Here is a selection of some Croatian recipes you can try in your own home.
Croatian recipes from all over the web
Here are some useful recipes for traditional Croatian dishes, desserts and other items:
“
- Travel to Croatia with my great aunt’s strudel recipe” (SBS
- Ajvar – traditional red pepper cream (Honest Cooking
- Croatian recipe for fresh fig cake by the well-known Rick Stein (Daily Mail)
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Croatian recipesfor you to try
Croatian food are usually simple peasant food, which is easy to prepare but delicious. Croatian Adriatic people eat foods that are very similar to Italian cuisine. As the authors come from northern Croatia (Koprivnica, northeast of Zagreb), where the dishes are similar to those of Central Europe (Austro-Hungarian), here are some recipes for typical foods of that region. Keep in mind that some recipes are simplified to cook quickly, and normally people in Croatia would not think of using canned or prepared items.
But, keep reading, here are some Croatian recipes for you to try!
Croatian Recipes
– Soups
Croatians love to start their meals with a tasty soup! Here are a few different options.
Quick bean stew (for 4 people)
Heat the oil in a pan. Add the chopped vegetables and sauté until tender. Take a pot, empty the beans along with the vegetables in it, put the sausages inside and cook for another 20 minutes over low heat. Or, put it in an oven and bake it at a temperature of 180ºC / 350ºF for 30 minutes. This dish is reheated even better the next day.
Mushroom soup with buckwheat Chop the onion and garlic, cut the
mushrooms and wash the buckwheat
. Heat the oil and lightly sauté the onion. Add the mushrooms and garlic and continue sautéing. Add salt, vegetable seasoning, buckwheat and bay leaf and cover with water. Simmer gently and just before it is fully cooked, add pepper, sour cream mixed with flour, chopped parsley and vinegar to taste.
Italian
Minestrone Istrian Style (sleeps 4)
Here is an Istrian version of the popular Italian peasant soup
. Put the spare beans and ribs in a pot of water.
After an hour and a half, when the beans are almost ready, add the fresh sweet corn (canned will do), diced and chopped tomatoes and peppers, bay leaf and onions that were slowly browned in oil. Mix everything together in the pot. Ten minutes before serving, add the pasta and finish simmering.
Croatian Recipes – Main Courses
Sausage and potato casserole
Peel and cut the potatoes, cut the bacon and
sausage
and
chop the onion, garlic and parsley. Heat some vegetable oil and sauté the sliced bacon, onion and sausage. Sprinkle with red paprika and add the potatoes, vegetable seasoning, bay leaf and salt and pepper. Sprinkle with flour, stir well and add the necessary amount of water. Boil gently until potatoes have softened. Add the chopped parsley and garlic and, if desired, add 200 ml (8 fluid ounces) of sour cream. Bring to a short boil and serve.
Fresh sardines or anchovies
This simple dish is very popular in Croatia and is eaten as a light lunch, usually with a piece of bread and a glass of red wine
. Wash the fish under the cold tap.
Roll the flour and fry in oil until crispy. Lie on a kitchen towel to get rid of excess oil and serve hot or cold with a slice of lemon.
Half a
pig stem Podravina style
Wash and dry the
halves of the stem and rub with a mixture of salt and pepper and vegetable seasoning. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and set aside for at least an hour before roasting. Chop the onion and garlic.
Place the meat in a roasting can and spread with hot oil. Put the meat in the oven, preheated to 200ºC (392ºF) and cook for about 2-2.5 hours, depending on the size of the reeds. Turn the meat over from time to time, soiling it in its own juices and occasionally adding a little hot water to keep the roast juicy. When the roast is half done, add the onion and garlic to the roasting can. Just before cooking, pour the meat broth over the meat. When cooked, place the stem halves in a hot dish. Stir the flour in the roasted juices, boil briefly, add the wine, boil again and strain the juices and pour over the roast meat.
Served with boiled potatoes, sauerkraut or sour turnip and accompanied by a glass of good red wine, this is a dish to savor long after being eaten.
