Saturday I hosted a dinner party with a great group of friends. We get together every other month and watch a movie, and prepare a meal based on a theme. We've done Julia Child (Julie & Julia - recipes from The Art of French Cooking) and Giada De Laurentiis (Under the Tuscan Sun - all Giada recipes). When it came for me to host I wanted to expose the group to Croatian food. Not a lot of people are familiar with it, and it is fabulous. There's not a Food Network chef (or any other one that I could think of off hand) we could dedicate the night to, but I have three Croatian cookbooks and knew it could be done.
I think the group was a little taken aback when I suggested it - but they humored me and followed the theme anyway. Croatian cooking reflects it's diverse geography and history. Croatia is in Eastern Europe, it has a rich culture and history as part of the Roman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, as well as being part of former Yugoslavia. They do a lot of seafood - a large part of their geography is along the Adriatic coast, and then their continental cuisine is rich in lamb, chicken, pork and beef. Fresh produce plays a big part of their meals as well. Due to shellfish allergies (and the lack of availability of really fresh Sea Bass or Squid in a land locked stated 1/2 way across the world from Croatia) we did a more continental dinner - which is fitting as it would be more similar to what would be cooked in homes near the capital city of Zagreb - the region where the hubs' family lives.
OK - enough background... on to dinner! We started at noon. I thought this was a little early, but a lot of the dishes, while easy to prepare are time consuming. We had three appetizers, a soup, salad, main course and dessert.
For the appetizer Leibe prepared a Swiss Cheese and Radish Dip (Umak od svicarskog sira i rotkvica)as well as a Roulade of Smoked Salmon (Rulada od dimlejenog lososa) and Colin made a Mushroom, Bacon and Pepper Dip (Umak od gljiva, slanine i paprike). Each of the appetizers was really good. I must admit - I hate radishes... so when I found out that one of the apps was going to feature them, I was a little hesitant. But, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was!
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| Swiss Cheese and Radish Dip Umak od svicarskog sira i rotkvica |
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| Roulade of Smoked Salmon Rulada od dimlejenog lososa |
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| Mushroom, Bacon and Pepper Dip Umak od gljiva, slanine i paprike |
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| Peasant-Style Vegetable Soup Seoska juha od povraca |
Caroline's soup had a great flavor. With everything pureed together it was smooth and the baby loved the left overs! This is a soup that can be used either as we had it - a prelude to a meal - or it could easily stand on it's own as a meal itself during a crisp fall day. Couple it with a heart bread and you have yourself a meal!
Course three was Joanne's Spinach, Pear and Pomegranate Salad with toasted walnuts and feta. Since pomegranate is hard to find this time of year, she substituted dried cranberries. The contrast of flavors and textures in this salad was really good - and I will say, I'd like to eat just the walnuts (toasted in olive oil) as a snack anytime!
Main course time came around and it was my turn. In selecting items, I wanted something different - that you wouldn't have every day, but still reflected meals the hubs would have back home. He tells stories of how they would frequently roast meat over a spit outside. Well, I wasn't going to build a spit in the backyard; however, slow roasted lamb is something not a lot of people cook and I thought it would be a treat to make for the group. The recipe I chose was Leg of Lamb Banovina Style (Banovacki janjeci but) which is leg of lamb seasoned by inserting slices of bacon, rosemary and garlic into small slits in the meat and then roasted at medium heat for about 2.5 hours. You serve it with a gravy and it suggested a potato side dish. Which I did Potatoes Braised with Spinach (Krumpir sa spinatom). Both of these recipes were from either the region he is from, or a neighboring region. I had him look at them in the cookbook and he said that yes, that would be something they would occasionally make there. So I was sure to be authentic!Somehow I neglected to take a picture of our dessert, but let me tell you it was excellent! Kirsten treated us to a Hazelnut Cream Cake (Krem torta od ljesnjaka) and I brewed some Turkish Coffee (Turska kava) , we enjoyed dessert while watching our movie Harrison's Flowers - about an American photojournalist who goes missing during the war in the early 1990's.
Of course, what dinner party isn't complete without wine? Croatian wine is hard to come by here, unless you order it from the internet and pay more for shipping than you do for the wine. I did, however, luck out and find a store in town that could get some Croatian red wine. We had this with our salad and main course. And, I bought some Cockta (a Croatian drink similar to Coca-Cola), which we made Bambus with. Bambus is a mix of part Cockta and part red wine. It sounds weird - but it's very good.
Hopefully by eating the food and watching the movie they learned a little more about that area of the world. And what it brings to the table!
yummy!! and the kokta was a nice touch =)
ReplyDeleteI think your geographically-themed dinner parties are a fabulous idea in general, but especially since you got to share some of your husband's culture. (Would that be your culture-in-law?)
ReplyDeleteMy dinner parties usually consist of thawing something out or "breakfast for dinner". Yeah, I need to up my "foodie" level. :-)
Well, I think "foodie" still might be a bit of a stretch to describe me.... maybe "aspiring foodie".
ReplyDeleteAlthough, maybe one day someone will be bored enough to stumble by my random posts on food and decide to pay me to be a food critic. That would be awesome... Getting paid to eat, my dream job! lol.