Ravijojla's Entry in the Contest Of Tongues #2: Let's Appreciate Our Identity - Food Is A Universal Language Without Barrier !!

Following the beaten path, I'm going to start from the beginning. The products we need for this signature for my country dish are listed in the Ingredients bellow.

What we are doing here in Bulgarian reads like Баница. A particularly liked pastry dish coming from the land of the favoured Bulgarian yoghurt in both sweet and a savoury version, is a national delight I took some dignity to introduce you with. For those of you who have missed my previous post out of some strange reasons, I'll make a quick remark here mentioning that the Traditional Bulgarian Eggs&Cheese Banitsa in its savoury version is a mix of a Filo Pastry, yoghurt, eggs and Bulgarian cow cheese, which may remind of feta, only that ours is a matured dairy product. It happened somehow that Banitsa was mentioned on many occasions this month and this is quite normal for it is a very winter dish.

Once in the region you'll be pleasantly surprised to see versions of this pastry across the borders - Serbian pita and gibanitsa, Montenegro manta...even the Macedonians won't let you go further your way without trying it their way. Getting to real work now...Traditionally, Баница is made with homemade or commercially made pastry sheets that are prepared from a baker's hard dough including flour, eggs, and water. Make sure that the sheets are spread by continuously pulling the dough using fingers until it becomes less than a millimeter thin. This will produce a fine crust later. Some master chefs are applying the pizza-dough technique and spread the dough by waving the sheets over their heads. Do NOT do this at home! In order to acquire soft and elastic sheet, sprinkle some sunflower oil between the partially spread leaves. For the traditional fill crush some white cheese, whisk together yoghurt with backing soda, and the eggs. The baking soda will make your pastry fluffy and soft.

Keep it simple and mix the eggs, oil, yoghurt and cheese together. Less to wash later! If it was the Christmas day already, at this point I had to have here some dogwood branches with a bud to put into the pastry thus adding a "zest" of health and longevity for you. Now stuck in quite an ordinary day, I suggest we serve our Banitsa with plain yogurt, ayran, or boza. The BEST PART is you can have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner equally...isn't it a time saving idea!

Making it the @Ravijojla's Way. Get the sheets layered one by one in a large greased baking dish, sprinkle with oil and use the fill between each layer. I prefer the Detours and simple ways - my oil goes in the eggs and yoghurt mixture, so I'm able to move quickly forward. My family prefers a rich fill, so I usually see to apply a substantial amount of it spooned onto the leaves and then proceed with the remaining sheets and filling in the same manner. Facilitating your First Banitsa Experience further, I suggest you have a look at the step-by-step method Here.

What I prefer for an outstanding and melting crust, is to cover the top with a quantity of eggs, yoghurt and oil mixture, I have put aside at the beginning. Couldn't ask for a better topping. Ready to bake the pastry, we need the oven at 200–250 °C for about 30-35 minutes or until the Banitsa is golden brown. Take it out, let it rest for a few minutes, then cut it up in pieces and enjoy! And as we commonly say in Bulgaria:

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Special thanks to @immortal-tongue for providing such an amazing opportunity of getting our tongues united!

Keep dreaming on for Life is delicious!

Yours,

On an also important note...
Please consider these most amazing and supportive people as witnesses:
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@curie / @markangeltrueman - @good-karma
@therealwolf - @thekitchenfairy
@jatinhota, @guiltyparties, @noblewitness and

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