Author: Jasmina Brozović

Foodies+ Christmas Recipes from Around the World

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

It’s a fabulous project with amazing people for a worthy cause!

And it feels great to be a part of it. Joined with over dozen people with their Christmas traditions, Zvonimir and I are very happy to present Croatian Christmas to the world 🙂

foodieschristmasrecipesbook

If you ever wondered what different people all over the world traditionally eat at Christmas time, this book is here to answer that burning question of yours 😉
It also gets you head in and hands on to experiencing it. Wanna change things a bit this Christmas? Or just make weekend cuisine memorable leading up to your Christmas traditional? It’s really up to you.

This book is more than a Christmas present or a great cookbook. With all proceeds going to Action Against Hunger, this, more than 400 pages book, with almost 100 recipes from all around the world, is a piece of art with charitable note. Action Against Hunger is a global organization that aims to save the lives of malnourished children in over 40 countries. You can feel a little bit better about yourself while you’re celebrating.

It is a privilege to be a co-author along with great contributors such as Azlin Bloor, Lisa Watson, Nomad Dimitri, Joy Stewart, Shana Shameer and Indrani Sen. Their food knowledge and experience is priceless 🙂

Available on Kindle on your favourite Amazon site: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon AUS.

Book Contents

Supporting Cast
Starters, Soups, Sides, Stuffing, Sauces and Gravies

The Main Performance
We’re not just talking turkey, baby!

La Dolce Vita
Because Life should always be sweet!

Time for a Tipple
Always Happy Hour somewhere, right?

Feeding a Crowd
Canapés and other party food for the planned and uninvited guests!

Gifts from the Kitchen
The way to anyone’s culinary heart!

Menu Suggestions
And Basic Recipes, because we pay attention to detail!

Available on Kindle on your favourite Amazon site: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon AUS.

Bon appétit!

Chocolate Chip Cake

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Are you a fan of chocolate chip cookies? Well, this cake is going to knock your socks off!

It’s moist and spongy, with a touch of cinnamon and crunchy chocolate chips! Simple to make and it doesn’t take much time, which makes it a perfect treat for unexpected guests. I made it for a colleague for her birthday couple of weeks ago and everybody in my office loved it! Now I have to make another batch 😀

Chocolate Chip Cake 2

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Cake

  • 3 eggs – refrigerated
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 1/3 cups sour cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract or 10 g vanilla sugar
  • 1 bag dark chocolate chips – around 250 g divided in two

Preparation

Mix the eggs with the electric mixer on high speed with sugar and vanilla extract until foamy.
Add melted butter and sour cream and keep mixing until combined.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add flour mixture and mix until combined.

Spray the baking sheet with cooking spray and pour in half the batter. Sprinkle with one portion of chocolate chips and 1 tsp of cinnamon.
Pour the remaining batter and sprinkler with the rest of the chocolate chips and cinnamon.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 min on 350 °F.

Enjoy 🙂

Apple Crumble Pie

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Apples are in season, and that makes perfect timing for all types of apple cakes, tarts, pies, strudels and other apple based goodness… I made mine with maple syrup and it makes all the difference. I am Canadian after all 😀

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Apple Crumble Pie

Tools you need

  • Mixing bowls to mix the dough in 😀
  • Chef’s knife comes handy for cutting the apples
  • Cutting board; also useful for cutting apples
  • Make sure saucepan is big enough for all the apples!
  • Round tart pan. I recommend two piece pan for easy slicing
  • Peeler. Great tool when you need to peel something, like apples 😉
  • Measuring spoons because it’s baking, and measuring is the name of the game 😉
  • Measuring cup. See previous point.
  • Kitchen scale because baking is a fine art and perfection is a little bit more reachable when you quantify things
  • Kitchen mittens. Things get hot in the oven. Burns hurt and take time to heal. You don’t want to take time off from baking, do you?

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry (2x)

  • 220 g pastry flour
  • 50 g sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 130 g cold butter, diced
  • 1 egg, beaten

For the filling

Make two balls of dough with the same ingredients. One ball of dough will be for the bottom of the pie and the other for the top.

In the bowl mix together flour, salt and sugar until combined. Add butter, and mix until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually stream beaten egg into the flour mixture and knead until the dough just comes together. Turn out the dough onto a clean work surface and shape into a flattened disk. One ball wrap in transparent foil and refrigerate for 25-30 minutes and the other one wrap in transparent foil and put in the freezer!

