LET’S COOK TOGETHER!
Cook book
Comenius Project 2013 - 2015

TURKISH
MANTI
Ingredients
For the dough:
2 cups all-purpose
flour plus additional
for rolling
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup water plus a
little more if
necessary
For the filling:
2 tablespoons
olive oil
1 large onion,
finely chopped
1 pound ground
lean lamb
1/2 cup chopped
fresh flat-leaf
parsley
salt and pepper
to taste
For the yogurt sauce:
2 cups plain whole-milk
yogurt (preferably made
from sheep's milk)
4 garlic cloves, mashed
to a paste with 1
teaspoon salt
for the butter sauce
1/2 stick butter
3/4 teaspoon sweet
paprika
salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. Make the filling: Mix
the olive oil in a bowl
with the onion , the
lamb and the parsley,
generously season with
salt and pepper. Set
aside.

2. Make the dough. Sift the flour
and salt together into a bowl.
Make a well in the center, and a
place the egg and 1/2 cup water
in the well. Work the dough with
your hands or a wooden spoon into
a smooth dough. Knead the dough
for at least 10 minutes until
smooth and elastic. Roll out the
dough thick with a rolling pin or a
pasta machine, and cut into 3-inch
squares, discarding the uneven
edges. Place 2 teaspoons filling
into the center of each square.
Moisten the entire outer edge
with water, bring the 4 corners
together in the center and pinch
tightly to seal, then pinch
together the 4 straight edges to
seal completely (take care with
this step). Repeat with remaining
pasta and filling. Place the manti
on a lightly Floured baking sheet
in a single layer.

3. Make the yogurt sauce: Drain
the yogurt at room temperature
through a very Fine mesh strainer
over a bowl for 30 minutes and
discard the whey. Stir together
the yogurt and garlic in a bowl
and let stand at warm room
temperature until ready to use.
4. Make the butter sauce: In a
small skillet over moderate heat
cook the butter until it is a very
light brown, remove the skillet
from heat, and stir in the paprika,
coarse salt to taste, and the hot
red pepper sauce.

5. In a large kettle of boiling
salted water cook the manti, in
batches, stirring to keep them
from sticking together, about 7
minutes. Remove them when done
with a long 1/4-handled sieve or a
large slotted spoon and keep
warm with a little of the warm
cooking liquid.
Serve the manti very hot in
individual bowls, spoon some of
the yogurt sauce over, drizzle
with the butter sauce.

HOW TO PREPARE:
ANKARA TAVASI
INGREDIENTS
5 servings
1 tomato
2 onions
1 kilo lamb cut into 5 pieces
1 soup spoon butter
6 glasses water
700 grams of rice
olive oil
salt
garlic
pepper

1. Let soak the rice
for about 30
minutes in hot
water and lightly
salted, then wash
it under cold water
to remove all
impurities.

2. Place the lamb in a
pan together with the
whole onion, tomatoes,
garlic and pepper. Cover
with water and bring to
a boil, simmer with the
lid on, skimming
occasionally, until the
meat is tender.

3. Take the meat
and keep the broth.
Arrange now the
rice in a buttered
baking dish, season
with olive oil,
butter, salt and
pepper before you
wet it with about 1
liter of broth of
meat.

4. Complete
arranging the lamb
over rice and bake
at 160 degrees for
about 50 minutes,
until all the cooking
liquid has been
absorbed and the
meat will have
taken a beautiful
golden color.

How to cook Polish dishes
Pierogi
Pierogi are simply made of dough and filling. Making pierogi obviously starts
with preparing the dough. This is based on a well-tried Polish food
tradition. The pierogi dough is made from wheat flour, water, salt and a bit
of oil.

After mixing ingredients and
kneading, the pierogi dough is
being rolled up on a table or
pastry board. Circles are cut
out using a drinking glass.
Then, in the middle of every
circle, we place a portion of
the filling with a teaspoon.
This could be a meat filling,
small heap of sauerkraut and
mushrooms, potato and
cheese or sweet cheese.

When the filling is placed on
pierogi circles we fold / wrap
the pierogi dough, forming a
semicircle. In order to seal
pierogi, their edges should be
pressed with your fingers or
a fork.
Raw pierogi are ready to
be boiled. To cook
pierogi, boil lightly
salted water, and then
throw pierogies one by
one. After few minutes
this Polish food will
float to the surface and
soon will be ready to be
drained off.

You can use pork scratching,
roux, bacon or fried onion to
decorate pierogi with meat,
mushrooms or sauerkraut. Sweet
pierogi are usually dished up
with fruit sauces, sweet cream,
maple syrup, yogurt etc. Just
pour what you like over pierogi.

Polish Pieczonki
How to make it...
Ingredients:
- 1 kg potatoes, pealed and sliced
- 0,5 kg carrots, pealed and sliced
- 5 shallots, pealed and sliced
- 5 bacon rashes, cut into stripes
- 1 small sausage, sliced (the best
one will be Polish one or German,
firm and slightly smoky)
- 2 chicken breast (or legs) cut
into pieces, marinated in herbs,
salt, pepper and paprika
- salt and pepper

In a big
ovenproof dish
arrange layers of
potatoes with
carrots, onto that
shallots, bacon
cuts, sausage,
chicken, salt and
pepper. Make the
layers until you
run out of all
ingredients. The
last layer should
be potatoes and
carrots

Cover the dish with a cabbage leaf and put into preheated 200 C
oven ( or in a big pot) and bake (or cook) for 1 hour. After an
hour check if all veges are soft and you can serve your dinner.

Bulgarian Shopska salad
How to make it…
Shopska salad is a
traditional Bulgarian
salad originated by the
Shopi people of the
Sofia region, and
hence the
nameshopska.
INGREDIENTS
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 large cucumber, unpeeled and
chopped
4 green or red peppers, roasted or
raw, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped, or 6
green onions, sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
Salt and black pepper
1/2 cup Bulgarian sirene cheese
or feta cheese, crumbled

PREPARATION
1.Place tomatoes, cucumber,
peppers, onion and parsley
in a large bowl and toss.
2.Place oil, vinegar, salt and
pepper to taste in a screw-
top jar. Cover and shake
until well blended.
3.Toss dressing with
vegetables, turn into a
serving bowl and
refrigerate until ready to
serve. Top with crumbled
cheese and portion on
chilled plates.

Bulgarian Sirene po Shopski
What you need:
• 400 grams white cheese
• 150 grams yellow cheese
• 2 eggs
• 2 hot peppers
• 2 sliced tomatoes
• 2 chopped roasted
peppers
• oregano, parsley or any
other dry green spice

How to make it:
Take two small
earth ware pots
with lids
("gyuveche" pots)
and put a layer of
cheese, then a
layer of peppers
and tomatoes,
then more cheese.
Bake for about 20
minutes or until
the cheese is
melted. Then
break an egg on
top of each dish
and cook till the
egg is the
consistency you
like. Serve with
salad and beer.
Enjoy!

Slovakian Halušky
Ingredients: 750g potatoes
(about 2 large ones), 2 cups
flour, salt, 1 egg.
Prep time: 25 minutes
Halušky are what really
defines Slovak cuisine. The
name is typically translated to
English as potato dumplings,
but this is not quite right.
Halušky are just that, halušky
(pronouncedhalushky). Potato
dumplings, in Slovak,
are zemiakové knedľe. Halušky
are somewhat similar to
German spätzle. You can top
them with just about anything.

Peel potatoes and finely shred them.
Add egg and flour. Make a dough that
is not too tough but not to watery.
You may use more or less flour or
add a little bit of water if it is too
tough.
Add 1 tsp of salt.
Boil water w 2 tbsp of salt. use
teaspoon to drop a little bit of the
dough into the boiling water. Be
sure the water is always boiling.
When halusky are done they will float
on top of the water, Pick them out
with a strainer.
Because I didn't find bryndza here in
the US, (it is cheese from sheep),
I used 1 package of Feta Cheese
and 3/4 of a pack of cream
cheese, and 3-4 tbsp of milk.
Heat everything together. Mix all the
time. When it starts to boil,
remove from the heat.
Cut up little pieces of bacon and fry
them. Serve halusky with the
cheese sauce on top and sprinkle
with the bacon pieces.

