Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: dishes and their special features

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine is distinguished by a variety of tastes that can conquer the heart and stomach of even the most spoiled tourist. In many respects it is similar to the Mediterranean, because when creating culinary dishes, meat, eggs, cheeses and sour-milk products are often used. The peculiarities of the local cuisine of the Bulgarians are the pronounced taste of the dishes, the presence in them of a large number of seasonings and spices and a lot of greenery, vegetables and cheeses of own production.

Features of Bulgarian cuisine

The basis for Bulgarian dishes is mostly meat and various vegetables: cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers. Beans are also often used: beans, lentils.

Vegetables are present on the table both in fresh form, and in the form of marinades and pickles. They are eaten as a separate garnish, and as part of hot dishes. Local chefs masterfully combine vegetables with dairy, flour, meat and fish products.

National dishes of Bulgarian cuisine often contain in their composition dairy products. Seed, yogurt and kefir are used, for example, for soups and snacks.

Another feature of the Bulgarian dishes is the presence in them a large number of seasonings and spices. Because of this, sometimes the food is too spicy, and meat dishes are sometimes too fat. Those who first met with the national cuisine of Bulgaria, should heed these warnings to avoid problems with digestion.

The best dishes of Bulgarian cuisine are served in institutions that bear the name of fur. Here you can enjoy local flavor and delicious food. In the mechanics you can taste snacks and salads, first and main dishes, pastries and desserts. A special place is given to national cheeses. In addition to adding this product to salads, main courses and snacks, it is necessarily present in the cut form on the table along with bread.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: salads

Popular salads of the cuisine of Bulgaria are:

1. Milky salad is a milky salad that includes cucumber, garlic, nuts and curdled milk. Another local name for this dish is snowball.
2. Shopska salad - a shop salad consisting of vegetables, olives and national pickle cheese. By the way, shops - it's a small nationality, living in the west of Bulgaria.
3. Ovcharska salad is a shepherd salad of vegetables, eggs and two kinds of cheeses.

These dishes contain vegetables and sour-milk products, the presence of which is famous for Bulgarian cuisine. Recipes for some of these salads are given below.

Milky salad. Milk salad

Necessary ingredients for this dish:

• Yoghurt - 1 liter;
• Cucumber - 3 pieces;
• Walnuts - 3 table. Spoons;
• Dill - 5 branches;
• Garlic - 3 cloves;
• Salt to taste.

Cooking process:

1. Strain the sour milk through a sieve or gauze, folded several times. Repeat this process until you acquire the sour milk of the consistency of thick sour cream. Transfer the resulting mass into a deep bowl.
2. Cucumber peel and finely chop.
3. Grind dill, nuts and garlic in a blender with one or two pinch of salt.
4. Add to the yogurt and cucumber mixture of greenery and nuts. Mix well.

Shopska salad. Shop's salad

To prepare this dish you will need the following:

• Syrena (Bulgarian cheese) - 150 grams;
• Cucumber - 4 pieces;
• Tomato - 3 pieces;
• Pepper pepper - 2 pieces;
• Parsley - 4 branches;
• Black olives - a few pieces for decoration.

Cooking process:

1. Bake the Bulgarian pepper in the oven to a light brown crust. Do not cool, put inside a plastic bag and briefly leave. After removing the peel and get rid of the core. The resulting flesh is cut rather large.
2. Cut tomatoes, cucumbers and onions into medium sized pieces.
3. Put the cut ingredients in the container, add the chopped parsley and mix.
4. Dilute the resulting vegetable mixture in portions.
5. The siren should be rubbed on a fine grater and put on top of the salad.
6. Decorate the top with olive each serving.

On the table must be present olive oil and vinegar. Bulgarian cuisine suggests that the layers of this dish before serving do not need to be stirred. Each will independently add the desired refueling to his portion of the shop salad.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: snacks

A special place in the Bulgarian cuisine is reserved for snacks, in particular, for local cheeses of two kinds. One of them is a siren - the most delicious Bulgarian cheese. The second cheese is kashkaval, made from sheep's milk.

The simplest version is a snack from the siren. You simply slice the product with slices, sprinkle with olive oil and sprinkle with red pepper.