Peel, clean and cut the apples into small cubes. Put them in a medium saucepan, pour over the maple syrup, add cinnamon and vanilla sugar. Simmer the apples over the low heat until soft.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180 °C. Butter a 26 cm round tart pan.
Roll the chilled dough from a refrigerator on a piece of lightly floured baking paper in a 30 cm circle. Transfer the rolled dough to your tart pan and press it into the bottom and sides of the pan. Cut off excess dough and prick the bottom with a fork.

Pour over the apple filling. Take the dough form the freezer and grate in on top of the filling. Sprinkle with oatmeal.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the dough becomes golden brown.

Enjoy 🙂

Ginger Lemonade

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

We had lemons, we had ginger, we had fresh mint. It was summer.

Ginger Lemonade

Refreshing summer drink with tangy ginger lemon kick smoothed by the honey sweetness. You can make more and have it refrigerated for couple of days. It is nice to have something this tasty handy on a hot summer day 😀

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
  • juice of 2 lemons
  • 4 tablespoons honey
  • 2 sprigs of fresh mint
  • 1l fresh water
  • 500 ml of ice cubes

Preparation

Grate fresh ginger, then squeeze the juice of 2 lemons.
Dissolve honey in the water, then add ginger, lemon juice, ice cubes and mint sprigs.

Enjoy 🙂

Beef Stew with Polenta

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

We planned to make a traditional beef stew. We added some Mediterranean spices and pelati. We got stew Dalmatian way 😀
Anyway, try making this dish by replacing beef with octopus, squid or other seafood and you will get a genuine Dalmatian brudet.

(Zvonimir: Jasmina wanted a stew, I was in a mood for brudet, so we compromised 😀 )

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Beef stew with polenta

Tools you need

Ingredients

  • 600 g of beef chopped in small cubes
  • 2 chopped onions
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • salt and pepper
  • 4-5 small tomatoes – pelati
  • 1.5 l of water
  • 2-3 bay leaves
  • 2 tbsp of chopped parsley
  • 1 tbsp bread crumbs
  • mixed dry seasoning: thyme, marjoram, rosemary, basil and oregano
  • 2 tbsp of sunflower oil

Preparation

Fry chopped onions and garlic on oil.
Add meat, salt, pepper and fry until golden brown, then add parsley and bay leaf with mixed seasoning.

Mix well and add pelati and water. Cook for about 40 minutes to an hour until the meat gets soft and tender.
Finally add a tablespoon of bread crumbs and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Add more spices or salt as desired.
Cook to the boiling point.

Polenta

Ingredients

  • 50 g of corn meal
  • 1 l of water
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • pepper to taste

Preparation

Boil the water, add salt and oil.
Gently pour the cornmeal into the boiling water, stirring constantly, to avoid creating lumps.
Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning polenta.

Serve the stew with polenta by pouring the stew over the polenta. Lettuce seasoned with vinaigrette makes a great addition to a complete meal.

Enjoy 🙂

Hot Cheesy Crab Dip

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Great party food or a perfect snack for a movie night!

I tried it at work when my colleague was nice enough to share her lunch with me (it’s a nice lunch too). I immediately fell in love with it and made some for Zvonimir and me the next weekend for our movie night. The dip is full of flavor and blends perfectly with crispy crackers.

Experiment and report back on your findings 😉

Crab Dip

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cream cheese
  • 1/3 cup mayonnaise
  • 1-1/2 cups shredded Italian cheese mix: Provolone, Mozzarella, Parmesan and Emmental
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 120 g crab meat, drained

Serve with crackers and/or fresh cut-up vegetables (carrots, celery sticks…). Don’t forget a glass of fine wine 😉

Preparation

  1. Heat oven to 350°F.
  2. Mix cream cheese product and dressing until blended.
  3. Reserve 1 tbsp each shredded cheese and onions for garnish.
  4. Add remaining shredded cheese, onions and crab meat to cream cheese mixture and mix well.
  5. Spread onto bottom of baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
  6. Bake for 15 min, stirring after 10 min.
  7. Garnish with reserved shredded cheese and onions.

Let’s get dipping! 🙂

Red & Yellow Cocktails

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Red for Z and yellow for me! 😀

Red and Yellow Cocktails

What do you get when you have bunch of fruit, some alcohol, mint leaves, lime, ice, ginger ale and two curious foodies?

