​I've left the name on this one in Croatian as I like it, so I didn't want to change it, but this is basically a beef and pea soup/stew with dumplings. Croatians love to eat with a spoon, soups and stews are cooked all year round. It might by a heatwave outside, but a soup is cooked. 

Now I have been making this dish for years, but I could never get the dumplings perfect, until now. These were perfect. You mix the ingredients for the dumplings together until you get a thick pancake batter kind of consistency. Not too thick that it's a dough, but not too liquid where you can't pick it up with a spoon. Next time I make it, I'll measure the water for you.

The rest of the dish is easy to make, the flavours work well together.

I recently watched a video with someone making it using pork instead, I'm going to try that one day soon, just for a change.

This is something my husband particularly loves as this is the kind of food his mum makes, but I am happy to say my whole family loves it to.

​Recipe adapted from Jela za Sve Prigode by Vesna Pavicic

2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 onions, diced
​700g chuck steak, diced, bite sized
 3 carrots, diced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
500g frozen peas
1 teaspoon vegeta
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
200ml white wine
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons plain flour

Njoklice:
200g plain flour
2 eggs
 tablespoon sunflower oil
salt, to taste
water, as needed


Add oil to a large saucepan, place over a medium high heat, add onions and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Increase the heat to high, add in the meat, stir well to combine and continue to sauté a further 10 minutes, decrease the heat back to medium high if catching too much.

Now add in the carrots and parsley, stir through. Add in one litre of water, stir, cover with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add in the peas, vegeta, paprika, season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add in one litre of water, mix. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Mix the tomato paste in 2 cups water. Mix the flour in 1/4 cup water, make sure there are no lumps of flour, add both the tomato paste and flour mixtures to the beef mixture along with the wine and another 2 cups water. Simmer 45 minutes. If you need to add water as it is thicker than you want it to be add more water.

Meanwhile make your noklice: In a bowl add the flour, eggs, oil and salt. Give it a mix. Now add in 2 tablespoons of water, mix. Keeping adding water a tablespoon at a time until you get a smooth thick pancake batter consistency. Set aside, until needed

​After the 45 minutes of cooking time has passed, add in the noklice. Place a spoon into your hot stew, this will stop the batter sticking to your spoon. When it is hot, use the spoon to cut the dough near the edge of the dough. Try and keep them the same size for even cooking, this comes with practice.

​Drop the dough into the stew by putting the dough and spoon into the simmering stew, the dough will slide off and this way the spoon stays hot, repeat until all the dough is used up, simmer for about 10 minutes or until the noklice are cooked through.
Serve hot.

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​This recipe came about as I had shitake mushrooms in the refrigerator that I needed to use up. I found this surprisingly delicious, it was so nice. I had never added soy sauce to eggs, what a great flavour.

I served it as a side to Honey Soy Chicken and Broccolini. If you want a vegetarian dish just serve it with the broccolini. With the leftovers, I just made some extra eggs, and heated up the rice and mushrooms and had it the next day. Loved it then also.

This is a very simple dish, perfect for a quick, yet flavoursome lunch.

Recipe adapted from www.taste.com.au

2 eggs
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
6 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
1 tablespoon shredded ginger
1 garlic clove, crushed
300g fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
Cooked rice and steamed broccolini, to serve

Beat eggs with soy, season with pepper.

Heat a non stick frying pan over medium heat, add half the oil and when hot, pour in the eggs, swirling pan to coat the base of the frying pan.

Cook until the omelette is just set. Sprinkle with a little spring onion. Using an egg flipper, carefully roll up the omelette. Slide out onto a board, chop up roughly into shreds.

Return the pan to the heat, add the remaining oil, ginger and garlic, fry for 1 minute.

Add mushrooms, stir fry until wilted, then add the oyster sauce and stir to combine.

Place rice in a serving dish, top with mushrooms and omelette.

Garnish with remaining spring onion, serve with broccolini.

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​Croatian doughnuts, called fritule, originate from the Croatian coastal region of Dalmatia.

My dad absolutely loves fritule, it's something that makes him remember being a young boy and his mum would make him fritule, it was a treat that has left him with a fond childhood memory. My dad says his mum made fritule traditionally on Christmas Eve, but these days with how easy they are to make, I might sneak this recipe in a few more times throughout the year.

Recently my dad was in hospital and it was his birthday, so instead of a cake, I surprised him with a bowl of birthday fritule, he was so happy. 

My family love fritule to, I find I love cooking traditional Croatian food for my family, it gives me joy keeping this traditional food going.

