Djuvec Rice with Bell Peppers and Tomatoes Istrian Recipe

Djuvec (frequently spelled Ðuveč and pronounced Joo-vetch) is a one pot rice dish, and a bit of a hidden gem in the gastronomic world.  It is very commonly found in South-Eastern Europe in countries like Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and other Balkan countries, and  perhaps it is not very well known to the rest of the world. 

This vegetarian and vegan friendly dish is one of my absolute favourites, it is incredibly simple and quick to make, healthy, and is really delicious. It is also a very practical dish. It can be prepared ahead of time, and it makes a fantastic addition to more familiar picnic foods and buffets at parties. 

Djuvec is always a big hit with friends and family at the barbecue gatherings, as it is  traditionally served at a room temperature as a side dish, and makes a great paring to pan fried or grilled vegetables, fish or  different type of meats like Ćevapčići (small pieces of rolled grilled mince meat) and Ražnjići (grilled pork meat on skewers). 

It can also be served hot or warm as a main mail, maybe with a side salad, as an alternative to a tasty, and perhaps,  more frequently cooked, well known and much loved a classic Italian risotto. 

It is often made during the summer, end of summer and early autumn with main ingredients being onions, red, orange or yellow bell peppers and tomatoes, and often peas, ajvar (sweet roasted red pepper spread) and powdered paprika is added to a basic recipe to create a very common variations of this dish. 

I am sharing here my mum's super delicious one pot pepper and tomato rice dish that she used to make time and time again, just try it, I promise you, you will came back to this “off the beaten track recipe” that my family and my friends simply adore, and cannot get enough of it. 

Recipe

Ingredients 

Serves 4-6 

• 3 Tbsp virgin olive oil or olive oil 

• 1-2 onions (about 250g), peeled and finely chopped 

• 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed 

• 2 red bell peppers (about 400g), wash, dry, remove the seeds and white filaments and cut into small cubes (for this recipe you can also use yellow or orange bell peppers or a combination) 

• few vine tomatoes or other types of ripe and sweet tomatoes (about 300g) washed, quartered and roughly chopped 

• 1 Tbsp tomato paste 

• 300g long grain rice 

• 600ml vegetable stock or instant vegetable stock powder 

• sea salt 

• black pepper 

• fresh flat leaf parsley for serving, roughly chopped, optional 

Method 

Place olive oil in a fairly large shallow cast iron casserole dish or frying pan, add finely chopped onions, crushed garlic, a generous pinch of sea salt and  cook for about 10 minutes on a gentle heat until the onions become soft and translucent, stirring occasionally. 

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Add small cubes of bell peppers and stir in with the onions and garlic, cook further for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

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Transfer roughly chopped tomatoes to the pan, add tomato paste, mix and cook for 10 minutes or so  or until the tomatoes are soft and cooked down, stirring occasionally. 

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Add the rice to the pan, stir with the onion, pepper and tomato mixture 

Toast the rice for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. 

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Pour vegetable stock in the pan and bring to boil. 

Turn the heat down to a minimum, put the lid on and cook for about 20 minutes without stirring. 

Halfway through cooking time, very gently move about the rice with the fork. 

Serve hot or at room temperature. 

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Sprinkle some roughly chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, optional.

Just a thought 

This dish is not suitable for freezing and will keep in an airtight container in a fridge for a few days. 

Wine suggestion

Alto Adige Valle Isarco Kerner DOC 2021 - Pacher Hof

Šataraš - Bell peppers, onions and tomato Balkan inspired stew with scrambled eggs Recipe

Šataraš (pronounced Satarash) is a stew like dish made with fresh bell peppers, ripe sweet tomatoes, onions, and scrambled eggs, it is similar to Shakshuka which has a sunny-side up eggs and makes a perfect main meal choice in the summer when the vegetables used for the dish are in full season. This dish is very well known in the Balkan regions but not so much to the rest of the world.

Eating šataraš just make you happy, and it feels like having a sunshine on a plate, as the addition of the eggs makes this dish colourful, extra flavourful and filling, it is also healthy and fresh.