FUN TIMES! 😀

Experimenting with various flavours and trying to figure out the right measurements for the perfect taste made super fun times. Although, experimenting like this can get you tipsy pretty soon, so watch out 😉

This is what we come up with, we hope you are going to enjoy it as much as we did.

Yellow Cocktail with lime, mango and kiwi

Red Cocktail

  • 150 ml apple cider
  • 150 ml ginger ale
  • few drops of lime
  • couple of crushed mint leaves
  • 3-4 medium strawberries
  • 1 ripe kiwi
  • ice cubes

Yellow Cocktail

  • 150 ml bubbly wine
  • 150 ml ginger ale
  • few drops of lime juice + a slice of lime for decoration
  • couple of crushed mint leaves
  • mint ice cubes (add mint leaves into water before freezing)
  • 3 slices of kiwi
  • 6 small pieces of mango

Preparation

It’s as simple as it gets.

Find a large enough, pretty, glass. Pour the liquids over ice cubes, add fruit.
Stir until all the flavours combine.

Drink with friends! 😀

Croatian Cabbage and Beans Stew – Prisiljeno zelje s grahom

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Sister Stefania Papailiopulos (try reading that fast three times in a row) from Varaždin, Croatia, held this dish worthy to include it in her published book “Our food and our health” way back in 1939.

Stews are excellent for your digestion and are a necessity in your diet.
This stew is tangy, crispy and healthy. Croatians usually use sour cabbage (sauerkraut) for various stews in winter. During the summer, when fresh cabbage is available and sauerkraut is not yet prepared, this stew with a touch of vinegar has that sourly taste of sauerkraut. The original name in literal meaning says “forced” cabbage with beans, because fresh cabbage is forced to taste like it’s sour 😉

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Cabagge Beans Stew

Tools you need

  • Mandolin slicer is a useful tool to have in your kitchen and if you have one you can save time and use it to slice cabbage.
  • Chef’s knife to cut the cabbage and onion
  • Large cooking pot, about three liters or more to fit all the ingredients
  • Cutting board to, yes, cut things on it 🙂
  • Ladle to scoop the cabbage stew out of the pot and onto the plate once it’s ready
  • Measuring spoons if you’re a perfectionist and don’t want to guesstimate the spices 😉

Ingredients

  • half a head of fresh cabbage
  • 250 g of tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons of oil
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 onion
  • 1 tablespoon of vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar, but all are good)
  • salt, pepper, sugar to taste
  • 500 ml of cooked beans (you can use canned)
  • Vegeta seasoning to taste (usually from half a teaspoon to a tablespoon or more)
    You’ll find Vegeta seasoning often in Croatian recipes, especially stews and soups. It gives them a distinctive aroma that’s hard to replicate without it. It contains a mix of finely cut dried vegetables and spices. It’s also salty so you may want to put it in and give it a taste before adding salt.

Preparation

  1. Cut cabbage into stripes, thinner or wider as you prefer.
  2. In a large cooking pot heat up the oil and add finely chopped onion.
  3. When the onion gets transparent add cabbage stripes and season with salt and pepper.
  4. Splash vinegar and simmer until the cabbage is cooked. I like it crunchy, but if you prefer it to be softer, cook longer until it’s tender enough.
  5. Dust with flour, fry until the flour gets sticky and at than add tomato paste and sugar.
  6. Stir and add water to cover the cabbage.
  7. Boil for 5 minutes, than put the cooked beans in and cook just long enough to warm them up.
  8. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

Wrapping up

Serve with sausages, ribs, or just eat it with bread as a vegetarian treat that it is!
Our suggestion is to try this stew with ground meat fritters.

Which protein would you serve with this stew?

Ground Meat Fritters – Faširanci

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

I am presenting you the all time favorite meal of all the kids throughout Croatia!

These fritters smell of childhood memories. I loved mine with spinach and mashed potatoes, but they are often served with vegetables stews. My family had them with kale stew most often for some reason.

Croatian moms like this fritters because they can camouflage a bit of veggies inside, but I like them as they are.

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Ground Meat Fritters - Faširanci

Tools you need

Ingredients

  • 450 g of ground beef
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 egg
  • 2 slices of dry bread
  • flour or bread crumbs
  • sunflower oil
  • spices of your choice
  • salt, pepper, parsley
  • Vegeta seasoning to taste (optional, but recommended)

Croatians often use half pork and half beef meat. You can also make them with chicken or turkey meat, but they are going to be much drier.

