Firstly, a big thanks to everyone for your lovely pregnancy wishes – it’s wonderful to know how supportive you all are.

Cravings are synonymous with pregnancy and the one thing I can’t get enough of this pregnancy is salad, I guess I should thank my lucky stars I’m not craving a block of chocolate each night!

Here’s an exceptional salad recipe, which can also be prepared in advance for summer-time parties. It’s delicious served with grilled lamb or on it’s own.

This salad is also another that fits into the ‘Dave’s favourite’ category, so I often cook a big batch of sweet potato and onion, keep it in the fridge and quickly assemble for dinner or lunch. If your salad leaves are washed and ready to go, (I keep mine in a salad spinner) it takes less than five minutes to prepare, heck, it’s so easy that even David can put it together himself, and trust me, there’s not much he can put together in the kitchen!

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Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients
Baked sweet potato
500g sweet potato (or kumera), peeled and diced
2-3 garlic cloves
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Caramelised onion
1 large brown onion, peeled and thinly sliced length-ways
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 heaped tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Dressing
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

100g rocket (arugula) and baby spinach leaves, washed and spun dry
80g goat’s cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons lightly toasted pinenuts

Method
1) Preheat oven to 250°C. Place chopped sweet potato and garlic cloves in a large baking tray tray lined with grease proof paper, drizzle over olive oil, add salt and pepper and mix well. Cover baking tray tightly with a sheet of foil and bake on high for 20 minutes. Remove foil after 20 minutes and reduce heat to 200°C, continue baking for further 30-40 minutes, turning the sweet potato half way through until lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

2) For the caramelised onion, fry onion in olive oil over a low heat until softened (15 minutes). Sprinkle over sugar and fry for further 5 minutes. Turn heat up to medium and allow onion to caramalise to a lovely rich golden brown (5 minutes), add balsamic (1 minute) and remove from heat, allow to cool.

3) For the dressing, combine oil, balsamic, water, salt and pepper in a jar. Just before serving shake well to emulsify.

4) In a large serving platter arrange rocket and spinach leaves, scatter over baked sweet potato, caramelised onion, crumbled goats cheese and finally the pinenuts. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until serving. Just before serving drizzle over dressing and enjoy with grilled meat or on it’s own.

Tips:
- Lightly toast pine nuts in a dry pan over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until toasted and fragrant.
- Store left over caramelised onion in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.
- For quick week night dinners, double the quantities and store everything in the fridge, then assemble each night.

I have some explaining to do…there’s a reason why my posts have been a little sparse over the past few months. I’ve been feeling ridiculously tired, my taste buds have drastically changed, and to my surprise, some days cooking is the last thing I feel like doing! If you’ve guessed that I’ve got a bun in the oven, you’re absolutely right…I’m pregnant!!!

So beloved feasters, I hope you can forgive me for my infrequent recipe posts, and I hope you’re still happy to follow me on my journey as an eager village cook and first time mum to be. The recipe posts will continue, but they may be tad less frequent, and they may become a little simpler over the coming months.

In keeping with the theme of simplified cooking, I’d love for you to try my Mum’s lemon and paprika chicken, it’s an old favourite and perfect during summer on the BBQ served with a simple garden salad or taratur.

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Recipe

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons paprika
1 garlic clove, finely grated
Juice and zest of half a lemon (zest is optional)
Sea salt to taste (or dried vegetable stock e.g. Vegeta/Massel)

4-6 chicken thigh or breast fillets, skin removed

Method
1) Combine olive oil, paprika, garlic, lemon and salt in a medium sized glass or plastic bowl. Add chicken and toss to completely cover with marinade. Cover and marinade in refrigerator for 2 hours.

2) Preheat BBQ plate/chargrill or large frying pan (medium to hot). Cook chicken for 5 to 7 minutes on each side or until cooked through.

3) Serve chicken with salad.

Tip: Leftover chicken is delicious the next day on sandwiches with green oak lettuce, tomato, bacon and aoili (see recipe).

I had intended to post this recipe on New Year’s Eve, as it takes me back to the 80s when my parents would throw the biggest New Year’s Eve parties ever imaginable! As a child it was the most fun you could hope for, we had a lamb on the spit, kolbasi on the BBQ and close to fifty people picnicking in the backyard. Just before midnight all the kids would dress up as ‘babari’, a tradition from my parents village Capari.

