From the community’s kitchens

Macedonian Cuisine

A central collection of Macedonian recipes — begun by the home cooks of the Macedonian community in Ontario, and widened to the dishes cooked across Macedonia itself.

140 recipes

10 home cooks

48 fasting

6 courses

Main course

Ražnjići (skewers)

Туѓино Јабано

2 hr 45 min 12 ingredients
Main course

Stuffed courgettes

Туѓино Јабано

1 hr 50 min 14 ingredients
Soups & chorba Fasting

Bean chorba

Туѓино Јабано

2 hr 20 min 13 ingredients
Main course

Shketo with lamb

Марија Дика

1 hr 15 min 9 ingredients
Main course

Vine leaf sarma

Туѓино Јабано

2 hr 11 ingredients
Main course

Pork with cabbage

Туѓино Јабано

1 hr 50 min 9 ingredients
Pastry & pies

Maznik

Туѓино Јабано

2 hr 15 min 10 ingredients
Starter

Veal pâté

Каролина Петковска

1 hr 55 min 9 ingredients
Sweet Fasting

Semolina halva

Туѓино Јабано

40 min 8 ingredients
Pastry & pies Fasting

Gjevrečinja

Кире Банишки

1 hr 55 min 7 ingredients
Main course

Chicken with rice

Туѓино Јабано

1 hr 10 min 11 ingredients
Pastry & pies

Cheese kiflički

Дијана Веселиновска

3 hr 10 ingredients
Main course

Chomlek (veal and onion stew)

Туѓино Јабано

3 hr 50 min 15 ingredients
Pastry & pies

Piroshki

Дијана Веселиновска

2 hr 25 min 14 ingredients
Sweet

Gurabii (shortbread)

Туѓино Јабано

55 min 8 ingredients
Main course

Lamb under the sač

Туѓино Јабано

3 hr 30 min 13 ingredients
Main course Fasting

Stuffed carp

Туѓино Јабано

1 hr 45 min 11 ingredients
Salad Fasting

Cold bean salad

Донка Цапова

1 hr 50 min 9 ingredients
Soups & chorba Fasting

Lentil chorba

Туѓино Јабано

1 hr 20 min 16 ingredients
Soups & chorba

Tarana soup

Туѓино Јабано

50 min 14 ingredients
Main course Fasting

Fried cironki

Туѓино Јабано

30 min 9 ingredients
Main course

Lasagne (with minced meat)

Дијана Веселиновска

1 hr 10 min 11 ingredients
Main course

Turkey with cabbage

Туѓино Јабано

3 hr 30 min 10 ingredients
Main course

Kukurec

Туѓино Јабано

3 hr 30 min 10 ingredients

140 recipes
Recipe	Course	Contributor	Time	Ingredients
Ražnjići (skewers) Cubes of pork threaded onto short skewers and grilled over coals, the simplest thing on any grill.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	2 hr 45 min	12
Stuffed courgettes Courgettes hollowed out, filled with minced meat and rice, and baked in their own tomato sauce.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	1 hr 50 min	14
Bean chorba The looser relative of tavče gravče: beans simmered with root vegetables and finished with a paprika roux.	Soups & chorba Fasting	Туѓино Јабано	2 hr 20 min	13
Shketo with lamb Lamb braised in a great deal of onion and parsley, thickened with a spoonful of flour at the end. A spring dish.	Main course	Марија Дика	1 hr 15 min	9
Vine leaf sarma The summer sarma: small tight rolls in vine leaves, sharpened with lemon instead of soured cabbage.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	2 hr	11
Pork with cabbage Fresh cabbage braised with pork and paprika — the milder, quicker relative of podvarok.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	1 hr 50 min	9
Maznik Hand-stretched dough, oiled, folded and wound into a spiral — the pie that looks like a snail shell.	Pastry & pies	Туѓино Јабано	2 hr 15 min	10
Veal pâté Boiled veal and vegetables put through the mincer and bound with mayonnaise. A homemade pâté you serve with a spoon.	Starter	Каролина Петковска	1 hr 55 min	9
Semolina halva Semolina fried in oil until it darkens, then drowned in hot syrup — a fasting sweet made for memorials and for Lent.	Sweet Fasting	Туѓино Јабано	40 min	8
Gjevrečinja Rings of dough boiled first in honeyed water, then rolled in sesame and baked. Suitable for fasting exactly as written.	Pastry & pies Fasting	Кире Банишки	1 hr 55 min	7
Chicken with rice The commonest Sunday lunch there is: chicken thighs over rice, baked until the rice has drunk all the stock.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	1 hr 10 min	11
Cheese kiflički Yeasted dough divided into 12 balls, each cut into 12 triangles. A hundred and forty-four little rolls from one batch.	Pastry & pies	Дијана Веселиновска	3 hr	10
Chomlek (veal and onion stew) A slow winter stew of veal and whole small onions, made at New Year in Bitola and Prilep.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	3 hr 50 min	15
Piroshki Fried half-moons of yeasted dough filled with kashkaval, mortadella and ketchup. Eaten hot or cold.	Pastry & pies	Дијана Веселиновска	2 hr 25 min	14
Gurabii (shortbread) Crumbly butter shortbreads under a heavy dusting of icing sugar, baked for Christmas, Easter and family celebrations.	Sweet	Туѓино Јабано	55 min	8
Lamb under the sač Lamb and potatoes cooked slowly under a domed metal lid buried in embers, a shared Balkan Easter dish.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	3 hr 30 min	13
Stuffed carp A whole lake carp stuffed with onion and carrot and baked in white wine, eaten during the fast.	Main course Fasting	Туѓино Јабано	1 hr 45 min	11
Cold bean salad Boiled beans with two kinds of onion, garlic, oil and vinegar, chilled well and finished with mint. Fasting food, and a summer dish.	Salad Fasting	Донка Цапова	1 hr 50 min	9
Lentil chorba A thick fasting soup of brown lentils and paprika, eaten right through Lent and on any cold day.	Soups & chorba Fasting	Туѓино Јабано	1 hr 20 min	16
Tarana soup A soup thickened with tarana, the dried flour-and-yoghurt grain households grated and sun-dried for the winter.	Soups & chorba	Туѓино Јабано	50 min	14
Fried cironki Small lake fish rolled in flour and fried whole — fasting food from the shores of Ohrid and Dojran.	Main course Fasting	Туѓино Јабано	30 min	9
Lasagne (with minced meat) Lasagne as it is made in a Macedonian kitchen in Ontario — kashkaval instead of béchamel, and a test for when the sauce is thick enough.	Main course	Дијана Веселиновска	1 hr 10 min	11
Turkey with cabbage The feast-day roast: a whole turkey on a bed of sauerkraut that takes up every drop of the fat.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	3 hr 30 min	10
Kukurec An Easter speciality of lamb offal wrapped in intestine and baked slowly in an earthenware pot.	Main course	Туѓино Јабано	3 hr 30 min	10

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About the collection A cookbook written by a community

At the core of this collection are 32 recipes gathered from readers of Tugjino Jabano, a newspaper of the Macedonian community in Ontario. Each was written out by the cook herself, measured in cups and spoons, the way a dish is made at home.

The collection has been widened with dishes cooked across Macedonia.

The archive recipes keep their original substance; where the instructions were too brief to follow, clarifications have been added. The untouched 2005 text is preserved in the society’s archive. The photographs on these pages are modern illustrations made for the collection — the contributors’ own photographs stay in the archive beside their words.

The Fasting mark means the recipe as written contains no meat, dairy or eggs. This collection treats fish as permitted throughout the fasting periods; for the stricter days, check the ingredients yourself.

The cooks