Preparation

Mix minced meat with beaten egg. Add all other ingredients and knead well with hands. Cover the mixture with cling wrap and leave in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

For these fritters we use a day or two aged bread that you soak in milk before adding to the mixture. It is very important that you squeeze the bread well to drain all the milk before adding to the mixture.

You can play and add spices that you like (chili powder, sweet paprika), but salt and pepper are required.

Unlike parsley and garlic, which are crushed or very finely chopped, onions previously need to be fried on oil until transparent.

It is important to knead the mixture well with your hands to get all the ingredients combined and to get fritters more compact.

Let the mixture sit for at least half an hour before frying, so that all the ingredients are well imbued.

In a deeper pan warm up the oil.

From the mixture, form balls and flatten them with hands. Size them based on your preferences. I like them thin and palm size.

Bed them in flour and fry in hot oil over low heat on each side until golden brown.

Serve with mashed potatoes, vegetables, various stews or salads. Goes great with Croatian Cabbage and Beans Stew!

Enjoy 🙂

Strawberry Cooler

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

We love the opportunity to explore different recipes from our foodie friends! Some of them we met in person but many we didn’t. We connected with them in many other ways. One of those ways is preparing food and drinks using their recipes, which brings us closer to them in a unique way.

This is one of those “lab” recipes that we enjoy making. A summer drink by Azlin Bloor made with fresh strawberries and lots of ice is a must try for hot summer days!

Strawberry Cooler!

You can spice it up with an alcoholic beverage of your choice, of course, which makes this a super drink for those summer parties as well. 😉

Here is Azlin’s original recipe and other tips.

Have a great summer, cheers! 😀

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Zvonimir likes chocolate fruit cakes, so for his birthday I try to combine his love for chocolate with different fruit each year. We already tried orange, strawberries and dried fruit. This year raspberries were amazing and full of flavor, which made my choice pretty easy.

This gluten free, easy to make cake is a great choice for any occasion and you can try it out with different fruit!

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Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce

Tools

  • Double boiler for melting chocolate. It makes all the difference between melted and burned.
  • Round baking pan. Perfect shape for your cake in the making.
  • Liquid measure cup, useful tool for liquid ingredients, like water and oil 😉
  • Saucepan comes very handy when preparing raspberry sauce.a
  • Before you can put the ingredients into the pan, you need to mix them somewhere, mixing bowls to the rescue! Make sure bowls you use are adequately sized. There are few things worse than overflowing bowls.
  • Measuring spoons to, you know, measure things with them.
  • Measuring cups to measure larger quantities of things than with measuring spoons. (Who comes up with these descriptions?)
  • Kitchen scale because baking is a fine art and perfection is a little bit more reachable when you quantify things.
  • Spatula to mix ingredients softly with your hand 😀
  • Electric mixer. Mixing is great and all, but doing it by hand can get exhausting. Sometimes you can outsource that work to a family member. Other times you need a bit more power.
  • Kitchen mittens. Things get hot in the oven. ‘Nuff said.

Cake ingredients

  • 125 g (2/3 cup) semi sweet chocolate ( I do not recommend dark chocolate, it will give you a bitter taste)
  • 125 ml (1/2 cup) oil
  • 4 eggs divided
  • 50 g (4 tbsp) sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Raspberry sauce ingredients

  • 300 g fresh raspberries
  • 10 tbsp (120 g) sugar
  • 125 ml (1/2 cup) water

Preparation

Melt chocolate with oil in double boiler until chocolate melts. Cool aside. Divide the eggs. Mix the egg yolks with sugar and vanilla extract until foamy. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

Add melted chocolate to egg yolks mixture and stir with spatula.
Again, using spatula, mix in the egg white mixture gradually into the chocolate egg yolk mixture until combined.

Pour the batter into previously greased 8×2 inch round cake pan. Bake for 20 minutes on 180 °C (355 °F).

Cool the cake on the rack.

Put all the ingredients for the sauce in a small sauce pan (leave few raspberries for decoration) and cook on low heat until raspberries dissolve and the sauce becomes thick. Cool it off.

For serving, pour some sauce over the cake slice. Decorate with fresh raspberries and, if you like, put some vanilla ice cream on the side.

Which fruit would you like to try with this cake?

The Beacon Hill Buck

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Woohoo, we found a cocktail with 100% Canadian ingredients!

