Pressed Meat (Tlačenka)
Ingredients: 1 lb of pork meat (shoulder, side cut), 1lb of pork hearts and neck, 3 cloves garlic, black pepper, caraway, salt
Prep Time: About 1.5 hours plus overnight for the meat to set
I like food and I’ll eat pretty much anything. However, there are few things I can’t stand, and tlačenka is one of them. I find it absolutely disgusting. However, this dish is favorite of many Slovaks including just about everyone in my family. The name is derived from the verb tlačiť, to press. A crowd of people, for instance on a bus during the rush hour, is called tlačenica. This dish is made by preparing a meat paste and then pressing it together. It is another dish that is prepared during zabíjačka along with hurky and sausages.
You start this recipe by cooking about 2 lbs of various pork meat. About half of it should be pieces of fatty meat (side cut or shoulder), and the other half is made up of other parts, such as heart, kidneys and something called podhrdlina (meaning “under throat”). You cook the meat until it is soft and then grind it in a meat grinder, similar to what was done to prepare jaternica. Save the broth.
Then add a tea spoon of crushed garlic, ground black pepper, half a spoon of caraway and another spoon of salt. Adjust to taste.
Then add about 5 small ladles full of the broth in which the meat was cooking. The final mixture should have the consistency of canned tuna.
There are special bags made for preparing tlačenka. However, these are not necessary, and you can use regular plastic bags. Divide the meat into two halves and place each into a plastic bag. Press out the air and tie shut with a string. Then just to be sure, place each bag into another bag, and tie that one shut too. Place the bags into a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes. To make sure the plastic doesn’t burn, place them first into a strainer. Then place the bags onto a baking sheet and cover by a baking pan. Place in some cool place (or outside during winter). Weigh down by placing some heavy object, such as a brick or a bag of flour, into the pan. Let set overnight.
And that’s it. Enjoy or at least offer to those who like this “delicacy”. It is often served as shown in the photo, with mustard, onions and smoked sausages.
Bookmark and Share with others:
Rice Sausage (Jaternica)
Ingredients: 2lbs rice (4.5 coffee mugs or 5.7 cups), 2 small onions, 9 coffee mugs water (~11.5 cups), 1lb pork liver, 2 pork hearts, 1lb pork meat (side cut or shoulder, should be about 50% fatty, you can also use pork skin)
Prep Time: about 2 hours
Jaternica (also known as hurka) is a special pork sausage prepared during zabíjačka, the traditional annual slaughter of a pig. It’s made out of pork meat mixed with rice. Although it is commonly prepared in the sausage form, this is not necessary. Hurka, in my opinion, is even tastier when prepared as porridge (kaša). The porridge is fried for few minutes on a frying pan and then served with a side of baked potatoes and perhaps beets. In this recipe I show you how to prepare this specialty. You will need pork liver and hearts and some way to grind the meat. We used a “mill for meat“, mlynček na mäso. These are not very common in America but you can probably find one online. Or perhaps you could use a food processor. But as a word of warning, I have never tried putting meat in a food processor.
Start by washing and cooking 2lbs of rice. Cook the rice in twice the volume of water (voda). We used my grandma’s coffee mugs for measuring. We had 4.5 mugs of water and thus we used 9 mugs of water. Add about a tablespoon of salt (soľ) and a bit of oil (olej). Cook until all the water is gone. Then turn the heat off, but leave the rice on the stove covered. It will continue to cook in the steam. Also dice 2 small onions and fry them until golden colored. My grandma fried these along with few pieces of bacon (slanina).
At the same time, cook the meat (mäso) in salted water. Cook it until it is soft, which will take about 45 minutes. Make sure you have enough water to cover all the meat. Then take the cooked meat, cut it into strips which will fit in your meat grinder, and get grinding. Save the broth if you want to prepare another zabíjačka specialty, tlačenka (pressed meat).
Combine with rice and also add 2 teaspoons of ground black pepper (čierne korenie), 2 table spoons of salt and another teaspoon of marjoram (majorán). You want to go light on the marjoram since it can spoil the meat. Also mix in the fried onion. Mix together.
And that’s it. To serve, fry the porridge in a frying pan for about 5 minutes. Serve with your choice of sides, but I highly recommend thinly sliced baked potatoes (with caraway) and beets.
Bookmark and Share with others:
Risotto (Rizoto)
Ingredients: 1.5 cups flour, cooked chicken, marjoram, ground black pepper, onion, salt, oil
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Risotto (rizoto) is another Italian dish like spaghetti carbonara that is tremendously popular in Slovakia. This dish is best prepared with cooked meat, so it’s best made after making soup. We used the chicken used in preparing the chicken noodle soup. But other types of meat work as well. And if you don’t have cooked meat to begin with, simply start off by browning fresh meat with the onions, and then cooking it along with the rice. Follow the easy recipe below to make risotto at home.
Dice two small onions (cibuľa) and cook on oil until the onion starts getting brown. In the mean time, wash about 1.5 cups of rice (ryža).
Add the rice and fry for about a minute. Then add about twice the amount (3 cups) of water (voda). This ratio may vary depending on the rice you use, so check your bag for the correct rice-to-water ratio.
Add about tablespoon of marjoram (majorán) and the same amount of ground black pepper (mleté čierne korenie).
Also add salt (soľ). Cook covered until most of the water is absorbed and the rice is done.
In the mean time, take the cooked chicken (kura), and cut it into pieces some half-inch thick. Mix into the rice, and cook covered for about 5 more minutes.
Scoop out onto a plate and enjoy. To prevent the rice from sticking to the ladle, grease the ladle lightly with oil or water. Sometimes this dish is also served with baked or mashed potatoes.
Bookmark and Share with others:
