Recipe: Mama Zdravka's Banitsa

We love living in Plovdiv.  Everyone we talk to loves living here, and everyone who doesn't live here, loves visiting.  You'll have to come see us to know what we mean :)  The only thing that might make it slightly better is a Starbucks.  Especially when eating banitsa, the renowned Balkan cheese pastry.

It's a great breakfast item, delicious for dessert, or just as a snack.  As promised, here is Joy's Bulgarian host mom's recipe... although, you should know it calls for rather unique ingredients.

Also, take note that the measurements are estimated for two reasons:

1. Here in the Balkans, people just know how much to put in a dish to make it come out just right.  Meaning, Joy watched & wrote down what she saw Mama Zdravka put in.
2. Converting from metric to US measurements is always quirky, right?

Who's up for the challenge? :)

Mama Zdravka's Banitsa:

4 eggs

15 oz. "sirene" or goat cheese (i.e. feta cheese)

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tsp. baking soda

18 oz. phyllo pastry

Vegetable Oil

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.  In medium bowl, combine eggs, cheese (crumbled into small chunks), sugar, and baking soda.  In a small bowl, pour one cup of vegetable oil, and get out a soup spoon; keep oil out, as you may need more.

Unfold phyllo pastry & place one sheet flat in a 9 x 13 dish.  It's ok if the phyllo sheets fold over (if they are too big for the 9 x 13 dish).  Drizzle 2 spoonfuls of oil over pastry.  Then evenly drizzle the egg/cheese mixture over the pastry, not covering the pastry.  Meaning, a couple good-sized chunks in each serving.  Hope that makes sense!

Continue with the above layering until the phyllo + egg/cheese mixture is no more.  Drizzle oil over the top phyllo layer, to keep it from burning.

Bake for 20-25 min or until top of banitsa looks like the picture above!  Let it cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Just to throw a little "fall" aspect into this recipe, you can add pumpkin puree' or thinly-sliced apples to this.  We've had both & they're heavenly.

It's so fun to taste Bulgarian culture!  Hope you enjoy it just as much as we do!

Oh, and, Sofia has a Starbucks, so we're hopeful about possibly getting one in Plovdiv... to get one in the next two years isn't too much to ask, right? :)