Slovak Specialty Dish
At the cottage then the ceremony began for making the Slovak specialty dish – Bryndzove Haluzsky. I got to wear an official apron. Just like at Grandma Kubik’s house! I helped wash, peel, and grate potatoes, which they grow themselves. I clumsily nicked my fingers on the grater, and Maria promptly took care of bandaging me up!
Then there was the “bacon slicing”. It was smoked lard from the grandparents pig 🐖. They have a smokehouse out back. The chunks were huge and didn’t melt down all the way, only smelled good simmering with the onions 🧅. Todd would have been in hog heaven, literally!
We mixed the tates with flour and water, as they were “dry”, not fresh potatoes. I got to see the storeroom down in the cellar where they keep the potatoes and coal for the stove.
Next we mixed the “smotany” cream cheese and goat, sheep cheese together. Maria had me sample two kinds of “sour milk”, as opposed to normal “sweet milk”. I thought it was going into the recipe, but I was wrong. We ended up drinking it with our “ Bryndzove Haluzsky”.
Then came the over-the-stove fun ceremony of grating the mixture into boiling water. Maria gave me a white plastic sifter thing to take home! We waited until the water foamed then drained the “Haluzshky” and mixed it with the cheese and bacon fat. Luckily, she didn’t pour it all in, but saved some fat aside.
Here is the recipe.
Apart from the chunks of “Svet” upon having been carsick, and not quite settled, it was excellent. The experience outshone any other I’ve had. We had hilarious (in retrospective on watching the video) conversation during the meal with Vlado talking in Slovak-German, Maria in German, and me and Christina trying to piece everything together between German, English, and Slovak. It was super!!!
We talked and visited after lunch while Vlado was outside. Subjects ranged from Karl Gott; to the day tanks rolled in, in front of Maria’s house in 1968; to the Nutcracker; and a famous Slovak music producer. It was an awesome day and the hours flew by!
