The main meal for Albanians is lunch. This usually consists of a stew - slowly cooked meat and vegetables as well as a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and olives. In some localities smoked meat and pickled preserves are popular along with animals organs such as intestines and the head! Dairy products are also eaten along with bread and alcoholic drinks such as Rakai. The food is basically Mediterranean influenced by Greek, Turkish and Italian cooking.
It was quite tricky choosing which dishes to cook for this challenge. Everything seemed pretty similar - stewy! We found some lamb in the supermarket in Mahone Bay so it had to be some type of lamb stew. In the end we decided to go with Tave Kosi - baked lamb with rice, it sounded interesting! Fergese seems to be a national dish and was going to provide the vegetable accompaniment. Then I found a recipe for Albania bread and we were ready to go!
I have never mastered the art of bread making but boosted by the success of our Afghan flat breads I decided to have a go at these Albanian bread rolls.
Basically the recipes is what you'd expect from a bread recipe but I was encouraged by the photos on the website that showed the authors mother on her knees on the floor kneading the dough! Personally I went for the food mixer approach! I was excited to see the dough rising and nicely crusty rolls emerging from the oven sometime later! I had put a tray of water in the oven to create the steam needed to help develop the crust and it had certainly worked.
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| With only two dishes to prepare the kitchen didn't become quite so chaotic! |
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| Prepping the vegetable dish - even though I had read the recipe a few times it wasn't until I actually came to cook it that I realised the peppers should have been pre-roasted! I decided to peel the tomatoes even though it wasn't mentioned - that's why they are floating in water in the photo. |
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| So the dishes are ready for the oven. Tave Kosi on the left and Fergese e Tiranes me piperka on the right. Yes they do look very similar don't they!
Tave Kosi contains cubes of sauteed lamb, garlic, oregano, the tiniest bit of rice (15g) Greek yoghurt and an egg. You had to make a roux and then add the yoghurt and then the egg - I was so sure that the egg was going to scramble but I whisked like mad and the sauce became quite smooth! phew!!!!
Fergese is made with roasted peppers, onions, feta cheese, tomatoes, chilli fakes, Greek yoghurt and basil. It can be made with liver too - but we didn't have any! Once again I found myself making a roux but this time I had to gradually add the feta - it was meant to melt but it seemed to want to stick to the pan instead! I guess Nova Scotian feta is different from Albanian! Anyway I took the pan off the heat and added it more slowly and it did begin to soften. Then I added the yoghurt to make a smoothish sauce which was then combined with the peppers, tomatoes and softened onions.
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| Our Albanian feast is ready! |
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| Tave Kosi - the sauce had become quite firm giving a sort of quiche texture. (Apparently it's meant to be like souffle!!!But I didn't read that until after I had made it!) I tasted ok although I think I may have overcooked the lamb when I was sauteing it. Luckily I had only made a quarter of the recipe which was meant to serve 8 people so there were no left overs. click here for a recipe for Tavi Kosi |
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| Fergese e tiranes me piperka - the dish was delicious and the chilli gave an unexpected kick! The feta, peppers and tomatoes combined well and had a very Mediterranean flavour. click here for a recipe for Fergese
It was mid week so we had water with our meal not an Albanian beverage. Albanians make wine but their traditional drink is Rakai which is an anise flavoured drink. We did look online for it at NSLC but they don't stock it!
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