Ajdovi zganci

Ajdovi zganci are one of the typical dishes from my home country that I have a love-hate relationship with. I used to hate it when I was a little kid, then I started to like it and I still like to eat it once in a while. But sometimes, I just plain hate it. Ajdovi zganci are impossible to pronounce if you are not speaking slavic languages, and a rough English translation would be ‘buckwheat porridge’. Here is the recipe - try it and maybe you will like this dish more than I do most of the time. This recipe makes enough buckwheat porridge for up to four people and it takes about half an hour to make.

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This is the final result.

Ingredients

• 300 grams of buckwheat flour
• One tablespoon of pork fat
• A pinch of salt
• 150 grams of bacon bits

Preparation

Take a medium sized bowl, fill three quarters of it with water and add salt. Bring the salted water to a boiling. When it boils, pour the buckwheat flour inside. The buckwheat flour should form a big lump at the bottom. Let it boil for five minutes over medium heat - do not stir.

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This is how the forming lump should look like. Remember not to stir during the process.

After five minutes, take a spoon (or a knife) and make a hole in the middle of the buckwheat flour lump. The hole should be about two centimeters wide. Be very careful when doing this. After all, the water is boiling - you do not want to end up with burns.

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The hole that you make in the middle of the lump will allow it to be cooked through well.

Cover the bowl and cook for additional twenty minutes over medium heat. In the meantime, it is time to make the so - called dressing. Take a pan and pour the pork fat in it. Cook over low to medium heat and mix well until it completely liquefies. Then, add the bacon bits and fry until they get that typical fried bacon smell and turn brown. Take the pan off the fire and let it cool down.

Then, it is time to take the buckwheat flour lump off the fire. Let it cool down for approximately ten minutes. Pour about three quarters of the water away and save one quarter for later. Take the buckwheat flour lump out of the remaining water and put it into a bowl. Mix well - it should start falling apart in smaller pieces - buckwheat porridge. If you feel like the porridge is too dry, you can add some of that salted water that you saved earlier.

Divide the buckwheat porridge onto the plates (depending on how many people will eat them) and pour the dressing over it. Let it stay for a few minutes before serving.

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A serving suggestion for ajdovi zganci.

Serving and storage suggestions

Buckwheat bread is a great addition to the buckwheat porridge, especially is it is freshly baked. You can also serve the buckwheat porridge with sour cream - it compliments the porridge’s flavour very well.

The buckwheat porridge tastes best when it is freshly made, meaning that it will not be good as a leftover for more than two days. You can store it in a plastic Tupperware container and put it in the refrigerator, or just cover the plate with a plastic wrap and heat it up in the microwave later.

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