ARMY RATIONS -- SERBIAN STYLE

Living in Belgrade in the late Sixties and early Seventies was quite an experience. Officially I was the local correspondent for the UK’s Daily Mail and America’s Copley News Service, for whom I wrote a regular weekly column that was syndicated to some 300 newspapers around the United States – ranging from the Sacramento Bee (a wonderful name for a newspaper) to the more influential San Diego Union.

During my Belgrade days, I spent a lot of time travelling around the Vojvodena, a rich farming region that borders Rumania and Hungary. As I speak Serbo-Croat it was fairly easy to get to know the locals and learn a little about their cuisine. I was often invited to a pig-killing to celebrate a saint’s day, a fairly regular ritual in the countryside – but not an event to be recommended to the faint hearted. Don’t worry. I am not going to give a recipe that starts: “first kill a pig”, but will instead give a couple of dishes that are filling and highly recommended for a cold winter’s day.

The recipe for pasulj was given to me by a cook at an army garrison in Subotica on the Hungarian border, and I sincerely hope he was not divulging military secrets in doing so. The recipe for bean ciorba comes from the Writers Club in Belgrade, and is more or less a vegetarian version of pasulj. Both dishes improve in taste if left to stand in a fridge for a day or two and slowly warmed up.

PASULJ

350 g smoked pork
300 g dry white beans
2 large onions, chopped
4 carrots, diced
2 cloves of garlic
parsley
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon flour
50 g pork fat
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 red chilli, sliced with seeds and ribs removed
salt to taste


Soak beans overnight. Drain then cook until tender in 1½ litres of water with the vegetables, garlic, meat and bay leaf. Make a roux with the flour and fat, dilute with some soup, add the tomato ketchup and chilli pepper and put in the pan with the beans, meat and vegetables. Leave to simmer for 15 minutes, or longer.

Serves 4/6


SERBIAN BEAN CIORBA

250 g dry white beans
2 carrots, sliced
1 parsnip, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon paprika
½ tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 cup of yoghurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Soak beans overnight and cook in lots of fresh water until almost tender. Add the vegetables and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until both beans and vegetables are soft. Season with half the salt.

In a separate pan, heat the oil and butter together, stir in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes on a low heat. Add the garlic, crushed with the rest of the salt, and then the paprika and cayenne pepper. Dilute into a smooth sauce with ½ cup of cold water and add to the beans and vegetables. Mix well and simmer for 15 minutes, adding more water if the soup is too thick.

Just before serving, dilute the yoghurt with a little hot soup and add to the pan. Add the lemon juice, taste and adjust seasoning.

Serves 4/6