Everyone brought a dish or two to share, be it salads, pastries, or sweets, but one thing Mum always made was her baked rice with garden tomatoes and chillies. It’s vegan, and great with fish and chicken. Just think of it as a healthy and summery baked risotto.

P.S. This weekend is ‘Suro’, the Macedonian New Year. Traditionally maznik is made and baked with a gold coin, for the recipe check out last years Maznik recipe.

Evenly arrange tomato and chilli

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Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic gloves, finely grated or chopped
2 cups (440g) medium grain rice, washed and drained
4-5 cups (1-1.25L) boiled water
Sea salt
1 teaspoon dried vegetable stock e.g. Vegeta/Massel
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large tomato, sliced thinly into 5mm rounds
2 medium green banana chillies, seeded and roughly chopped (banana chillies are also known as Hungarian or bullhorn chillies, if unavailable replace with a green capsicum)

Method
1) Preheat oven to 250°C.

2) Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant but not browned. Add washed rice and lightly toast (2-3 minutes). Transfer rice and garlic mix to a large baking tray/dish. Pour over hot water, add a sprinkle of salt, vegeta, pepper to taste and stir. Arrange tomato slices and chillies over rice. Place in hot oven and bake for 20–30 minutes or until rice is cooked. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes.

3) Serve while warm as a light lunch or part of a banquet with grilled chicken or fish and salad.

Tips:
- For a non-vegetarian version add poached chicken pieces see Baked Chicken with Red Rice recipe (follow steps 1 and 2 and use cooking liquid rather than plain boiled water).
- Another alternative is to add fish fillets to the tomatoes and chillies.
- During winter leave out the tomato and use pickled banana chillies.

Yesterday was the first day of summer, yet I’m still wearing trackie pants and ugg boots, so I felt my readers would forgive me for posting a ‘non’ seasonal recipe. In fact, my northern hemisphere followers may really appreciate this winter warmer!

Borania is village comfort food and it’s dead easy to throw together. Made with a can of sauerkraut and basic pantry staples such as rice, paprika and flour, this healthy soup is a great one to add to your repertoire for last minute dinners.

If you like meat, feel free to serve borania with pan fried pork and extra dried mint and chilli flakes, it’s a match made in heaven!

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Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt
410g can sauerkraut, drained
1/2 cup medium grain rice, washed and drained
1 teaspoon mild paprika
6 cups (1.5 litres) water, boiled

Thickening sauce (zaprshka)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1/2 teaspoon mild paprika
1 cup (250ml) water, boiled

To serve (optional)
Dried mint
Dried chilli flakes (or Bukovsko Biber)

Method
1) Heat olive oil in a medium pot (low-medium heat). Add onion and season with salt, saute until translucent (5-7 minutes). Increase heat slightly, add sauerkraut and stir until liquid evaporates (3-5 minutes). Add washed rice, stir to coat (1 minute). Sprinkle over paprika, stir through until fragrant (1 minute). Add hot water, reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered (10 minutes).

2) Meanwhile, prepare the thickening sauce. Heat a small saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil then flour and stir frequently with a wooden spoon, being careful not to burn the flour (3-5 minutes). When the flour starts to smell like it’s cooking do the sizzle test by dropping a tiny amount of the flour into simmering soup, if it sizzles it’s ready, if not, continue cooking flour for another minute and test again. Turn down heat and stir through paprika, pour in 1/3 of the hot water and stir vigorously, once incorporated add another 1/3 cup of water and beat again again until smooth and incorporated, continue to do this until you have a smooth slurry-type roux. Incorporate the remaining water and add the thickening sauce to the soup, continue to simmer until rice is cooked through (10-15 minutes in total).

3) Check seasoning and adjust with extra salt. Serve while hot, sprinkle with dried mint and chilli flakes to taste.

Tip: This soup is also yummy at room temperature.

It’s a fact, our sense of smell is strongly linked to our memory. Certain scents, be it from nature or the kitchen can transport us to another time and place. It’s like the smell of baked pasta with feta, it somehow takes me back to my early childhood Saturday mornings, Mum in the kitchen and me as an eager, somewhat annoying nine year old hovering around, waiting for the oven to open so that I could pick off the crispy pasta and feta.