This is one of my absolute favourite childhood dishes and if you like bell peppers this recipe is one of those you will come back to it time and time again as the recipe is very easy to make and the base can be cooked well in advance.

This dish is normally homemade and not found in the restaurants, it is typically served for lunch or dinner but it is also a great choice for breakfast or brunch.

Šataraš travelled from the neighbouring Balkans and stayed in Slovenian Istra, where it has been a very welcomed guest and has been enjoyed by the generations of locals in the area where gastronomy has been strongly shaped and enriched by the Balkan culinary traditions as well as Venetian and Austro-Hungarian.

I am sharing here my mother's recipe for šataraš with which she has delighted us during long hot summer months. If you do try it, then I think you will soon realize how delicious this dish truly is in its humble simplicity.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 4 bell peppers, a combination of yellow and green (each bell pepper weighing about 200g), wash, dry, remove the seeds and white filaments, and cut into strips (you can use more or less peppers according to your preference)

• 4 vine tomatoes (each weighing about 150g) or other types of sweet and ripe tomatoes, washed and roughly chopped (use more or less tomatoes according your liking)

• 1 onion (about 170g), peeled and finely sliced

• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 4 eggs

• sea salt

• black pepper

• fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped, for serving, optional

Method

Place extra virgin olive oil in a fairly large frying pan, add sliced onions, a pinch of sea salt and cook for about 10 minutes on a gentle heat until the onions become soft and translucent, stirring occasionally.

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Add strips of bell peppers and stir in with the onions. Cover with the lid (the steam will help to cook down and soften the peppers) and cook on a gentle heat for up to about 30 minutes.

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Add chopped tomatoes, cover with the lid, and cook on a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, for about 20-30 minutes, or until tomatoes are cooked down and soft.

If the mixture has too much liquid (this will depend on how watery the tomatoes you are using are) take the lid off and cook further for a few minutes or until all of the liquid evaporates.

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In a small bowl crack the eggs, slightly whisk, add sea salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the pepper stew, mix and stir and cook until desired consistency.

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Sprinkle with roughly chopped fresh parsley, optional, and serve immediately with plenty of rustic crunchy bread.

Just a thought

This dish is best served hot, equally delicious at room temperature.

You can prepare pepper, onion and tomato stew well in advance, keep it in a fridge in an airtight container for about 3 days, and pour the whisked eggs on a pepper base just before you want to complete the dish and ready to serve it.

The pepper stew (without the egg) is also great served with grilled and barbecued meats, a great base for a risotto or a pasta dish, and it can also be enjoyed with polenta or an egg frittata.

Pepper, onion and tomato base is suitable for freezing.

Wine suggestion

Salento Negroamaro Rosato IGT “Calafuria” 2021 - Tormaresca

Stuffed peppers with minced meat and rice in a tomato sauce Istrian Recipe

This Balkan dish made of peppers, stuffed with a mix of minced meat and rice and cooked or baked in a rich tomato sauce is very rustic, unpretentious, hearty and traditionally made during summer months, end of summer and early autumn.

Yes, there are a few steps to this recipe, but it is very simple to make and there is absolutely nothing complicated about it.

Stuffed peppers is a dish that is common in many cuisines around the world and generally consists of peppers getting halved or hollowed and then stuffed with a variety of different fillings such as meat, rice, vegetables, cheese, fish etc.

This dish, with its many variations, can be found in Greece, Central and Southeast Europe, Scandinavian and Baltic countries, Guatemala, North America Eastern Mediterranean, India and Spain.

It is in Eastern Mediterranean that stuffed peppers are part of Dolma, a word of Turkish origin, meaning “something stuffed” and it indicates a family of stuffed dishes originating from Ottoman Cuisine. The Ottoman Empire directly administered a vast territory, and eventually reached the Balkans and the area not far from the Istrian peninsula, where I come from, and this is why they strongly shaped the local cuisine.

As a result of this historical influence, there is no surprise that in the whole of Slovenia and in coastal Istria, stuffed peppers, known as Filana paprika or Polnjena paprika become integral part of the local diet and can be found on the menus informal family run restaurants, and it is one of the most frequently made dishes in many households.

