WALNUT POTICA
Ingredients for leavened dough: 1 kg flour, 30 g yeast, 3-4 yolks, 3 dl lukewarm milk, 120 g butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoon sugar, fat for the mould;
Filling: 600-700 g walnuts, 50 g sugar, 1-2 dl milk, 1 egg, rum or home made fruit spirit.
Prepare the dough in a warm room. Heat up the flour, sift it into a bowl and stir it together with a teaspoon of salt.
Stir dissolved yeast together with a tablespoon of sugar, 2 spoons of flour and ½ dl lukewarm water or milk. Leave it in a warm place to rise. Make a hole in the middle of the flour; add whisked eggs, yeast, lukewarm melted butter and sugar, adding lukewarm milk while stirring.
Beat the dough for 15 minutes or until the bubbles appear and the dough separates from the bowl. Certain types of flour may need more milk than others. Sprinkle some flour on the beaten dough, cover the dough with a cotton cloth and leave it in a warm place to rise. Crush or grind the walnuts and pour some hot sweetened milk over the walnuts. Leave the filing to cool down. Add one or two eggs to the almost cold filing and mix them thoroughly.
Roll out the dough until it is ½ cm thick; spread it with the warm filing. Roll tightly; put it in a well-greased mould.
The potica is then left to rise slowly, but not too much, because it will rise during the baking. Put the whisked egg on the potica before the baking.
Bake time is one hour. When baked leave it in the mould to cool down for at least 15 minutes and then softly turn it over to the board. Sprinkle it with icing sugar, if desired.
ŠTAJERSKA KISLA JUHA
(Styrian sour soup)
Styrian sour soup is a sour soup that originates from Lower Styria. It is prepared at the feast of furež (pig slaughter) from the pork pettitoes and parts of pork head and spiced with onions, garlic, marjoram, thyme, parsley, black pepper, salt and apple or wine vinegar.
Ingredients:
1½ kg pork meat (lower part of pork leg)
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
2–3 carrots
whole pepper
thyme
marjoram
bay leaves
½ kg potatoes
vinegar by taste
salt, pepper
Procedure:
Cut the meat into medium-sized cubes, add finely chopped onion and all the herbs and cook. Add salt and pepper. When the meat is half cooked, add sliced potatoes. Put into the soup a mixture of flour and water and add a little vinegar. Before you serve the soup, improve it with finely chopped parsley. You can also add some sour cream.
ŽGANCI
Žganci is a a national Slovene dish made from maize, wheat or buckwheat flour, water, cooking oil and salt, which is cooked for fifteen minutes on a low boil. The lump is then crumbled onto a plate for serving. Žganci can be served with milk, honey, lard crackling or runny yoghurt.
Ingredients:
3 dl of water
salt to taste
25 dag of corn or buckwheat flour
3 tablespoons of lard with cracklings
Procedure:
Put salted water in a pot and boil it. Add flour (do not stir). Let it boil for 5 minutes. Take a wooden ladle and make a hole in the middle of the lump, then it should boil for another 10 minutes. After 10 minutes pour off half of the water. The dish should stand for a while. Then stir it with a fork and crumble it into pieces adding hot lard. Cover the pot and let it stand on a warm plate for 5 minutes. If the mush is too dry, add some water and stir. Cover with the rest of cracklings.