Serbian Easter Story

[srhcb]

SERBIAN EASTER STORY (with Grandmother's Palacinka Recipe)

Since the Orthodox Churches still use the old calendar they observe most religious holidays ten days late. Easter, however, is calculated from the moon rather than based on a calendar so the Serbian and other Orthodox churches celebrate on the same day as other religions.

Although I'm not usually a willing participant in holiday family gatherings, I made an exception for Easter this year since my cousins on my Mother's side of the family, who I hadn't seen together in over twenty years until this past summer at my Uncle's funeral, were getting together.

My cousin Greg flew in from Berkley, and Steph came over from Holland, where she's lived for the past twenty-five years. Her husband Pietr was already in this country on business, and the cousins had aready planned on meeting to finalize some matters concerning my Uncle's estate and the family foundation he had established to fund medical school scholarships and assist local communities with public health related projects.

My cousin, Dr. Mike, who took over my Uncle's medical practice and maintains the family home. The house is situated on a spectacular lakefront site and is right out of the pages of an early 1950's Better Homes and Gardens. It was cutting edge architecture and technology for its day, especially in the kitchen, which includes what must be one of the first home versions of the center work island. It also contains a great collection of vintage cookbooks, including an original edition "The Art of French Cooking", which I hope to examine more thoroughly at a later date.

Since these are my Serbian relatives, all of whom love to cook and eat, gathering for an Easter Dinner seemed destined. Since the only other guests would be my parents, my Brother, and my Sister w/ SO, I figured it was a crowd I could handle.

The dinner, served as a rather informal sit or walk around brunch, featured both a traditional ham and the obligatory for Serbians leg of lamb. (Dr. Mike, being a surgeon, carved them expertly.) There were lots of sides and breads, and a nice salad of mixed baby greens with citrus, strawberries and goat cheese which I personally enjoyed very much.

Dessert, prepared by my Sister Marcy, was the highlight of the meal. Palacinkas were one of my late Grandmother's specialties brought over from the Old Country. They are like a very thin crepe with either a fruit or cheese filling, tightly wrapped and then baked until, (if executed properly), the wrap and filling meld. My Mother's are pretty good, but my own attempts have resulted in nothing more special than filled crepes, which are fine, but they're not palacinkas.

Marcy's were as good as I've seen since my Grandmother died some twenty-five years ago. The fruit-filled ones featured a homemade blackberry jam, and those with the cottage cheese filling were just sweet enough to compliment the slightly tart fruit versions In her Iron Chef guise she also experimented with a Nutella filled palacinka, which turned out to need a little further development work texturewise.

Many bottles of champagne were consumed, and conversations ranged from old family stories to word processing technology, European politics, American cars, and of course food and cooking. I also introduced the concept of Jousting Peeps, which Dr. Mike enjoyed immensely!

All in all, a pretty good time. We hope to get together again this Summer when perhaps our only other surviving relative, our cousin Paula, will be able to join us.

Grandmother's Palacinka Recipe, Courtesy of Sister via Mother - {verbatim}:

Batter:

1 c flour

3 eggs

1 1/2 c milk (real milk)

1 T melted butter

let stand 15 minutes

use 2 T batter

freeze well

can't remember how many it makes...

12 oz cottage cheese

1 egg

1/4 c powder sugar

2 T lemon juice

2 T cornstarch

spread filling evenly over crepe

roll up loosely

12 - 16 fit in 9 x 12 pan best if glass pan so you can see how brown on

bottom

(IE my jelly ones got overdone)

pour cream over edges & seams (just so you can see it)

1 jar of nutella or same size of jelly makes 10

bake at 325 for 20 to 30 min

nutella ones get that "crunchiness" which I personally like

jelly one should be more crowded in pan

whereas cottage cheese ones kinda puff up a little

they

[balmagowry]

Oooh I have to try this - I love palacinka. Can you explain what is meant by this?

pour cream over edges & seams (just so you can see it)

[srhcb]

Oooh I have to try this - I love palacinka. Can you explain what is meant by this?

pour cream over edges & seams (just so you can see it)

Like I said, it's verbatim, but from having eaten palacinkas for years I can interpret it to mean you pour a small amount of cream carefully around the edges and seams, not just all over the top.

Let me know how they turn out. I'm thinking of trying a fig filling myself.

PS: Although I run the risk incurring the wrath of the Ghosts of Serbian Grandmothers, I'll mention that if you're crepe challanged my Sister reports that Freida's or Melissa's frozen crepes, both available at Wal-Mart, will work pretty well in a pinch.

[klc14]

let stand 15 minutes

use 2 T batter

freeze well

can't remember how many it makes...

I hope this means to let the batter stand 15 minutes, make crepes using 2 T batter, finished crepes freeze well.

At first I thought, why would you freeze 2 T of batter. Then I reread it. OH!

Thanks for the tip on how the different fillings affect the result. This looks very worth the time which it must be if you continue to try and get it right. And if you get a friend to help assemble, a good time in the kitchen.

Hope Paula will be able to make it this summer!

