Starter
Baked sirenje
White cheese baked in a clay dish with tomato and kashkaval, the favourite meze of Bitola.
Recipe from Туѓино Јабано
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 40 min
- Fasting
- Not suitable
Ingredients 10 ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°C. Butter two small earthenware dishes or ramekins.
- Spoon a little passata into the base of each, crumble in half the white cheese and press it down lightly with a fork.
- Scatter over the oregano, add half the kashkaval, then the rest of the white cheese. Dot the tomato purée on top.
- Bake for fifteen minutes, until the cheese is soft and the edges are bubbling.
- Beat the egg into the soured cream and pour it over. Cover with the remaining kashkaval and the last of the passata.
- Return to the oven for eight to ten minutes, until the top is blistered and gold in patches. Do not take it further; sirenje that overcooks goes rubbery and weeps.
- Sprinkle with Bukovo pepper and carry the dishes straight to the table, with warm bread for scooping.
If you cannot find it
Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.
- Sirenje
- Greek feta, drained and patted dry, or a firm Bulgarian white cheese. Choose one on the salty side.
- Kashkaval
- Kasseri, or a mild provolone; mature Gouda browns well too.
- Kajmak
- Full-fat soured cream beaten with a spoonful of clotted cream or mascarpone.
- Bukovo pepper flakes
- Sweet paprika with a pinch of chilli flakes.