Also, to the appetizers with which the Bulgarian national cuisine is famous , you can refer:

• Kashkaval pan - sheep's cheese in breading;
• Liver chushki with garlic - fried peppers with garlic;
• The prince is boiled - boiled corn.

Liver chushki with garlic. Roasted peppers with garlic

To prepare this dish you can use both ordinary paprika and spicy chili. Necessary ingredients:

• Pepper - 6 pieces;
• Garlic - 4 cloves;
• Parsley - 6 branches;
• Olive oil - 3 tbsp. Spoons;
• Vinegar wine - 1 tbsp. a spoon;
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking process:

1. Pepper is well washed, get rid of the stalk and core.
2. Fry it whole in a heated frying pan, oiled with butter, to a crispy crust. Then you need to remove the fire to a minimum, cover the pepper with a lid and simmer for twenty minutes.
3. Grind the garlic and parsley, add salt, pepper and olive oil. Mix well.
4. At the bottom of the deep dishes put a layer of finished pepper, on top a layer of greens with butter, then again pepper and again sauce. In order for the dish to be well-minted, leave it for the night. Bulgarian cuisine suggests serving this snack in a cold form.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: first courses

The most common first dishes of Bulgarian cuisine, the recipes of which are presented below, are:

1. Tarator is a cold yogurt soup with vegetables, nuts and garlic. This dish is very popular in Bulgaria.
2. Shkembe chorba is a thick, rich soup made from scars (certain parts of the stomach of cattle). This dish should be seasoned with garlic, vinegar and pepper. The peculiarity of this soup is that it facilitates the course of hangover syndrome.

Tarator

To prepare this cold soup you will need the following ingredients:

• Cucumber - 500 grams;
• Yogurt drinking unsweetened - 800 grams;
• Sour cream - 250 grams;
• Chili pepper - ¼ pod;
• Walnuts - 100 grams;
• Garlic - 2 cloves;
• Coriander, dill - a few twigs;
• Vegetable oil - 100 grams.

Cooking process:

1. Wash cucumbers, peel and grate them on a coarse grater.
2. Put the resulting mass in a deep container, add drinking unsweetened yogurt and sour cream. Mix well.
3. Finely chop the peppers, coriander and dill. Transfer to a container with cucumbers and yogurt and mix.
4. Grind the garlic. Add it to the total mass together with vegetable oil. Mix.
5. Peel the nuts, bring them into the soup and mix again.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: main dishes

A compulsory attribute of food in this country is a large number of spices and seasonings. Most often, hot dishes of Bulgarian cuisine are prepared on the basis of meat and vegetables. The brightest and most popular are the following:

1. Chicken burek - stuffed pepper, baked in batter.
2. Musaka - casserole from potatoes and meat.
3. Gyuvech - meat, cheese and vegetables in pots, laid out in layers.
4. Kebapchetta - small sausages from pork or beef.
5. Sarmi - cabbage rolls made from grape or cabbage leaves.
6. Fracture in Selsk - lamb liver with rice.
7. Sirene Shopska in gyuveche - Bulgarian cheese in a shop in a pot with tomatoes and eggs.
8. Sach - a dish of several types of meat with various vegetables, which is prepared in a special large pan.
9. Svinska or pilka kavrma - roast in pots of pork or chicken, respectively.
10. Plakia is a fish stewed with vegetables.

Chushka burek. Stuffed pepper, baked in batter

To prepare this dish you will need the following ingredients:

• Bulgarian pepper - 6 pieces;
• Egg of chicken - 4 pieces;
• Siren - 300 grams;
• Flour for breading;
• breadcrumbs.

Cooking process:

1. At the pepper remove the core, leaving the vegetables whole and wash well.
2. Bake them in an oven, heated to 200 ° C, for twenty minutes until the condition of the darkened skin.
3. Put the hot pepper inside the plastic bag for fifteen minutes. After this time, peel the vegetables from the skin.
4. To prepare the filling, you should mash the Bulgarian cheese, lightly beat up two chicken eggs and mix these ingredients well.
5. For panning, separately beat up two more eggs.
6. Gently pepper the pepper, trying not to damage it. Slightly flatten vegetables for ease of frying. Roll the pepper in flour, then in the egg, after in the breadcrumbs for breading and again in the egg.
7. Fry the vegetables in a heated frying pan, greased with vegetable oil, until golden brown.

