Starter
Seasoned soured milk
Thick soured milk beaten with garlic and salt under a slick of hot paprika oil, eaten with bread.
Recipe from Туѓино Јабано
- Prep
- 2 hr 30 min
- Cook
- 3 min
- Total
- 2 hr 33 min
- Fasting
- Not suitable
Ingredients 8 ingredients
Method
- If the soured milk is at all loose, line a sieve with muslin, set it over a bowl and drain it in the fridge for two or three hours, until it holds the shape of a spoon.
- Crush the garlic to a paste with the salt on a board. A clove simply grated in keeps a raw, harsh bite; the salt breaks it down into something rounder.
- Beat the garlic paste through the soured milk until it is smooth and glossy, then taste and correct the salt.
- Spread it into a shallow bowl and hollow the middle with the back of a spoon. Put it back in the fridge while you make the oil.
- Warm the oil and butter over a low heat until the butter foams. Take the pan off the heat before adding the pepper flakes and mint — off the flame the hot fat draws their colour out, on it they turn bitter within seconds.
- Pour the red oil into the hollow and serve at once, with warm bread and a glass of rakija.
If you cannot find it
Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.
- Kiselo mleko
- Thick Greek yoghurt, or full-fat natural yoghurt strained for an hour
- Bukovo pepper flakes
- Aleppo pepper, or mild chilli flakes loosened with a teaspoon of sweet paprika