This is a great weekend breaky, or brunch, as it’s easy, filling, and when served with a fresh garden tomato salad, it’s heavenly! The subtle flavour of the egg, pasta and cheese also makes it perfect for kids.

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Recipe

Serves 2

Ingredients
150g dried fusilli or rigatoni pasta (spiral or tube-shaped)
Sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large eggs
4 tablespoons (80ml) milk
Freshly ground black pepper
50g cows milk feta cheese, coarsely crumbled

Method
1) Preheat oven to 220°C. Cook pasta in saucepan of boiling salted water according to packet directions or until al dente. Drain well and set aside.

2) Heat a small oven proof frying pan over medium heat. Add olive oil, then pasta and toss to coat. Meanwhile, lightly whisk eggs, milk, small pinch of salt and pepper. Pour eggs over pasta and gently fold through. Remove from heat, sprinkle over crumbled feta and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the egg is cooked and golden.
Note: You may need to turn the grill on for the last 3-5 minutes.

3) Serve while hot with a fresh tomato salad.

Tip: Double or triple this recipe to serve 4-6 people. Rather than adding the egg mix to the frying pan, arrange the pasta in a lightly greased ovenproof dish or baking tray, pour over the eggs and scatter over the cheese. Bake a little longer, for 20-25 minutes, or until the egg is cooked and golden.

Before I get stuck into this weeks recipe, I’d like to take a moment to wish my beloved Village Feast a very happy first birthday! It’s overwhelming to think that in only twelve months I’ve managed to cook and post over seventy recipes. Inevitably, I have added a couple of inches to my waistline (and hubby’s too!), but I’m proud to say that it’s all been worth it. Village Feast has given me a platform to discover the deliciousness of century old recipes and share them with passionate cooks all over the world.

As an ode to true village cooking, this week I bring you one of my favourite greens, the humble sorrel leaf. Known as ‘kiselec’ or ‘kiselica’, this sour spinach-like herb is loved by many, there is even a Macedonian folk song called ‘para beri kiselec’. Often used as a pastry filling with spinach or added to spinach stew, I enjoy it wilted with egg and served on toast.

Fresh sorrel

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Recipe

Serves 2

Ingredients
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
150g sorrel leaves, coarsley chopped
Sea salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Method
1) Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add olive oil, sorrel and sprinkle with salt. Gently cook until just wilted, then pour over lightly beaten eggs. Fold through eggs and remove from heat once cooked.

2) Serve while warm as a light lunch with lots of bread.

Tip: If sorrel is too sour, use equal portions of sorrel and spinach leaves.

My grandmother is a sensational cook! Although almost eighty, she still loves preparing handmade pastries, sweets and stews. Thankfully, she also loves teaching me all her traditional recipes to post here on Village Feast! I often show her the recipes online, she has a little chuckle and can’t believe that people are interested in her village recipes…I remind her that people from as far away as the U.S. are enjoying maznik, mlechnik and kifli…deep down I think she loves the attention and thinks she’s a little famous!

Like all of baba’s tasty recipes, her vegan cabbage rolls are no exception! I love them so much that I prefer them over meat sarmi. They’re super quick and super tasty! I make them with homemade pickled cabbage leaves, however pickled cabbage bought from the supermarket will also do the trick.

Enjoy these sarmi at room temperature or cold, served as a light lunch or meze.

Making sarmi
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Recipe

Serves 6

Ingredients
1 cup (220g) medium grain white rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons mild paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried mint
1 garlic clove, finely grated

10-15 large pickled cabbage leaves, cut in half

Thickening sauce (zaprshka)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1/2 teaspoon mild paprika
Sea salt

Method
1) In a bowl combine rice, olive oil, paprika, mint, garlic and mix well.

2) In a small to medium heavy based pot, place 2-3 cabbage leaves on the base. If the cabbage leaves are overly sour, soak in water for up to 30 minutes. Drain cabbage leaves in a colander over large bowl. Place a cabbage leaf in the palm of your hand with the thickest part closest to you, spoon 2-3 teaspoons of rice mix and fold over each edge to form a neat cylinder. While holding the roll over the pot gently squeeze some of the excess liquid to create a tight sausage, place on bottom of pot. Continue until all the filling is used up, layering the sarmi (there will be 1 to 2 layers).
Note: When filling and rolling, follow the natural curve of the cabbage leaves.

