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Bulgarian Rhapsody : The Best of Balkan Cuisine Paperback – April 1, 1998

by Linda J. Forristal (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Bulgaria is a small Balkan country that gets little attention. On a visit in 1990, however, Linda Joyce Forristal fell in love with both the country and its food. In Bulgarian Rhapsody, she painstakingly presents Bulgarian cooking, placing emphasis on many of its full-flavored and colorful vegetarian dishes, though popular meat dishes are included as well. The Bulgarian kitchen is heavily influenced by Mediterranean cooking, not a surprise since the neighboring Turks occupied it for 500 years. Greece is also a neighbor, along with Romania and Yugoslavia. Bulgarians favor the slow cooking of stews and soups. They use fresh vegetables, particularly tomatoes, sweet red peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and potatoes. Stuffed grape leaves, phyllo pies, and mousaka--the Bulgarian spelling--will be familiar. Forristal offers a meatless mousaka made with zucchini and several kinds of plakiya, stews that are vibrant with tomatoes and onions, similar to dishes you find in Greek restaurants. The gyuveches are baked stews that resemble their Romanian counterparts. The typical meatless one made with string beans, tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, red and green bell peppers, and zucchini, resembles a ratatouille. The one made with sausages and red peppers is much simpler. If you enjoy discovering new dishes, tutmanik, a quickbread made with cheese, and Baked Peppers Stuffed with White Beans are alluring. The potato salad seasoned with oregano and paprika is also different from the usual. Do ignore one technique Forristal peeling roasted peppers under running water washes away much of their flavor. Better to leave a few charred specks of skin than to do this. --Dana Jacobi
Previous page
  1. Print length
    152 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Sunrise Pine Pr
  4. Publication date
    April 1, 1998
  5. ISBN-10
    0963918214
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0963918215
  7. See all details
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Bulgaria is a small Balkan country that gets little attention. On a visit in 1990, however, Linda Joyce Forristal fell in love with both the country and its food. In Bulgarian Rhapsody, she painstakingly presents Bulgarian cooking, placing emphasis on many of its full-flavored and colorful vegetarian dishes, though popular meat dishes are included as well.

The Bulgarian kitchen is heavily influenced by Mediterranean cooking, not a surprise since the neighboring Turks occupied it for 500 years. Greece is also a neighbor, along with Romania and Yugoslavia. Bulgarians favor the slow cooking of stews and soups. They use fresh vegetables, particularly tomatoes, sweet red peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and potatoes. Stuffed grape leaves, phyllo pies, and mousaka--the Bulgarian spelling--will be familiar. Forristal offers a meatless mousaka made with zucchini and several kinds of plakiya, stews that are vibrant with tomatoes and onions, similar to dishes you find in Greek restaurants. The gyuveches are baked stews that resemble their Romanian counterparts. The typical meatless one made with string beans, tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, red and green bell peppers, and zucchini, resembles a ratatouille. The one made with sausages and red peppers is much simpler.

If you enjoy discovering new dishes, tutmanik, a quickbread made with cheese, and Baked Peppers Stuffed with White Beans are alluring. The potato salad seasoned with oregano and paprika is also different from the usual. Do ignore one technique Forristal uses: peeling roasted peppers under running water washes away much of their flavor. Better to leave a few charred specks of skin than to do this. --Dana Jacobi

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sunrise Pine Pr; 1st edition (April 1, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 152 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0963918214
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0963918215
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 35

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
35 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

S. Wells
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic recipes, great instructions, obviously kitchen tested
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2011
Verified Purchase
I just made a big dinner out of this book, and so far I am extremely pleased with the results. I traveled to Bulgaria last summer, and fell in love with the food there, so I was really excited about trying the recipes from this book. The instructions are very well written as well. I'm always happy when I can trust the recipe's ingredient amounts, which does not always happen with cookbooks and even cooking magazines. I doubled the recipes as I was cooking for 12. I had Eastern European friends over for dinner, and they all liked the food. I'll briefly review each recipe I used.

Kurban, Ceremonial Lamb Soup
This was by far the favorite dish, getting the most compliments. People just went mad over it. The lamb stew meat was unbelievably tender and the addition of eggs to the soup gave it a really nice flavor and richness. It seems like it calls for a lot of onions and black pepper, but trust the recipe; it's good. My Eastern European friends were delighted that there was horseradish there, and they put it into the soup, along with some parsley, and said it was great that way.

