A Bosnian Table

Bosnian Coffee

It's always so delightfully satisfying to experience Bosnian hospitality! On my recent visit to a home bound friend who is originally from Bosnia, I was treated, as always, like a very important person the second I took off my shoes and walked through the door.

The coffee was put on the table in minutes and the small plates with heaps of meat, cheese, and a ridiculous choice of beverages soon followed.

Bosnians love their mid morning or afternoon snacks or meze and are very fond of indulging guests with food, drink and song or story telling.

An important prerequisite is definitely home made suho meso, beef that is slowly smoked and cured and a standard in most homes especially in the fall and winter season. This arrived first.

While I sipped some strong coffee and enjoyed some fragrant sliced meat, the  smell of  frying wafted out of the kitchen and soon enough, gorgeous lepinje appeared, hot and greasy from the cooking oil.

                                            



My visit would not be complete without some sort of sweet, either. A little bit ill from too much meat and starch already ingested I was never the less hoping for something I hardly ever make at home like Baklava, which is, I think, the most well known of the Bosnian delicacies.

Hurmasice

Fatima brought out Hurmasice instead, a recipe I know well because my grandmother passed hers on to me. She made hers with butter, but most of the women I know make it with vegetable oil.

 Here is the standard recipe:
4 small cups each of flour, oil, sugar,
4 eggs
1 packet of baking powder
Mix together till dough like paste forms and shape into appx 4 inch ovals
Bake at 375 till golden brown

Syrup:
4 cups sugar
4 1/2 cups water
1/2 lemon
4 cloves
Bring to a boil
cool for 10 minutes and pour over warm hurmasice