I like to call this dish “a generational dish” since it is very much loved across different generations in the family, so when stuffed peppers are on the menu, everyone leaves the table happy.

Stuffed peppers are traditionally served with plenty of creamy mashed potatoes or just a lot of rice and bread. What is not to like about this dish?

Everyone in the family makes delicious stuffed peppers but this dish tastes super special and extra delicious when my brother cooks them. They are most often made a day in advance so all the flavours can fully develop and then gently reheat it. This is when they taste at their best.

I am sharing here my brother's recipe for stuffed peppers baked in the oven.

Ingredients

Serves 4-8 (depending if you are serving one or two stuffed peppers per person)

• 7-9 bell peppers, mixed colour or use just the ones that you prefer. The number of the peppers will depend on their size and also on the size of the dish you will use for this recipe and into which they need to fit. I used 8 medium size mixed peppers. (Babura type of peppers is a variety of peppers most commonly used for this recipe).

• 400g mince beef

• 400 mince pork

• 100g rice, any risotto type rice like Arborio, Vialone Nano, Carnaroli will work well

• bigger size onion (about 170g), finely chopped

• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• sea salt

• black pepper, finely ground

Sauce

• 2 tinned finely chopped tomatoes (2x400g), the best quality you can afford

• medium size onion, finely chopped

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• few fresh basil leaves

• sea salt

Method

Before starting this recipe, I suggest you do a little test to see how many peppers will you actually need. Take the ovenproof dish you intend to bake the stuffed peppers in and see how many peppers will fit in it.

For this recipe you can use a deep baking tray and cover stuffed peppers with an aluminium foil.

Start by making a simple tomato sauce. Put extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add finely chopped onions, a pinch of salt and fry on a gentle heat until the onions become soft. Add crushed garlic and fry gently together with the onions just for a minute or so. Add tinned tomatoes, few fresh basil leaves, bring to the boil, turn the heat down, partially cover with the lid and gently simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. By this time, the sauce should have a nice rich velvety consistency.

Prepare and clean the peppers. Cut off the top part and remove white little seeds from inside the peppers. Rinse the outside and the inside of the peppers with cold running water. Dry the peppers a bit with a kitchen towel or kitchen paper.

Take a griddle pan (if you have it, otherwise non stick pan will work just fine) and heat it until very hot. Place the peppers in a pan and charcoal grill them on all sides. The skin of the peppers will burst slightly and turn a bit black giving the peppers a slightly smoky flavour. Cool the peppers and set aside.

Charcoal grilling the peppers first will really give and extra dimension in terms of the flavour to the dish, however, you can skip this step.

Cook the rice, following the instruction on the packet, but only halfway through. This will avoid the rice to become too mushy in the stuffing. Rinse in a small colander, cool and keep aside.

Put extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add finely chopped onions, a pinch of salt and fry on a gentle heat until the onions become soft. Add crushed garlic and fry gently together with the onions just for a minute or so. Place mince beef and mince pork in a pan and fry until brown, stirring occasionally. With the back of wooden spoon break bigger lumps of meat. Taste and adjust the seasoning with sea salt and finely ground black pepper. Cool a bit and set aside.

Transfer cooked rice and browned mince meat in a big mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.

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Transfer the tomato sauce in a ovenproof dish.

Turn the oven on and preheat it to 180C static or equivalent.

With the help of a spoon, fill each pepper with meat and rice mixture. With the back of the spoon press the mixture down as you go along, this will allow you to get more mixture in a pepper.

Place each filled pepper in the ovenproof dish filled with tomato sauce.

Cover with the lid and bake for 2 hours. Check occasionally giving a dish a gentle shake.

Just a thought

If you are left with meat and rice mixture you can use it in frittata or make scrambled eggs with it and there is another meal sorted.

You can store stuffed peppers for few days in an airtight container and they also freeze very well.