The most typical topping
is bryndza, a special
sheep cheese, and fried
bacon bits. This
combination gives
you bryndzové halušky,
the Slovak national dish.
Another popular topping
is cabbage. I also like
them very much with a
hard boiled egg. Often
you will find these
dumplings served with
stews
like goulash or paprikash

Slovakian Zemiakový šalát
Ingredients: 4
potatoes, about half an
onion, 15oz can of sweet
peas, 3 carrots, 2 dill
pickles, 2 eggs, 6
tablespoons of
mayonnaise, salt, black
pepper, paprika
Prep Time: 1 hour, plus
few hours to sit in the
fridge
Here is the recipe for
the Slovak potato salad.

Start by boiling unpeeled potatoes and
3 carrots, peeled, in salted water. At
some point also hard boil 2 eggs.
Chop up about 3/8 of an onion into small
cubes. For the non-math people, that’s a
quarter plus half of another
quarter. The carrots are done once they
get soft (check them by occasionally
poking them with a fork). Slice the
carrots into thin quarter circle wedges.
Also chop up the pickles.

Combine vegetables in a pot.
Now stir in mayo. We started off with 3
spoonfuls, but ended up putting in 6.

Finally, cut up
the eggs and mix into
the salad.
Add salt and black
pepper to taste. Let sit
in the fridge for few
hours before serving.

Italian Focaccia
2 teaspoons (8 grams) active dry
yeast
1 teaspoon (5 grams) sugar
1 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons (25 grams) olive oil,
plus an additional 2 tablespoons (25
grams) for drizzling
250 grams (approximately 2
cups)whole-wheat flour
200 to 220 grams (approximately 1
2/3 to 1 3/4 cups) unbleached all-
purpose flour or bread flour, plus
additional as needed for kneading
1 ¾ teaspoons (13 grams) salt
¾ pound Roma tomatoes
Coarse salt and freshly ground
pepper to taste

PREPARATION
In the bowl of a standing
mixer, or in a large bowl,
dissolve the yeast and sugar in
the water. Add the olive oil,
whole-wheat flour, 200 grams
of the all-purpose flour and
salt and mix together briefly
using the paddle attachment.
Change to the dough hook and
beat for 8 to 10 minutes at
medium speed, adding flour as
necessary. The dough should
eventually form a ball around
the dough hook and slap
against the sides of the bowl
as the mixer turns; it will be
sticky. Remove from the bowl,
flour your hands and knead for
a minute on a lightly floured
surface, and shape into a ball.

Stir in the olive oil,
whole-wheat flour, salt
and all-purpose flour by
the half-cup, until the
dough can be scraped
out onto a floured work
surface. Knead, adding
flour as necessary, for
10 minutes, until the
dough is elastic and
smooth.
Clean and dry your bowl
and oil lightly with olive
oil. Place the dough in it,
rounded side down first,
then rounded side up.
Cover tightly with
plastic and let rise in a
warm spot for 1 1/2 to 2
hours until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 200
degrees. Line a sheet pan
with parchment and oil
generously. Roll or press out
the dough into a rectangle
the size of the sheet pan or
just slightly smaller. To do
this efficiently, roll or press
out the dough, stop and wait
5 minutes for the gluten to
relax, then roll or press out
again, and repeat until the
dough reaches the right size.
Cover with a damp towel and
let rest for 30 minutes. Just
before baking, use your
fingertips to dimple the
dough all over.

Cut the tomatoes into
rounds and place on
top of the focaccia.
Sprinkle with coarse
salt and the rosemary.
Drizzle a tablespoon
or two of olive oil over
all.
Bake, setting the pan on top of
the baking stone (if using), for
20 to 25 minutes, until the
bread is deep golden brown. Let
rest for at least 10 minutes
before serving, or allow to cool
completely.

Italian handmade pasta
INGREDIENTS
•2 cups flour
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1/2 teaspoon of
extravirgin oil
Mound the flour on a clean
work surface. Hollow out the
center making a well in the
middle of the flour .

With your hands or
a bench scraper
continue working
the dough until it
comes together. If
the dough is too
dry, add a little
water; if too wet or
sticky, add a little
flour.
Begin kneading the dough and keep
kneading until it becomes smooth
and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.
At this point, set the dough aside,
cover it with plastic, and let it rest
for 15 to 20 minutes. You can store
the dough in the refrigerator for up
to 24 hours, but allow it to return to
room temperature before rolling it
out. Roll and cut the pasta into
desired shape.

ENJOY THESE DELIGHTS!