plate 14: croatia

This week was Destination Degustation People’s Choice. Before heading up to AJ’s folks’ place for the Easter long weekend I gave the family a choice of three countries: Croatia; Ethiopia; and the Philippines. Croatia won hands down, so Destination Degustation stays in Europe for another week.

I had no clue about Croatian cuisine and a preliminary click through Google didn’t offer me anything concrete. Croatian cooking is apparently dubbed the “Cuisine of Regions” because the food varies enormously across the country, split mainly into two influences: Mediterranean on the Dalmatian coast; and Austro-Hungarian (Croatia borders Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia). Although no one dish reigns supreme, this fortunately meant I had a number of delicious-sounding dishes to choose from. 

A few caught my attention. Black risotto, made with squid ink, brodet – a seafood stew – and cevapcici – little sausages. Just when I settled on cevapcici, I discovered their origins are more Bosnian than Croatia, even though they’re made extensively across Croatia.

But no matter, I stumbled across pasticada [pronounced “pash-ti-tsada] – beef slow-cooked in a list of ingredients as long as my arm: Dijon mustard, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, parsnip, parsley, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, figs, prunes, apples and red wine. Not only did my mouth water at the flavours, but I also read that [insert Goran Ivanisevic accent here] “Pasticada is a typically Dalmatian meal served for feasts like birthdays, religious holidays, not to mention mother-in-law visit.” Pasticada would be perfect. It was Easter and I would be cooking for my kind of mother-in-law.

Now I may have impressed my “mother-in-law”, but it seemed “father-in-law” was even more taken with my culinary efforts, literally licking his plate clean. The flavours of this stew, with all its saucy awesomeness, really were amazing and the dish was certainly deserving of a plate-licking to finish. For those who don’t do fruit with meat (you know who you are!), I assure you won’t even notice their presence in pasticada. The apple, figs and prunes give an oh-so-subtle sweetness to the beef and vegetables.

The cooking didn’t stop there, though. After four pleasant hours chopping, peeling and stirring, I also produced two sides to go with the pasticada. While they’re not traditionally served all together at the table, I wanted to try them anyway.

First up was ajvar – roasted capsicum and roasted eggplants finely chopped and mixed with lots of garlic and even more olive oil – divine, and colourful to boot. Apparently ajvar is sold in jars at Croatian supermarkets, but it’s easy to make your own and the flavours are so fresh and rich. One dinner party member even thought it would be great mixed through pasta.

The second side was blitva, silverbeet cooked with garlic and potatoes. This was also “yami yami” as my grandmother would say, even though it did require tearing up two kilograms of silverbeet, which seemed to take forever – you could barely see me under the mound of ripped up leaves. But don't be alarmed by the seemingly hefty amount - double this recipe and it feeds about 8 people since the silverbeet reduces to about a tenth of its original volume when cooked.

All in all, our trip to Croatia this week was fun and super tasty. If you want to impress your in-laws, print out the recipes and get cooking. Have fun! x