[balmagowry]

Let me know how they turn out.  I'm thinking of trying a fig filling myself.

PS: Although I run the risk incurring the wrath of the Ghosts of Serbian Grandmothers, I'll mention that if you're crepe challanged my Sister reports that Freida's or Melissa's frozen crepes, both available at Wal-Mart, will work pretty well in a pinch.

Thanks. Don't know how soon I'm likely to make them, so don't wait on my account. I'm not at all crepe-challenged, but it suddenly occurs to me to wonder whether these are really crepes or whether they're actually blintzes. I would think blintzes would make more sense, especially given the way they're supposed to meld with the filling. Does your sister (&/or did your grandmother) cook both sides? Oy, another thing to research....

BTW, it occurs to me that one possible solution to the Nutella problem might be to mix it in equal proportions with the cheese filling. Different flavor, of course, but it seems to me that straight Nutella might taste a bit cloying anyway, and might combine well with the other. Just a thought, something to play with. I think fig sounds wonderful. In my mind Palacsinta are always apricot, but for some reason I suddenly find myself imagining them with gooseberry. Yum.

[srhcb]

let stand 15 minutes

use 2 T batter

freeze well

can't remember how many it makes...

I hope this means to let the batter stand 15 minutes, make crepes using 2 T batter, finished crepes freeze well.

At first I thought, why would you freeze 2 T of batter. Then I reread it. OH!

Hope Paula will be able to make it this summer!

I considered editing the recipe but thought part of it's charm was the quaint way it was written. English was always a second language for my Grandmother and that's probably the way she would have given the recipe to my Mother over the phone.

My Sister's version faithfully adheres to this style of transcription since she has an intuitive understanding of it. When she, my Mom, and my cousins Steph and Paula get together they can carry on sixteen simultaneous conversations, interrupting and finishing each other's sentences, and somehow keep track of what's being said. Nobody else can can make any sense of it, or even dare try.

THANX SB

[srhcb]

I'm not at all crepe-challenged, but it suddenly occurs to me to wonder whether these are really crepes or whether they're actually blintzes. I would think blintzes would make more sense, especially given the way they're supposed to  meld with the filling. Does your sister (&/or did your grandmother) cook both sides? Oy, another thing to research....

BTW, it occurs to me that one possible solution to the Nutella problem might be to mix it in equal proportions with the cheese filling. Different flavor, of course, but it seems to me that straight Nutella might taste a bit cloying anyway, and might combine well with the other. Just a thought, something to play with. I think fig sounds wonderful. In my mind Palacsinta are always apricot, but for some reason I suddenly find myself imagining them with gooseberry. Yum.

I hadn't thought of the crepe/blintze question until you mentioned it. My Cousin Steph is coming over for lunch today and I'll ask her and my Mother about it.

I agree with you about the Nutella. "Cloying" pretty much describes my impression of their flavor, but my Sister likes them. In doing some research on the subject I found that a restaurant called "Palacinka" in New York City offers a Nutella variety, and maybe that's where she got the idea?

Apricot has always been my favorite too. The tart/sweet goes perfectly with the sweet/tart of the cheese palacinkas. You must eat a bit of one, and then the other. Gooseberry would probably be good, as were the blackberry. I'm anxious to experiment with a fig filling, especially since I've learned that my Cousin Greg has fig trees in California.

THANX SB

[srhcb]

SERBIAN EASTER STORY (with Grandmother's Palacinka Recipe)

.... Dessert, prepared by my Sister Marcy, was the highlight of the meal.  Palacinkas were one of my late Grandmother's specialties brought over from the Old Country.  They are like a very thin crepe with either a fruit or cheese filling, tightly wrapped and then baked until, (if executed properly), the wrap and filling meld.  My Mother's are pretty good, but my own attempts have resulted in nothing more special than filled crepes, which are fine, but they're not palacinkas.

Grandmother's Palacinka Recipe, Courtesy of Sister via Mother - {verbatim}:

Batter:

1 c flour

3 eggs

1 1/2 c milk (real milk)

1 T melted butter

let stand 15 minutes

use 2 T batter

freeze well

can't remember how many it makes...

12 oz cottage cheese

1 egg

1/4 c powder sugar

2 T lemon juice

2 T cornstarch

spread filling evenly over crepe

roll up loosely

12 - 16 fit in 9 x 12 pan best if glass pan so you can see how brown on

bottom

(IE my jelly ones got overdone)

pour cream over edges & seams (just so you can see it)

1 jar of nutella or same size of jelly makes 10

bake at 325 for 20 to 30 min ''''

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Well Tempis Fugit!

I can't believe it's been a year and a half and I haven't tried to make palacinkas since!

Well, today is GF's birthday, and despite being of Italian descent, she's always loved palacinkas. And since I have a jar of sour cherries from my cousins' trip to visit ancesteral homelands in Eastern Europe last year, I figured I'd give the recipe a try this evening.

I'll let you know how things turn out.

SB (even if they're less than perfect)

[srhcb]

I'll let you know how things turn out.

SB (even if they're less than perfect)

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Not so good