Gastronomy
With good “meze” goes a good aperitif! And is there a better one than home made plum brandy?! In this region well known as fruit-growing, where good quality plum grows, they make good rakija (brandy) “strong” and “weak”… It is a folk remedy, ease to the soul, it is music and a pain, inspiration and a problem.
Veal under sač: soft, juicy, melts in your mouth… During consummation of this dish you fall into blissful state of happiness and gourmet pleasure! Potential “gourmet” pangs of conscience occurring from dish prepared in this way soothes by rich side dish made of vegetables suggesting the pure health! To put sheep or veal over hot ashes, that is the question?
If good bite and good drop is what yo like, you are on the right spot! Way earlier than they heard of the word „brand“, Eraʼs had consumed their delicatessen and milk products not even doubting how many good „brends“ their diner table hides…Traditional and natural, healthy food is a trademark of the region of Uzice.
Pork or beef smoked ham, bacon, sausage, sheep prosciutto… or milk products: cheese, kaymak (clotted cream), milk curd are specialties from Uzice made in traditional way from top quality meat and whole milk. Along with homemade cornbread made from cornmeal, they represent usual appetizer from Uzice, here better known as “meze”. From scents and tastes of this fertile area arise multitude of delicacies which open the way to pure hedonism. Here you will learn that one does not eat only to satisfy their hunger, but to enjoy the food.
Cornbread/Polenta
You simply cannot skip cornbread and cornmeal polenta. Cornbread from Uzice, made from cornmeal ground in nearby water mill, collects the reminiscences of mountain rocks and rivers. Baked in a wood stove, with its golden crunchy crust, cornbread deserves its epithet of homemade specialty.
Polenta – powerful, tasty and healthy! Better than any cornflakes or cereals. It can be consumed either only with milk, only with kaymak, only with cheese, or all together, or with some combination of listed ingredients, or as you like it.
Prepare Your Own Polenta
Pour two liters of water into a vessel, add one spoon of fat or oil, salt according to your taste, and put on the stove till boiling point. While the water is boiling concoct ½ kg of cornmeal. While pouring cornmeal into the water, stir constantly with wooden scoop until polenta begins to detach from the vessel. Pour it in deeper bowl, pour milk over it. You can serve polenta separately, and you can serve cheese, kaymak, butterfat if you will. It is served while still hot.
Bone appetite!
Traditional Product “Buns With All” From Uzice
To make one “buns with all” you will need:
1 bun
1 egg
1 spoonful of old kaymak (clotted cream) from Uzice
4 spoonfuls of mixed pork and sheep gravy (you can find it in every meat roasting shop).
Wood stove (preferably type “smederevac”, you can use electric stove but we don’t guarantee for the full pleasure). Cut off the upper part of the bun. Apply kaymak to the bottom part of the bun. Break an egg and apply it over the kaymak. Use fork to whisk kaymak and egg and carefully smear the mixture all over the bun. Prick the bun with the fork so that it can better absorb the scrambled mixture. Put the bun in the stove of “smederevac”. Once it’s baked, pour the mixed pork and sheep gravy over the bun as well as its cover.
Preparing Bread Bun
To get a dough, mix flour and salt. Put yeast and sugar in hot water and let it rise. Add the oil and the yeast into the dough. Put it on the warm place to rise. Divide the dough into four parts and make a bun from each of them. Bake it in oiled baking pan in the oven of “smederevac” or wood oven. Under no circumstances you should do in an electric stove.
The dough
500g of flour
250ml of hot water
3 spoonfuls of oil
1 teaspoon of salt ½ teaspoon of sugar
1 bag of yeast Serve with milk curd.
Bon appetite!
How to Properly Consume It?
Consume it exclusively with bare hands, without cutlery! Slowly nip little pieces of the cover and gently dip it into the gravy and baked egg with kaymak. Once you have finished with the cover, apply the same procedure to the bun. Signs of correct bun consuming are smudgy hands and chin. Under no circumstance should you bite it like hamburger (with cover and bun closed together). Don’t add smoked ham, kebab or any other thing into flat bread bun from Uzice! Considering the timing for consummation of this specialty, only ignorant would tell you that it is to be eaten in the morning, for the breakfast. No! Appropriate time is anytime throughout the day and night. Believe me the best time for it is around 2 a.m., after a good party, concert or some similar event! If you don’t believe, walk past some bakery in Uzice at that time.
Smoked Ham – Prosciutto
Smoked ham from Uzice, traditional specialty from Uzice region, has long ago exceeded local boundaries and became one of best known Serbian brands. The secret lies in the nature without whose active participation no traditional specialty from Uzice could not be imagined. But there is something in the secret of th traditional craft as well, and in family manufactures that in addition to smoked ham (pork and beef) offer other specialties as well: Uzice sausage, sheep prosciutto, kavurma (lamb or pig intestines)…
Kaymak From Uzice
Old or young, sour or salty, kaymak from Uzice is gourmet dream! Mountain pastures and clear air explain that irresistible taste of kaymak from Uzice. One can distinguish two types of kaymak: young kaymak with mild taste and older, with stronger taste and yellowish color. This high quality creamy milk product is made in households in traditional way. Quality milk and peculiar traditional way of its preparation made kaymak from Uzice a unique delicacy.
Grandma’s Pantry
Marking eternal gratitude to our grandmothers and grand-grandmothers and their immense love, we praise homemade pie crusts, savory and sweet, homemade slatko (fruit preserves), jam, marmalade, fresh and dried fruit, homemade cookies, salašnjaci (pastry made from lard), doughnuts, lazy pie, sponge cake… Special treat are sun dried plum, used for sweetest stewed fruit, strudels and pies. Here fruit garden of Eden transfuse into tasteful and healthy homemade juices, without preservatives and additives.
