A perfect mix of potatoes, tomatoes and peppers
For our Bulgarian-Ukrainian family, the most frequent choices for this season are Lyutenitsa, a typical tomato sauce of the Bulgarian cusine, and Deruny, traditional potato pankakes of the Ukrainian cuisine.
In their familiar forms, both dishes date back to the 30s years of the 20th century. At that time Bulgaria was experiencing economic crisis and embarked upon an intensive production of tomatoes and red peppers for the canning industry – both for domestic consumption and for export. For Ukraine, 1932-33 marked a devastating famine - the consequence of the forced collectivization in the Soviet Union; and potatoes were the only available choice for many people.
Thanks to their simplicity, both dishes have become some of the most representative features respectively the Bulgarian and Ukrainian cousines and they can be present at the table at holidays and workdays. And they complement each other perfectly due to the basic ingridients: tomatoes, peppers and potatoes.
Deruny, potato pankakes
The name of the Ukrainian potato dish derives from the way of cooking: verb 'derty' means 'to strip' or 'to skin'. The dish is so popular in the north of Ukraine that there's an annual International Deruny Festival in Korosten.
Ingredients:
- 7 large potatoes
- 2 onions
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup (30 g) flour
- Sunflower oil
- Salt and pepper
Preparation:
- Peel potatoes and grate them on a fine grater. Remove most of the potato juice.
- Finely chop the onion, add it to the potatoes and mix the vegetables. The onion juice will keep the potatoes from going brown.
- Add flour, egg, salt and black pepper and mix well.
- Pour some sunflower oil into a frying pan and heat well.
- Using a spoon, form small, flat rounds of potato mixture and fry them like pancakes from both sides.
Serve the pancakes while hot with lutenitsa or sour cream.
Lyutenitsa, tomato-pepper sauce
Bulgarian lyutenitsa is a simple but scrumptious, mouth-watering vegetable paste. It was the natural substitute to fresh tomatoes and peppers in winter, particularly in earlier times.
Ingredients:
- 1kg red peppers
- 1 kg tomatoes
- 400 gr aubergine
- 2 carrots
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 30 ml oil
- 1 bunch fresh parsley
- Salt, sugar, black pepper
Preparation:
- Bake, peel and remove the seeds and stems from the peppers and aubergines.
- Grate the tomatoes and remove the skin, put the sauce in a big pot to boil until the paste starts to thicken. Stir constantly.
- Boil the carrots. Grind the peppers, the boiled carrots and the aubergines and add them to the tomatoes. Stir constantly at low heat.
- Sauté the onion and the garlic in the oil and remove them before adding the oil to the mixture.
- Add the parsley, salt, sugar and black paper. The mixture is ready when you can make a path with the spoon that doesn’t close on the bottom of the pot.
Serve the sauce while hot or cool. Keep refrigarated for a week.