Ajvar

• 2 lg Eggplants
• 6 lg Red or green sweet peppers
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 Garlic clove; minced
• 1 Lemon; juiced
• 1/2 c oil, preferably olive oil
• Parsley; minced

Bake eggplants and sweet peppers at 180 C (350 F) until tender when pierced with a fork. Peel skin from hot vegetables and chop or mince the vegetables. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the garlic and lemon juice. Gradually stir in as much of the oil as the vegetables will absorb. Mix well. Pile into a glass dish and sprinkle with parsley.

Lamb Soup (Janjeca juha)

• 14 oz. (400 g) lamb meat
• 1 bunch root vegetables
• 2 oz. (50 g) rice
• 2 oz. (50 g) Savoy cabbage
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 4-5 pepper corns
• juice of 1 lemon
• 4 fl. oz. (100 ml) sour cream
• salt and pepper
• parsley
• 1 tablespoon of mixed spices (see note)

Thoroughly wash meat and vegetables and cut into cubes. Cut the Savoy cabbage into strips. Mix the egg yolks with the sour cream and lemon juice. Chop the parsley. Place the meat in a fair amount of water and bring to the boil. Skim well, add cubed vegetables, onion, garlic cloves, bay leaf, salt, pepper and spices. Boil the cabbage separately. Cook rice in salted water, drain and rinse well under cold running water. As soon as the meat is tender, strain the soup and set the meat and vegetables aside. Slowly add the egg yolk, sour cream, etc. mixture to the soup, stirring constantly. Then add the rice, meat and vegetables and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Spinach pie (Pita sa spinatom)

• 12 large (burrito-size) tortillas
• 2 cups chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained (or cooked, chopped and drained fresh spinach)
• 1 egg
• 3 cups dry curd cottage cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 180 C (350 F). Mix together cottage cheese, sour cream, beaten egg, and salt. Mix in spinach. Thinly oil a 9x12 baking pan. Cover bottom of pan with 1 layer of tortillas. Brush oil thinly on top of tortillas, then spread evenly with spinach mixture. For all subsequent layers, tortillas must be brushed with oil on both sides. Repeat layering process with remaining ingredients. Tortillas must form the top layer. Bake 45 min. at 180 C (350 F). Remove from oven, brush top with water and cover with a clean towel for 10 min., then serve. May also be eaten cold. Makes 6 servings.

Pancakes with cottage cheese (Palacinke sa sirom)

Pancakes:

• 2 cups flour
• milk
• water (1 part milk for 1 part water. Add until batter is thin)
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• zest from 1/2 of lemon
• cooking oil

Heat a few drops of oil in a non-stick frying pan. Ladle batter into hot pan, tilting the pan in a circular motion until batter thinly covers the whole pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes on medium heat, then turn over and cook another 30 sec. Makes 6 large or 8 small pancakes.

Filling:

• 1 cup cottage cheese (dry curd)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp raisins
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Mix together all ingredients, spread across centers of pancakes and roll them up. Place the rolled pancakes in a rectangular baking pan. Mix beaten egg and sour cream and pour over pancakes. Bake 25 minutes uncovered.