/albanianrecipes

Kosova Fli

INGREDIENTS:

4.5 lbs. Flour
14 oz. butter or
1 ¼ cup cream (maze/kajmak) or sour cream
Salt
Water

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, combine water with salt to taste.
2. Slowly add flour as you gradually beat with mixer until reaching desired thickness. Please note, the liquefied dough mixture should be neither too thin nor too thick.
3. Preheat the oven on broil and move one rack at the highest oven level.
4. Spread oil evenly into a round baking pan and heat before layering begins.
5. Next, with a spoon, begin layering in a ribbon-like method, skipping every other stripe.
6. Bake under the broiler until burnt dots begin to appear.
7. Once out, drizzle with the mixed butter and cream (sour cream) mixture and again add another stripe in the empty openings.
8. Bake again until the burnt spots begin to surface.
9. Next, follow these steps until the dough is gone, applying one layer dough and one cream mixture.
10. Once the last layer is applied, remove from oven and turn broiler off.
11. Leave inside the oven on the lower baking rack.
12. Serve hot.

© Besa Kosova / www.facebook.com/albanianrecipes

Bread, the blessed staple of the Albanian cuisine!

Bread, the sacred essential food, is one of prominence in the Albanian cuisine. For me, bread has always been, is, and always will be the inimitable delight that brings friends and families together. For centuries, it is bread that has kept the humanity evolving and alleviated hunger like no other table staple. It has always been admired universally and is one of humanity's oldest nourishment.

It was bread that kept our family around ‘sofra’, the traditional short-legged chair less table, when the times were good or bad. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve bread, like my daily routines of going to the bakery to buy loaves that had just come out the oven. I knew the town’s baker by name as I also knew his morning and the afternoon baking schedule. Aaaah, the moments of waiting in line for the bread to bake and then trying to resist the temptation of not eating at least ½ a loaf on the way home, so my mom would be proud. It never happened; full loaves never made it back, but my mom’s twinkled eye criticism are reminiscence moments that I will always carry with me.

And, yes, not to forget that sugar filled or crumbled feta sandwich I devoured as I rushed outside to play.

These days, it seems that bread has become the curse of our regimen. Dietitians, nutritionists, health gurus and so on would do anything to eliminate bread of its existence. Gluten this, gluten that! Fat this, fat that. Bread is bad for you. I hear it all the time.

Oh please, give me a freaking break!

Call me an old-fashioned Albanian gal and criticize me all you want, but there is one thing I know for sure, America, as great as it is, will never be able to shake the Albanian bread out of me. Yes, I still bake fresh bread quite frequently, and if I had my choice, I’d do so every day. Nothing ever compares to home-made bread that even my American-born children can testify. In fact, I am known among their friends to be the mom that makes the best fresh bread and I treasure the moments when they surround my kitchen waiting for the bread to come out of the oven and having it gone before it gets the chance to cool off. “Mom, you've created monsters,” says, my son, Nate, “Everybody loves your bread, mom!”

So there you have it, an Albanian-American mom who will never be too Americanized and forget the bread, the only staple that still brings her home.

Friend, you will never hear me say, “I am giving up bread,” regardless of how modern-day dieting suggests. To me, giving up bread is like giving up on a blessing, that gluten that keeps us together and has preserved humanity since the early dawn of agriculture.

With Love,

Besa Kosova

Cooking Tip #1

Lemon Glazed Ricotta Cake

RICOTTA CAKE:

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
15 ounces whole milk ricotta
1 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

LEMON GLAZE:

2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a Bundt cake pan and set aside.
2. In a large mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until well combined. Add the ricotta and blend until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
3. Mix in the eggs one at a time, incorporating well.
4. Add the vanilla, lemon juice/zest and mix until fully combined.
5. Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients in 2 increments, mixing just until incorporated.
6. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth our as needed.
7. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Let cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
9. Whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle the lemon glaze over the top of the cake and serve.

©Besa Kosova / www.facebook.com/albanianrecipes

Recipe is compliments of Mia Carson

Cheese or Marmelade Rolls / Kifle me Djath ose Marmelade

Ingredients:

2 cups (½ liter) milk, lukewarm

2 lbs. (1 kg) white flour

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. (50 gr) yeast

3/4 cup (200 ml) oil

2 tsp. salt

1 cup (0.5 kg) crumbled feta cheese or 1 cup of marmalade, if preferred

1 egg for dough

2 egg whites for feta cheese mixture

2 egg yolks for coating rolls

A little unsalted butter, melted

Preparation:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine lukewarm milk with yeast, sugar and 3 tablespoons of flour, and mix well.

2. Set the yeast mixture aside and allow it to sit for a few minutes.

3. In another deep bowl, pour flour, salt, oil, 1 egg and mix well.

4. Once mixed, add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and knead until bowl edges come clean.

5. Cover dough with cloth and allow it to rise for approximately 30-40 minutes or until it doubles in size.

6. While dough rises, prepare the baking pan, by buttering it and/or placing parchment paper. 

7. In another dish melt a little butter for the brushing of the rolls later.

8. Once dough rises divide into 6 equal partitions and form round balls.

9. Set dough balls aside and allow them to rise once more in room temperature.

10. While dough rises, separate 2 egg whites with egg yolks and place them in separate dishes. 

11. In a medium bowl, mix egg whites until they become foamy white and crumble feta on top. Blend well.

12. In another bowl, mix egg yolks with a little melted butter to use later for brushing rolls before baking.

13. Next, stretch each dough ball into a round pancake about 15 in. (30 cm) in diameter each.

14. With a knife, gently cut pancakes in the middle creating a half moon-shape, then in quarters, and in the end, eighths, forming triangles.

15. Place teaspoon of cheese or jam filling on each triangle and roll.

16. If needed, flex the triangles to squeeze the ends so the fill does not leak.

17. Aline the rolls in a baking pan.

18. Before baking, brush each roll with the egg yolk mixture.

19. Next, add a little melted butter on top of each roll.

20. Sprinkle rolls with sesame on top, optional.

21. Bake for about 20 minutes in a pre-warmed oven in 350 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius).

22. Serve warm or cold with tea or a cup of milk.

© Besa Kosova / www.facebook.com/albanianrecipes

MEATBALLS WITH TOMATO SALSA / QOFTE ME SALCË DOMATESH

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 onion, finely grated

1 tbsp. flour

1 egg, whisked

1 ½ tsp. dried parsley

1 tbsp. mustard

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

Light olive oil, for pre-frying the meatballs

Salsa Ingredients:

2 cans of 14.5 oz. of diced tomatoes

½ tsp. mint

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. basil

3-4 cloves of garlic

1 onion, finely grated

1 cup of water

3 tbsp. olive oil

Preparation Instructions:

1.     In a mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, finely grated onion, egg, parsley, flour, mustard, salt and pepper and mix well.

2.     Next, separate them into small to medium meatballs, approximately 24 pieces, and lightly sauté them.

3.     I another pan, lightly sauté the finely grated onion and garlic.

4.     Once onions are golden brown, add the two cans of diced tomatoes.

5.     Add, mint, salt, basil and water to sauce. Mix well.

6.     Place meatballs in a baking dish and pour the mixture over.

7.     Bake in 350^oF for about 30 minutes.

Serve as an appetizer, or on top of your favorite pasta.

Note:

This recipe is also great for spaghetti sauce. You can add a 24. oz. of any traditional pasta sauce to the dish above along with another 16 oz. of water and bake for about an hour. Serve on top of spaghetti noodles.

©Besa Kosova / www.facebook.com/albanianrecipes