Wine suggestion

Collio Cabernet Sauvignon DOC 2018 - Muzic

Ćevapčići (Grilled Minced Meat Sausages of the Balkans) recipe

Ćevapčići (plural and diminutive form of Ćevapčić) or Ćevapi (pronounced [ʨɛ'va:pi]) are small pieces of rolled grilled mince meat, type of Turkish kofte kebab, originally made in the Balkans during the Ottoman period. They are oriental in origin but can be traditionally found in the countries of what was formerly Yugoslavia, the Czech republic, Austria, Slovakia and the Italian province of Trieste and Gorizia.

Ćevapčići must be one of everyone's absolute favourite dishes back home in Slovenia and it is hard to imagine a barbecue without them. In fact, they are so popular, you can buy them ready made in almost every butcher shop or supermarket. They are popular street food (fast food) and became part of everyday diet in Slovenia. For meat lovers this little skinless sausages are a real dream.

As a child I have very vivid memories of going to a skiing holiday to a capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, and having the best ever, and I mean the best ever Ćevapčići in Baščaršija which is Sarajevo's old bazaar and the historical and cultural centre of the city. I was utterly fascinated by the place being so different from my native small Venetian looking coastal town of Koper. That was the first time I saw a real mosque and was captured by the beautiful Ottoman architecture.

Ćevapčići are grilled and served as a main course in groups of five to ten pieces on a plate or in a lepinja (traditional flatbread). They are commonly eaten with Ajvar (cream of roasted red peppers), chips, flat breads, pieces of spring onions or thinly sliced yellow or white onions and kajmak (type of cream cheese). What accompanies really well this dish is a fresh salad of tomatoes, cucumber, onions and any feta type of cheese, it completes the meal well.

I currently live in England where I cannot buy ready made Ćevapčići so I have decided to make them fresh from scratch, there is a great sense of satisfaction as you can tweak the ingredients to your taste.

The main ingredient is mince meat, lamb, veal pork or beef, you can mix two or three types of minced meat and there could be a variation of meat content and seasoning.

I am sharing here my father's recipe, he used to love Ćevapčići and he loved preparing them for the family.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 500g mince lamb

• 500g mince beef (can use 250g of mince beef and 250g of mince pork)

• 60g unsmoked pancetta or bacon, cut in small pieces (can use smoked alternative if prefer)

• 180g roughly of onions (very finely chopped)

• 1-2 clove of garlic (pressed)

• 1 egg (slightly beaten)

• 1 Tbsp powdered Hungarian sweet paprika

• ¼ Tsp baking soda

• sunflower oil for brushing

• sea salt

• black pepper (freshly ground)

Method

Put a table spoon of water in a frying pan and sautée on a medium heat pieces of pancetta or bacon. Turn the heat down, add the onions, garlic, a pinch of salt and fry gently, stirring frequently, until they become golden in colour and soft. It should take 10-15min, then set aside and cool.

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Transfer the pancetta/bacon and onion mixture into a food processor, add mince meat and mix at a low speed. Pulse if you can, as you do not want a completely smooth paste but a mixture with still a bit of a texture. If you have a smaller food processor you might have to do this in batches.

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Transfer the mixture from the food processor into a big bowl. Add the egg, pinch of salt, black pepper, baking soda and sweet paprika. With your hands mix well to combine all the ingredients, no food processor will do better job!

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Take a size of a golf ball, weighing roughly between 30-40g and shape into small sausages of about 7-8cm long.

Place your Ćevapčići onto a big plate or a tray and refrigerate for about 1hour.

Ćevapčići are ideal for barbecuing but as this is not always possible you can cook them in a grill pan.

Barbecue or grill the Ćevapčići on the hot grill pan for about 14 minutes, turning them often in between. They are ready when nice and brown on the outside and cooked through. It might be a good idea to check by cutting one in the middle. In this way you can calculate the grilling time for the following batches.

No matter which way you choose to cook them, make sure you lightly brush them with oil during the cooking process and try not over cook them as they will go hard.

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Just a thought

Ćevapčići freeze well, just make sure you freeze them individually first on a plate or a tray to avoid them sticking to each other, and then place them in a freezing bag...... and you are all set for your next BBQ outside with friends or family, or for an enjoyable meal indoors!

Wine suggestion

Carso-Kras DOC "Terra Rossa" 2009 by Branko & Vasja Čotar, Carso-Kras