Remember the war in Bosnia-Herzogovina in the 1990s? None of us really understood what and where Herzogovina was. Well, we now know someone from there. Ante explained to us that in the Middle Ages there was a nobleman named Herzog who lived in the southern part of Bosnia. Although his duchy was never an independent nation, it was a province in Bosnia and was forever after named for him.
In the following pictures you can see how Ante bakes bread and potato pie from recipes even he doesn't know how old they are. His grandmother passed them on to him.
First, he chops the wood for the fire.
Some of the guys built this hearth.
The wood is burned until the hearth is really hot.
The bread dough is placed in a pan on the hot hearth
under a bell. A layer of ash is kept permanently on
top of the bell. The bread cooks under the bell.
Clearly I didn't move fast enough to take a picture!
To make the potato pie, first Ante winds dough around a stick.
Then he rolls it out, places it in the pan and puts cut up
potatoes on top.
The potato pie has cooked under the bell.
It tastes as good as it looks!
Other dishes included a Greek style salad, a river fish cooked whole, steaks broiled Texas-style by Bob, cheesecake and of course lots of beer. This time it was Czech beer, and it was delicious!
Another night there was a salsa band from Cuba who played at Sigma. The picture isn't very clear, but I had to put it in! The group was quite good, and a lot of people were dancing. Not Bob and me of course - we don't know how to salsa. The last time Bob tried to do a specific dance, it was disco in the '70s. We went to two lessons before he refused to return. We considered "winging it" to the salsa music but decided to have another glass of wine instead.
Great food stories - keep them coming. Interesting that it's the men who are doing this cooking for the party - is that a tradition too?
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