Meatloaf – burek
This dish, of Turkish origin, is very popular in Croatia as a light meal that people buy to eat on the go. There is also a soft cheese version.
Fry finely chopped onions and minced meat in oil. Add salt and pepper. Grease a round baking sheet and put a layer of dough on it. Cover with a thin layer of filling and cover this with another layer of phyllo dough that should be well coated in oil. Put another layer of filling and cover with cake. When it has five or six layers, cover with phyllo dough, bake at 200ºC / 392ºF for half an hour and cut into quarters and serve.
Dalmatian style cod (sleeps 4)
Soak dried cod in warm water for an hour. Remove from the water and beat the fish with a wooden mallet to make it slightly tender. Put it back in the warm water overnight, before beating it once more to make it more tender. Scrape the scales and rinse them under the tap. Cook until soft, then cool and remove the bones and cut them into slices. Season with salt, pepper, chopped parsley and garlic and add some broth in which the fish was cooked. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Serve with polenta or boiled or mashed potatoes.
Croatian Recipes –
DessertsCheck out our delicious krostule recipe too!
Nine-layer cake (known as “Bregovska pita” or “gibanica devet vrsti” in some regions)Prepare
a baking can (20 x 40 cm / 8 x 16 inches). Grind the nuts and poppy seeds. Clean and wash raisins and put them in rum to soak. Melt the butter. Clean, wash, peel and grate apples. Beat the eggs.
Place two leaves of dough in the buttered baking pan, sprinkle with melted butter, with half of the ground nuts, sugar and cinnamon and cover a tablespoon of sour cream.
Second layer: another two cake leaves, sprinkled with melted butter, half of the grated apples, sugar, cinnamon and sour cream.
Third layer: pastry leaves, sprinkled butter, half of the raisins, sugar and sour cream.
Fourth layer: pastry leaves, sprinkled butter, half of ground poppy seeds, sugar, cinnamon, sour cream. Repeat the sequence of layers until the final layer (the eighth), which contains ground poppy seeds, and cover with two cake leaves. Next, mix the beaten eggs with the remaining sour cream and pour this mixture over the dough. Pierce the cake in several places with a fork and bake for about 50-60 minutes at 200ºC/392ºF.
Walnut roll (Orehnjaca or Orehova Potica in Slovenia)
Mix all the ingredients for the dough together and knead well. Cover the dough and put it to mount until it doubles in size, which should take about 2 hours. Pull the dough back and knead slightly.
Divide the dough into two equal pieces; roll each piece into an oblong one about 12 inches by 8 inches. Mix the filling ingredients and divide between the dough, spreading over each piece. Roll the oblongs as tight as possible to give two 12-inch sausages. Place them side by side, touching each other, on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise for about 40 minutes. Heat oven to 200ºC (425ºF). Bake for 30-35 minutes until well raised and golden brown. The bread should sound hollow when the base is hit.
Remove from the oven and brush the hot bread with milk. Sift with a generous coating of icing sugar.
Chocolate cake
Set the oven to 190ºC/375ºF. Butter and flour in a 9/10-inch cake can. Separate the egg whites and yolks. Beat the yolks, adding the sugar and lemon juice, until the mixture is very thick and creamy. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them on the yolks, adding the grated chocolate, almonds and breadcrumbs alternately. Fold the grated bark at the end.
Bake for 50 or 60 minutes. When finished, let it cool a little before removing the cake from the can. Place it on a rack to cool completely.
Black cherry
cake
Set oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt. Butter and flour a rectangular can for cakes. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Separate the whites and yolks and beat the egg whites.
Beat the yolks in the butter mixture one at a time. Add the melted chocolate once it has cooled slightly and add the flour and egg whites alternately. Spread the mixture in the cake pan and place the top with cherries, without pressing them down, as they will sink on their own. You can stone the cherries or leave them whole, depending on what you want. Bake for 40/45 minutes. Let cool in the pan and cut into slices when cold.