I used Croatian rakija to flavour the fritule, since that’s what I had to hand, but you could use brandy, I also added in lemon zest and vanilla sugar. Sultanas are optional, but my dad would not have them without them. Even I eat them in fritule, even though I don't really like sultanas. But if you don't like them, leave them out.

When dropping the dough use two teaspoons, I pick up the dough with one teaspoon, then use the other teaspoon to push it into the oil. 

Now you may notice that my recipe actually comes from a Lebanese cookbook, I chose this recipe as being Croatian and Catholic and this being served on Christmas Eve, I needed a recipe that had no milk or eggs in them. There are so many recipes out there, but this one was one that ticked all the boxes from how my mum remembered them being made (she watched my grandmother make them when she visited Australia when I was a baby), I do wish I had a chance to eat my grandmothers fritule. I also have made a Beninese version called Yovo Doko using plain flour and they are equally as good. So although fritule are Croatian, there are variations of this recipe all over the world.

These fritule are so easy, you really need to try them soon.

​Recipe adapted from Abla Amad's cookbook 'Ablas Lebanese KItchen'

Makes about 20

2 cups (150g) self raising flour
1 teaspoon dried yeast
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 1/3 cups (330ml) warm water
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon rakija
1/3 cup sultanas, to taste

sunflower oil, for deep frying

For dusting:
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
​

Place the flour, yeast, sugar and warm water in a bowl and mix together well, leave for 5 minutes. Mix in the lemon zest, rakija and sultanas. Cover with cling film, then two tea towels and set aside for 2 hours.

Mix together the caster sugar and vanilla sugar, set aside until needed.

Heat the oil over a high heat until hot, then reduce the heat to medium. Working in batches, carefully drop teaspoonfuls (if you want larger ones use tablespoons) of doughnut mixture, a few at a time-they will quickly rise to the surface and turn golden, you will need to flip them over a few times to cook them evenly, I use two forks to do this. If they are colouring too quickly, but are not cooked inside turn down the heat. Same goes for the opposite, if not colouring, turn up the heat. Carefully lift out with a slotted spoon. Repeat with the next batch. While still warm coat them in the caster sugar mixture.

Place doughnuts in a bowl. Serve hot or at room temperature. These doughnuts are best eaten on the day of making, which shouldn't be a problem as these are so addictive, try stopping at one.

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​When you ask your husband 'what cake would you like for your birthday' and he responds 'a round one'. Then you ask again and he looks in the refrigerator and finds blood oranges and says 'a blood orange cake'. So a round blood orange cake it was.

This cake was described as spectacular, and spectacular it is. The blood oranges, which act as an 'icing' are just beautiful, and they taste amazing. The cake is made with almond meal and this gives an amazing flavour.

Blood oranges are amazing, no two are alike, some are orange inside, some orange and red, some a deep dark red, all are beautiful, and that colour variation adds to the beauty in this cake. The bad part of blood oranges is that they have a short season, but when they are in season, I love making desserts with them. 

This is a simple cake, but it is delicious. I honestly think I found my husbands favourite cake.

​Recipe adapted from www.notquitenigella.com/

For the oranges
2-3 blood oranges, sliced thinly
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
For the cake
200g unsalted butter
200g raw castor sugar
3 large eggs
200g almond meal
1/2 cup plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup natural yogurt


Preheat oven to 160C/140C fan forced. Line 25cm cake tin (I use springform) with baking paper in one piece folding down the sides.

In a saucepan, place the water and sugar and stir on low to medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat to medium high heat and add the blood orange slices. Once boiling, simmer for 10-15 minutes until the peels become semi translucent. Remove the orange slices with a slotted spoon and boil the syrup so that it becomes slightly thicker. Cool the oranges until they are fine to handle with hands.

Line the sides of the prepared tin using some of the syrup brushed onto the parchment to adhere them. First position down the ones that curve around on the side and then tile the rest around that. You can overlap them too. You can also place the orange slices all the way up the sides, just cut some in half and placed these on the top edges (which when overturned will become the bottom edge). These were the peskiest to stick but persevere using the syrup which gets nice and sticky once cooled. Reserve the syrup to brush over cake once baked.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy and add eggs one at a time.  Stir in almond meal, flour, baking powder and yogurt and mix until just combined (do not overwork). Spoon into the prepared tin making sure not to dislodge the orange slices. Bake for 60 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes. The longer you cool it the sturdier the cake will be. Upturn carefully onto the serving plate and remove the parchment paper. Brush the top and sides of the cake with the reserved glaze.

​Serve with double cream or thick yogurt.

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