The Albanians call their homeland Shkiperiya, which means the side of the eagles. The Turks call it Arnautstan, and the Arnauts themselves. Albania is also popular as the country with the bunkers. At the time of Enver Hodzha over 700 000 bunkers were built over their entire territory in the case of a nuclear attack who looked like huge concrete mushrooms. It is one of the least known countries in Europe and the Mediterranean, although this state have a rich historical past. It was part of the Roman Empire, Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia and the Ottoman Empire. During the Second World War, Albania was occupied by Italy, and in the following decades the strong influence of the USSR. All this has transformed it into a variegated and colorful country that is a reflection of history and lifestyle in Eastern Europe and especially on the Balkan Peninsula. Today, Albania is among the countries with the highest levels of literacy on the continent, but still suffers from a low standard of living. I almost got to her last year. If I had not gone to the correctly lay-by for the St.Naum Monastery in Ohrid, I would have found myself at the border crossing between Macedonia and AlbaniMy friends have already gone to sea there and say that the beaches are nice, the prices is low and only driving there has come to them more stressful. I will most likely try this destination for sea tourism in the near future, but for the time being, I have no personal impressions.
The richness and diversity of Albanian cuisine surprises all guests of the country. Many traditional recipes, which local people love so much, are rooted in Italian, Turkish and Arabic cuisine. Of course, the proximity of the sea also affects. The specialty of Albanian cuisine is “Baked Yogurt”. And astonishment and surprise rise in us Bulgarians, as people living in a country glorifying with yogurt. We hardly imagine such a recipe. And what was the secret (you have no idea), a delicate lamb meat baked with many spices and yoghurt, the Albanians call “yogurt in an oven.” 🙂 Traditional dish is a banitsa with all kinds of vegetable, meat or brushtulla (a kind of banitsa with sugar and walnuts).
An important place in Albanian food is dairy products – different cheeses, yogurt, arachin, curd or salad (sour and fresh milk are mixed, cottage cheese is added and fermented). The butter is most commonly used in frying. An Albanian saying goes that “With butter and stone is eaten.” It is therefore no strange that a dessert originating in Latin America has become a national dish in Albania. A recipe for “Trileche” has been present in Spanish cooking books in the 19th century, and the word “Trileche” originates from the merging of the Spanish words Tres and Leches, which means three types of milk. The dessert resemble our revane. It is covered with caramel glaze, and unlike revane is syruped with two kinds of milk and cream, not with sugar syrup. Albanians travel and settle in many foreign countries. In this way, they also carry the recipe for this pastry in Turkey. And although our neighbor is famed for his baklava, this dessert is about to take the championship among the locals. After reading so many superlatives, there was no way to choose anything else to prepare from Albania. Especially when I know firsthand how delicious Turkish baklava is. 🙂
About cake:
4 eggs
¼ cup of powdered sugar
1 cup of flour
10 grams of baking powder
vanilla
For syrup:
1 liter of milk
220 ml of condensed milk
240 ml Double cream (cream with over 48% fat). I do not know if there is a place to buy in Bulgaria. I used cream with 35% fat
For caramel:
3 tablespoons of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of honey
220 ml of cream (recipe is Heavy cream – high-fat cream)
vanilla
2 tablespoons of butter
110 ml of milk
Steps of preparation:
Divide egg whites. Beat the egg whites with an electric whisk until they are starting to hold their shape. As I have repeatedly written the bowl and the stirrers dry and the eggs at room temperature. Add the egg yolks. Mix and sift the dry ingredients. Lightly and in part add them to the egg mixture by stirring up with an agitator. Put the mixture in a baking pan tray and bake for 18-20 minutes at 180 ° C. Once the cake has cooled, prick it with a wooden skewer in many places to be able to take over the syrup.
Warm the milk, condensed milk and cream on the hot plate. It does not need to boil. The basic rule for syrups is if the cake is cold, the syrup is warm or the opposite – a warm cake and a cold syrup. This is necessary in order not to become a glittery pastry. I personally recommend to reduce by 1/3 the amount of the syrup because I could not use the whole quantity. I risked becoming soup if I kept the recipe at 100%. What I read in many blogs is similar to my impression, namely – these ingredients are too many. Maybe I’ve messed up something with the cake base, but that’s what I will know by trying in Albania from the Trileche cake.
Now is the time to prepare the caramel sauce. Caramelize the sugar and honey in a saucepan with thick bottom to the color you most like. I personally prefer a little lighter caramel.The dark caramel makes me bitter. Add the butter and cream and stir vigorously with a wooden stirrer. Finally put the fresh milk and vanilla and leave at least a minute on the hot plate. Pour the sauce over the well-syroped cake. You can decorate with figurines of caramelized sugar, a little chocolate, edible flowers or whatever gives birth to your imagination. Before serving, is necessary the dessert to spend at least two hours in the refrigerator.
That was all about this Albanian delight. It’s not complicated, it does not take long. The cake is nice and light. Whether it is better than the Turkish baklava … I do not think. Try and we will talk again. 🙂
Next destination – Algeria.