3) Cover rolls with 2-3 cabbage leaves and place a small to medium plate on top to help weigh down the sarmi.

4) Pour boiling water over the sarmi until completely covered (only part of the plate should be covered with liquid). Cover with lid and bring to the boil.

5) Meanwhile, prepare the thickening sauce. Heat a small saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil then flour and stir frequently with a wooden spoon, being careful not to burn the flour (3-5 minutes). Have a ladle and whisk ready to go. When the flour starts to smell like it’s cooking do the sizzle test by dropping a tiny amount of the flour into the hot sarmi liquid, if it sizzles it’s ready, if not, continue cooking flour for another minute and test again. Turn off heat and stir through paprika, add 2 ladles of cooking liquid and whisk vigorously, once incorporated add another 2-3 ladles and whisk again until incorporated, continue to do this until you have a smooth slurry-type roux (3-5 minutes). Add the thickening sauce to the cooking sarmi, taste and season with salt. Cover and reduce heat to simmer, cook for 30 minutes or until rice is cooked.
Note: Shake the pot every so often to help the sarmi cook evenly.

6) Serve while hot with crusty bread or at room temperature as meze or part of a banquet.

Tip:
- Pickled cabbage leaves are available at select supermarkets and most delicatessens.

This recipe was discovered by my sister Mira, it’s likely she stumbled across it in one of those trashy women’s magazines, or it was passed onto her by a friend, the reality is, she can’t actually remember where! So Mira passed it onto Mum, who passed it onto me over the phone. Turns out that I misheard the recipe and got it a little backwards, kinda like Chinese-whispers I guess. The other mistake I made was using chicken rather than pork fillet, as chicken was all I had in the fridge at the time.

Anyway, despite getting so many key ingredients wrong, the stir-fry was delicious, in fact better than I remembered my sister making it. This stir-fry has now become a weekly staple, but I like to call it the ‘Chicken Pork Stir-fry’ and it’s one of David’s favourites, so I always make sure I have some chicken breast, thinly sliced by my butcher ready to go.

It’s best to marinade overnight, but a couple hours will suffice. The cooking time is less than 15 minutes so it makes a perfect weeknight dinner. Serve with steamed green beans and medium grain rice.
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Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients
1/2 cup (125ml) peanut oil
1/2 cup (125ml) teriyaki marinade and sauce (I prefer Kikkoman)
5cm piece of ginger, peeled, finely chopped or grated
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled, finely chopped or grated
2 teaspoons caster sugar
700g pork fillet, thinly sliced (or chicken breast)
1 large onion, peeled, thinly sliced lengthways
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
Freshly ground black pepper

Method
1) In a medium non-reactive bowl combine peanut oil, teriyaki, ginger, garlic and sugar. Whisk with a fork to emulsify, add pork or chicken and stir to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or minumum of 2 hours).

2) Heat wok or large frying pan over high heat. Remove chicken from marinade (do not discard marinade), add meat to wok and stir-fry until just cooked (5 minutes). Add onion, cumin and continue to stir-fry (3 minutes). Pour remaining marinade over chicken and onion. Add cornflour to 1/3 cup water and stir until smooth, add to wok. Bring to the boil and stir-fry until sauce thickens (2-3 minutes). Season with white pepper and freshly ground black pepper. Serve while hot with plain medium grain rice and steamed green beans.

Tips:
- Double this recipe to make an easy reheat weeknight dinner (cook the meat in batches).
- If you don’t have cornflour use plain flour, but be sure to add directly to the wok to cook/toast the flour, then pour over the marinade and water.

Who would have ever thought that a fussy, borderline vegetarian like myself, would one day become a passionate foodie! My family never ceases to remind me that I only ate the most boring and unadventurous foods in my youth, like plain pasta, rice, potatoes and…my favourite…Maggi two minute noodles! It’s a disgrace knowing that I caused my poor mum so much grief. To her amusement, one meal I did enjoy back then and still do now, is her yummy baked chicken and red rice. It’s definitely far from being bland or boring, it’s actually bursting with delicious flavour.

I often make it with homegrown leek and free-range chicken, but you can substitute with brown onion if you can’t get your hands on leek. You might also try pork rather than chicken. The inclusion of sundried tomatoes is a recent addition by me, so feel free to leave them out if you prefer.

