Bulgarian cuisine is tasty, spicy and varied, appealing to one and all. You can enjoy the abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits, juicy meat, vegetarian dishes, the banitsa (cheese pie) and famous Bulgarian yoghurt .
The Bulgarian "culinary" geography abounds in delicious specialties and exotic dishes: Bansko-style kapama (meat and vegetables stewed in an earthenware dish), Rhodope cheverme (lamb roasted on a spit over an open fire), Thracian katmi (a special type of pancake) and Dobroudjanska banitsa . The cosy, typically Bulgarian folk-style restaurants will tempt you with Shopska salad and chilled grape brandy , stuffed vine leaves or peppers, moussaka and kebab . Thinly sliced loukanka (flat dry sausage) from Smyadovo , pastarma , yellow cheese are temptingly arranged on ceramic plates. The delicate white wines Dimyat , Misket and Riesling are followed by full reds such as Merlot, Cabernet and Gamza.
Ingredients: 1kg flour, 1 kg spinach, 300 g white brined cheese, 1 ½ cupful of yoghurt, 200 g butter, one spoon sunflower oil, one spoonful vinegar, salt.
Cook the cleaned and finely cut spinach in some of the butter. After having cooled, stir in the crumbled cheese and yoghourt. Knead hard dough from the flour, oil, vinegar, salt and water. Roll into five sheets (1 kg of ready rolled pastry sheets may also be used). Line a baking dish with butter, place one sheet on the bottom and top with the spinach filling. Add a second sheet, filling, and so on. Baste the uppermost pastry sheet with melted butter. Bake in a moderate oven.
The same recipe may be used for making banitsa with leeks.
Ingredients: 3-4 tomatoes, one cucumber, 4-5 peppers, one onion, 150g brined sheep's cheese, parsley, vinegar, sunflower oil and salt.
Bake, peel and seed the peppers. Cut into small strips and add the diced tomatoes, cucumbers and onion. Add salt, oil and vinegar, and mix. Serve in the shape of a pyramid, top with finely chopped parsley and grated cheese.
Ingredients: 2-3 cucumbers, 500 g yoghurt, ½ cup walnuts, 3-4 cloves garlic, dill, sunflower oil and salt.
Beat the yoghurt; add the crushed garlic, ground walnuts, finely diced cucumbers, oil and salt. Stir and dilute with cold water. Serve sprinkled with finely chopped dill.