An awesome drink for Canada Day celebration (and for any other for that matter), this refreshing and tasty drink is a great find! Made from Canadian whisky, Canadian maple syrup and Canadian ginger ale, served with ice and a lemon/lime twist, this triple Canadian is a true Canadian 😀

Here is how this oldie got its funny name. Buck or mule, except for being animals, are archaic names for mixed drinks that involve ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice and bourbon, scotch, or whisky!

That’s enough talking, rise the glasses 🙂

The Beacon Hill Buck

Ingredients

  • 2 oz. Canadian whisky chilled
  • 1/2 oz. maple syrup
  • 1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon/lime
  • ginger ale

Preparation

Build in the glass with ice.
Mix all ingredients but ginger ale.
Stir to dissolve the maple syrup fully.
Top with ginger ale.

Easy peasy. 🙂 Cheers!

Canada Day Muffins!

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Happy Canada Day!

What is the #1 thing that comes up in your head when someone mentions Canada? Probably maple (or thank you) 🙂
Our first Canada Day celebration was all about maple (and thank yous).

These muffins were supposed to be cupcakes with maple butter-cream, but some things are just not meant to be. It was like someone was telling us “summer’s here, your summer body is not ready” 😉

The muffins were awesome! Zvonimir ate a couple while shooting this photo 😀 You’re lucky we had some left to show you.
(Z’s note: there was plenty to shoot and that’s where I get inspiration :P)

Fruit Nut Muffin

Fruit Nut Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 cup chopped dates
  • 1⁄2 cup cranberries
  • 1 cup water
  • 1⁄2 cup butter, cut in pieces
  • 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 teaspoons golden yellow sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1⁄2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Instructions

In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine water, dates, cranberries, nuts and sugar.
Boil for 5 minutes until water absorbs and remove from heat.
Add chopped up butter and stir till butter is melted.
Transfer to large bowl and let cool.
Set oven to 170 °C (350 °F).
Grease and flour muffin cups or use paper liner.
Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder.
Spoon into muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full.
Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Maple! Thank you!

Cottage Cheese with Sour Cream – Sir i vrhnje

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

In Croatia, we eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner 🙂

During the hot summer days, when it’s too warm to cook, “Sir i vrhnje” makes a great lunch. It’s quick to prepare and it tastes refreshing!

Cottage Cheese with Sour Cream - Sir i vrhnje

It is usually served with fresh vegetables (onions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers…), cold cuts (ham, sausages, bacon, pancetta…), and fine bread (rolls, corn bread, whole grain bread, bread with seeds…).

To spice it up, add crushed canned sardines, chopped chives or spring onions, garlic, various fresh and dried herbs (dill, shallot, parsley, oregano…) and spices (red sweet and hot paprika, black pepper…).

With only two main ingredients, you can explore the tastes and enjoy one of Croatian all time favourites dishes.

Ingredients (4-6 people)

  • 400 g cottage cheese
  • 100 ml sour cream
  • 100 g spring onions
  • salt, pepper

You can replace sour cream with plain yogourt, if you want a less fat variation.

Preparation

Cut spring onions into rings, season with salt and add half to previously mixed cottage cheese and sour cream. Mix well, add pepper and salt to taste. Decorate with the remaining spring onions and enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

When in Rome, ups, Canada, do as Canadians do 😀

Peanut butter is one of the “must eat” ingredients when you come on this side of the world. You fall in love with it over a period of time, but when you eventually do, you make the best of it!

This is one of those ways 🙂

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

Ingredients

  • 130 g (1 cup) confectioners’ sugar
  • 70 g (⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon) creamy peanut butter
  • 60 g (2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
  • 2 1/2 ml (½ teaspoon) vanilla extract
  • 360 g (2 cups semisweet/bittersweet) chocolate chips or dark chocolate
  • 40 g (¼ cup) roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preparation

In the bowl with an electric mixer mix the sugar, peanut butter, cream cheese and vanilla together on medium speed until combined.

Shape mixture into balls. Place on baking sheet lined with wax paper. Cover loosely, transfer the pan to the freezer and chill for 30 minutes.

When ready to dip the truffles, melt the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Dip each chilled truffle, one at a time, coating in chocolate and shaking gently to remove the excess. (If at any point during dipping, the dough balls become too soft, return to the freezer to chill for 15 minutes.) Transfer to a wax-paper lined surface. Sprinkle peanuts on top of each truffle quickly after dipping each truffle before the chocolate sets.

Once all the truffles have been dipped, store them in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Enjoy!