By making a big batch, it makes for a quick and easy reheat dinner, perfect for early Spring with a dollop of natural yoghurt.

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Recipe

Serves 6-8

Ingredients
8-10 assorted chicken pieces, e.g. drumstick, thigh and breast (or replace with chicken thigh fillets)
2 bay leaves
Sea salt
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, white and light green part chopped, dark green outer leaves discarded (replace with onion if leek is unavailable)
8-12 sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped (optional)
2-3 mild dried whole red chillies, seeds and stem removed and roughly chopped (optional)
1 small red capsicum or 2-3 red bullhorn chillies, seeds and stem removed and roughly chopped
2 cups (440g) medium grain rice, washed and drained
2 teaspoons mild paprika
4 tablespoons (80ml) Italian style tomato passata sauce
Dried vegetable stock e.g. Vegeta/Massel (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper

Method
1) Soak chicken pieces in cold water for 30 minutes to remove impurities then discard water.

2) Bring 2 litres water, bay leaf, 1 tablespoon salt and chicken pieces to the boil, reduce to simmer for 20-30 minutes (10-15 for boneless pieces). Remove chicken pieces and cover to keep warm. Continue to gently simmer chicken cooking liquid.

3) Preheat oven to 250°C.

4) Heat a medium frying pan over low-medium heat. Add oil, leek and a sprinkling of salt, saute without colouring (5 minutes). Turn heat up to medium, add sundried tomatoes, dried chillies, capsicum and saute (3-5 minutes). Add washed rice and stir to coat (2 minutes). Add paprika, once fragrant (1-2 minutes) add tomato passata and mix through (2-3 minutes). Season with 1-2 teaspoons sea salt (or a dried vegetable stock e.g. Vegeta/Massel) and black pepper to taste.Transfer to large baking dish, arrange chicken pieces over rice, pushing down slightly to avoid the meat from drying out.

5) Remove bay leaves from cooking liquid and arrange over rice. Ladle over enough liquid to completely cover rice.
Note: Do not discard remaining cooking liquid.

6) Place in hot oven and cook for 5 minutes then reduce temperature to 220°C and continue to cook for further 25-30 minutes or until rice is cooked and chicken is golden. If rice dries out add an additional 1-2 ladles of the cooking liquid. If rice and chicken brown too quickly cover loosly with a sheet of foil.

7) Allow to stand for 10 minutes and serve while hot with a dollop of natural yoghurt.

Tips:
- Replace chicken with pork.
- For a vegetarian version omit chicken and use a good quality vegetable stock.

Despite being the first day of Spring here in Sydney, I’m still freezing! Apparently it’s hitting 25°C today but I’m not holding my breath as all I can see are grey clouds!

If you’re like me and feel the chill or perhaps you’re just feeling a little low, then I guarantee that Mum’s comforting chicken noodle soup will warm you up.

The one thing I need to mention is the unconventional addition of a packet of chicken noodle soup mix. I’m not sure why mum has always included it, as I’m sure it would taste good without, but it tastes so good that I’m not planning on changing a recipe which in my opinion is perfect.

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Recipe

Serves 6-8

Ingredients
4-6 assorted chicken pieces, e.g. wing, neck, drumstick, thigh (with skin and bone in)
1 small onion, peeled and left whole
2-3 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
1-2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 (45g) packet chicken noodle simmer soup mix
100 gm vermicelli egg noodles, coarsely broken
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
Lemon to serve

Method
1) Soak chicken pieces in cold water for 30 minutes to remove impurities then discard water.

2) Place chicken in a large pot with onion, celery, carrot and 3 litres of cold water. Bring to the boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Skim the surface regularly.

3) Remove chicken and set aside. Remove onion, half the celery pieces and discard.
Note: If you prefer discard all the celery.

4) Add chicken noodle soup packet and vermicelli noodles. Bring the boil and turn off heat. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin, coarsely shred meat and add to soup. Add parsley and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

5) Serve while hot with with crusty bread and a generous squeeze of lemon juice or a drizzle of red wine/apple cider vinegar.

Tip: For a thicker consistency whisk 2-3 eggs with a pinch of salt and slowly incorporate into the soup (the soup should be off the heat to avoid curdling).