Gibanica (pronounced “geebanitsa”) is the very reason I have a business and a book today – it’s the pie that started it all. It was lovingly made on repeat by my maternal grandmother, recreated by me and now, through my shop Mystic Burek, has many variations. The original “recipe”, if you can call it that (it’s more a scribble in a notebook that was passed down to me), is a testament to skilled hands: just like my mum and my aunties, she felt food between her fingers, with no measurements, no timers – just natural, ancestral cooking. After many tests, this version is the closest I have come to honouring her and all those other women before me.
Crunchy potatoes with fried pepper cream (pictured top)
This is perfect both for a low-key TV dinner and for a more crowded-table kind of affair. The peppers will spit as they cook, so treat yourself to a mesh cover for your frying pan; it’s a staple tool in many Balkan homes.
Prep 10 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 4
Vegetable or sunflower oil, for frying
4 sweet, red pointed peppers, such as romano
4 long green peppers
For the pepper cream
2 red bell peppers, stalks, pith and seeds removed, flesh roughly chopped
1 green bell pepper, stalk, pith and seeds removed, flesh roughly chopped
4 pickled onions
200ml creme fraiche
Salt and black pepper
For the onion dressing
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
12 pickled onions, finely sliced
1 bunch parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped
2 tsp olive oil
For the crunchy potatoes
500g new potatoes, unpeeled
300ml vegetable oil
Put a little oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat, add the whole red and green long peppers, and fry for five to eight minutes, until they start to soften. Transfer the peppers to an airtight container (or wrap them in clingfilm) and set aside for 20 minutes to soften further.
Meanwhile, put all the ingredients for the pepper cream in a food processor and blend smooth. Season to taste, then transfer to a platter, cover and put in the fridge to set (this can be done up to a day in advance).
Put the softened whole red and green long peppers in a bowl, add all the ingredients for the onion dressing, season with salt to taste, then toss gently.
To make the crunchy potatoes, boil the potatoes in a large saucepan for 10–15 minutes, until tender but not falling apart. Drain and leave to cool completely.
Put the 300g oil in a large saucepan on a medium-high heat and leave to heat up for eight minutes. Gently press down on each potato with your hand, so it flattens but doesn’t fall apart. Working in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan, carefully drop the potatoes into the hot oil and fry for five minutes, turning them halfway, until super-crisp, then transfer to a tray lined with kitchen paper to drain.
Take the platter of pepper cream out of the fridge, arrange the dressed peppers on top and serve with the potatoes.
Gibanica (egg and cheese filo pie)
This Balkan egg-and-cheese pie has a fluffy, soft middle and a crunchy, flaky pastry exterior. It’s been a real challenge to decipher my grandmother’s so-called “recipes”, and although it has left me pulling my hair out at times, it has also made me giggle – was the plan all along to ensure that no one could ever make it quite the same?I use a 25cm round cake tin for my gibanica, but use any size or shape you have to hand. Just bear in mind that the thinner the pie, the less cooking it will need.
Prep 5 min
Cook 1 hr
Cool 20 min
Serves 8
8 eggs
300g plain cottage cheese
Salt
120ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
200g feta, crumbled
500g filo pastry
Sparkling water, for sprinkling
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4. Whisk six of the eggs in a large bowl until fluffy, add the cottage cheese, a teaspoon of salt, 70ml of the oil and the feta, and stir to combine. Take the filo out of its packaging, lay it on a chopping board or clean work surface, then cover with a damp towel, so it doesn’t dry out.
Whisk the remaining two eggs with the remaining 50ml oil and season with a little salt. Oil the base and sides of a 25cm round cake tin and lay a sheet of filo in the bottom, bunching it up the sides of the tin. Brush with the egg and oil mixture, then repeat with three more filo sheets.
Carefully scrunch up three sheets of pastry to create some layers, then arrange these in the tin. Sprinkle with a little sparkling water, then cover with some of the egg and cheese mixture. Repeat until you have three sheets of pastry left. Layer the final three sheets of pasty on the top of the tin, brushing each one with the egg and oil mixture as you go, to create a crust.
Bake for 45 minutes, then remove and leave to cool for five minutes. Carefully remove the pie from its tin and put it on four or five upturned glasses of equal height, so the steam dissipates – this will ensure it has a crisp bottom. Leave to cool for another 15 minutes, then slice and serve.
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These recipes are edited extracts from Doma: Traditional Flavours and Modern Recipes from the Balkan Diaspora, by Spasia Dinkovski, published by Dorling Kindersley at £22. To order a copy for £19.36, go to guardian.bookshop.com
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