Bryndza Spread (Bryndzová Nátierka)
Ingredients: bryndza, butter, paprika, onion, bread or rožky
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Another popular thing to do with bryndza, the Slovak national cheese, is to make a spread (nátierka) commonly known as šmirkáš. I made it using the fake bryndza – the Israeli style Feta cheese from Trader Joe’s.
Finely slice onions (I like using spring onions and I used three of them) and combine them with about equal amounts of bryndza and butter. Also add a spoonful of paprika. You should use less than what I have here.
Mix together, and voile – done! The spread shouldn’t be so red (should be more pinkish), but unfortunately I did not have any more bryndza to dilute my little paprika pouring accident. If you serve the spread on bread rolls, you can either slice them in the middle, like shown in the olovrant post, or you can spread the nátierka on top of the roll.
That’s it. This is a very simple, yet very traditional Slovak recipe.
Update June 6th, 2010
And this is what the spread should look like when you make it right.
I learned two interesting facts since posting this recipe. First, turns out that the word šmirkáš is whole lot less common than I had thought. I thought it was completely universal across Slovakia, but couple of my friends commented that they have never heard this name. They simply refer to this spread as bryndzová nátierka. Second, supposedly ‘smeerkaas’ is Dutch for cheese spread – hence the name.
Lubos:
Thanks for your recipe for “Brndza Spread”. My Slovak grandmother made an exceptional one with one or more cheeses that she had on hand, such as Lipto, Quark, Farmers, and sometimes, even cream cheese. She usually blended it, for example, half farmers and half full fat quark, adding all of the same ingredients in your recipe, with the addition of 2 or 3 mashed anchovie fillets, a couple of teaspoonfuls of good mustard and a half teaspoon of caraway seeds. The caraway is really essential and she smashed them with the back of a large spoon to release their flavor. When I make it, I also add a teaspoon of chopped capers, about a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, a tablespoon of chopped parsley and a couple of tablespons of chopped sour pickles. Served on a good rye or dark bread, it’s wonderful!
please dick, don’t go there. We are talking about Slovak recipes, right?
I’ll skip a generation talking about my mother.
Bryndza spread, let me see, my mom had no idea what “anchovies” are or way how to get them.
you add a few capers? Good for you!
Listen, I am not trying to be an adverse, but we are talking about Slovak recipes, and we all made some adjustments when we went off the ‘Slovak reservation’ but lets go to what we really cook in Slovakia, not somewhere else.
OK, I live in the US DC area for 32 years.
Please, take it right, no offense …
BTW Lubos, cut down on paprika and add some black pepper seasoning, that’s how my sis (still in Slovakia) is doing it!
Miro – that paprika was accident, I mentioned it in the recipe. It was one of those “let me just pour little bit from the largest opening in the container” oops moments… 🙂 Unfortunately I did not have any more bryndza to dilute it.
Lubos, I know, it happens to me more than I want, adding more seasoning 🙂
I was going by the look, and Bryndzová Nátierka should not look so “dark”.
though I am not sure if it did anything to a taste … maybe just a look and presentation, and in that case who cares 🙂
those bread rolls look great! are they home made?
Yeah, they are. Thank you very much!
Please share your recipe for the rolls
Hi Terrie, the rolls are hyper-linked above, but just in case, the here is the link: http://www.slovakcooking.com/2010/recipes/bread-rolls/.
Looks good to me. I’m going to Israel so I’ll try the cheese there. Not sure I can get it where I live. No Trader Joe’s near me.
A similar spread is made in Hungary called körözött liptói (“spread of Liptov”)which contains caraway and a little mustard too.
Thanks for sharing! Makes sense, since the best bryndza supposedly comes from Liptov…
Miro, you live in the DC area? Any idea of where to get bryndza in the DC area? Or other Slovak ingredients, such as pre-ground poppy seeds? It’s a huge pain to ground them myself when I need them.
Erin, yes I live in Norther Virginia suburbs, currently Woodbridge and before that in Falls Church.
I did not have any luck finding the brunza in the area, Long time ago, there was European/Hungarian delicatesen store in Fairfax and they carried brynza, but it was some 25 years ago and the store is gone.
I use mix of fetta cheese and butter for brynza. Neither I had luck to find poppy seeds. The whole or pre-ground. Grinding poppy seeds should not be so bad, good coffe grinder should do fine, though I miss old fashioned manual grinder we used back home.
The only way to do it (as I know) is to order through Internet from slovak/czech specialty stores. I think Lubosh had some links in his link page.
I would love to be able to buy it locally.
cheers – Miro
hello,
anybody knows where to get bryndza from?
thanks
aniko
you can get poppy seeds from hungarian stores too.
You can get Slovakian Bryndza via the internet at Slovak-Czech Varieties in New York City http://www.slovczechvar.com
Tim, I went to a site but could not find bryndza in items they offer through Internet. Could it be that you can get in in store but not through the Internet as after shipping it across the US it would not be so fresh anymore?
Greetings.
This is the link to the page with the Bryndza.
http://www.slovczechvar.com/?page=20&category=1&subcategory=62
If you go to Slovak Czeck Varieties, you have to click on “Food” and then find “Meat/Milk Products” at the top of the page. I just received some Bryndza and the Best Bacon from them. It is not refrigerated and with the extreme heat, the package was warm; however, the owner assured me that due to vacuum packaging it would be fine but he would credit me if I wanted. Anyway, I will try it but I will wait for cooler weather to order again.
thanks Tim. highly appreciated
Hi,everybody.
Usually I don’t leave comments,but I want to share what I know.I spent also many years abroad,and I also had a problem to find substitude for bryndza,but now I found very close thing (Soft goat cheese).Here in the UK in supermarkets they sell different types of goat cheese.But look for soft goat cheese(even if you have to buy each type of goat cheese) Soft goat cheese it’s almost like bryndza,it looks and tastes very close,only little difference is,that goat cheese is a little sour(just like comparing cows milk and goat milk),and it doesn’t have that little bitter taste as bryndza,but other then that,it’s almost the same.On the scale 1 to 10,if bryndza is 10,soft goat cheese is 9.Before I found goat cheese,I tried cottage cheese,and fetta cheese,which is very close to tvaroh,but fetta is very salty a tougher then tvaroh.On my scale 1-10 tvaroh is 1 ,fetta is 2.So #9 is almost there.If you can get soft goat cheese I’m talking about,you will not regret it,you will have smile on your face.You can use it everywhere as a substitute for bryndza(even in bryndzove halusky)