Sirens shop in the gyuveche. Bulgarian feta cheese in the shops in pots

For this dish you need to take the following:

• Siren - 500 grams;
• Tomato - 2 pieces;
• Bulgarian pepper - 1 piece;
• Egg of chicken - 6 pieces;
• Chili pepper - 6 pieces;
• Parsley;
• vegetable oil.

Cooking process:

1. Lubricate clay pots from the inside with vegetable oil. Lay on the bottom of the siren, then a layer of slices of tomatoes and chopped Bulgarian peppers, top with a vegetable oil.
2. Cook for 6-7 minutes in a well-heated oven, until the vegetables are allowed to juice.
3. Remove the pots, drive each egg into one egg, pour it with vegetable oil and insert a chili pepper into the middle.
4. Cook in the oven until the eggs are completely baked. Serve hot, pre-decorated with parsley.

Traditional Bulgarian cuisine: pastries and desserts

Perhaps the most famous Bulgarian pastry is banitza. This is the name for the national puff cake. Its filling can be both salty and sweet. But the principle of cooking in both cases is the same. Thinly rolled out dough is interspersed with layers of the appropriate filling, then all this is baked in the oven.

Also traditional Bulgarian pastry is represented by such dishes:

1. Pärlenki - thin bread, bread substitutes. Can be served both in pure form, and with the addition of garlic, siren or kashkaval.
2. Pitki - as well as peplenki, are used for food instead of bread. Additives are used similar. The only difference is that the cakes are much lush and softer.
3. Mekitsa - fried dough, which the Bulgarians eat for breakfast, adding to it sugar powder, jam, honey or sirens. This is a kind of national alternative to American donuts.

The most colorful desserts in Bulgaria are as follows:

• Mashed with honey and nuts - Bulgarian yoghurt with honey and nuts;
• Tikva with honey and nuts - pumpkin, baked with honey and nuts;
• Bulgarian halva.

Such baked goods and desserts are famous for Bulgarian cuisine. Recipes of some of these dishes are presented below.

The pictures. Grilled meats

These cakes are on the table instead of bread. For their preparation, the following ingredients are needed:

• Flour - 450 grams;
• Egg of chicken - 1 piece;
• Yogurt drinking unsweetened - 400 milliliters;
• Fresh yeast - 20 grams;
• Sugar - 1 teaspoon;
• Salt - 1 tablespoon;
• Soda - 1 pinch;
• Vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons.

Cooking process:

1. Of the ingredients listed, mix a fairly steep dough and place it in a warm place for 30 minutes.
2. Divide the dough and roll it into bread rolls one centimeter thick. Lubricate them with vegetable oil and grill. You can also bake peelings in the oven.

Milky Banits. Milk puff cake

Bulgarian cuisine involves serving this dessert chilled, cut into pieces. Necessary ingredients for the test:

• Flour - 400 grams;
• Egg of chicken - 1 piece;
• Vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon;
• Vinegar - 1 tablespoon;
• Water - 250 milliliters.

Necessary ingredients for pouring:

• Milk - 1 liter;
• Sugar - 250 grams;
• Butter - 150 grams;
• vanillin.

Cooking process:

1. From these ingredients, knead a soft, stretching dough.
2. Roll out very thin cakes. Each of them to grease with the melted butter, accurately to collect in a heap and these improvised florets to put in the oiled form for a batch next to each other.
3. Top with the remaining melted butter and bake in the oven at 170 ° C until golden.
4. In the meantime, you need to prepare a fill. To do this, heat the milk, pour in the sugar and stir until it dissolves completely.
5. Eggs beat well with a whisk, then pour the milk mixture in a thin trickle, without stopping the mixing. Add vanillin.
6. Pour the pastry mixture with the mixture and send it to the oven, preheated to 170 ° C until golden color is obtained.

What is true Bulgarian cuisine? Its peculiarities consist in the fact that vegetables, local cheeses and sour-milk products are widely used for preparing dishes. Also there is a lot of meat. Often used technology of cooking in pots. The given recipes of Bulgarian dishes are fairly simple to use, but the final result will surprise you with its unusualness and allow you to feel the taste of Bulgaria.