Simona's Garash Torte
This is a flourless walnut chocolate torte. I substituted margarine for butter. This one looked kind of scary - lumpy and somewhat separated - going into the pan, but the results are absolutely fantastic. I did add a touch more cocoa than was called for, because I like chocolate.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
I substituted quinoa for the rice, which worked very well. Also I had never heard of the method of steaming the whole, cored head of cabbage and pulling off each outer pair of leaves as they become translucent. This is a really good technique. This was not as popular as the lamb soup, but I personally thought it was delicious.

Lyutenitsa (red bell pepper spread)
I love lyutenitsa and was excited to try making it. As I suspected, it was very very easy to make, and this recipe is the real thing. It goes just as well on matzoh as on bread. My Eastern European friends approved.

Eggs a la Elin Pelin
Very simple way of preparing eggs, colorful and flavorful, delicious with some sweet paprika. Definitely needs a little salt.

Kyopolo, Eggplant Caviar
This one was the weakest, but still did the job, and is also ok on matzoh. I had friends make some and I made some. They mashed their eggplant per the instructions, which gave a better texture, but while I used the food processor, I didn't use as much vinegar, which gives a better flavor in my opinion.
8 people found this helpful
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Marian Holland
4.0 out of 5 stars Very Authentic (according to a Bulgarian)
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2012
Verified Purchase
My roommate is Bulgarian and I got this for her for Christmas. She paged through the book excitedly, saying "That's the thing I told you about!". We've only made one recipe but she approved of it :) There's also cooking tips and little bits of Bulgarian history and culture, in addition to the recipes.

Another thing she did well was make the recipes accurate while still possible to make in the US. She lists the ingredients you should use, and where to get them, but also writes convenient substitutes. Same thing for preparation methods.

Only negative remark is that there's not pictures for every single recipe. I made mousaka for her as a surprise, and had no idea what I was making . . . it was like following directions without a map, not knowing if I'm supposed to end up in Canada or Mexico. But maybe half of them have pictures.
3 people found this helpful
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Bethany
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Balkan recipes and simple to follow.
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2020
Verified Purchase
The book was easy to understand and basic ingredients were readily found in my store. Wish the book was spiral bound as it fell apart after 2 uses. Continue to use my book weekly and the recipes have been a great conversation piece during dinner.
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Barbara Brennan
5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic Bulgarian cuisine
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2013
Verified Purchase
I recently spent time in Bulgaria and ate many of the dishes mentioned in this book, so I was delighted to be able to find this book and use it in my American kitchen. The Cold Yogurt soup is delicious. I make it a little thicker and add a little more cucumber. The Mishmash is delightful, just like it was prepared in the Bulgarian village, and the rest of the recipes are true to the country and easily accessible. A must buy, if you long to recreate your Bulgarian experience when you get home.
4 people found this helpful
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Snickers
5.0 out of 5 stars Great cookbook with lots of cultural information
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book was a gift for my daughter who has lived in Bulgaria. It is a great cook book, easy to follow and it contained the recipes my daughter was hoping to see. Since it was used but still in good condition, we were happy to see the additional hand written salad recipe from the previous owner. So thank you too, previous owner!
3 people found this helpful
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maddy
4.0 out of 5 stars decent cookbook
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2021
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This cookbook provided some of the popular recipes from Bulgaria. For trying a new cuisine, I am happy with what was provided.
One person found this helpful
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BC
5.0 out of 5 stars I'm in moussaka heaven!
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2001
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This book has five very different but equally delicious recipes for moussaka (the best bulgarian dish) I lived in Bulgaria for a while but I lost my recipe for moussaka and was constantly kicking myself for not getting more recipes for Bulgarian dishes, but this book fills the void wonderfully. Not only does it have basically everything from moussaka to the best recipe for tarator I've seen but the recipes are also very easy to follow so even if you lack culinary talent(like me) you can still have fun and make great food with this wonderful book.
The book also contains a little bit about Bulgarian holidays and tourist attractions for those of you who don't know anything about the country.
12 people found this helpful
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A Parrett
3.0 out of 5 stars Some slight issues if you're expecting a comprehensive book on Bulgarian cuisine
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2012
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You're warned about this somewhat early in the book though - the author outright states she dislikes lamb and offal, two things that are really an obscenely large chunk of Bulgarian cuisine. With Bulgarian cuisine not easily found through the internet, I was really hoping this cookbook would be comprehensive in covering some of the basics of an unknown cuisine - it does hit on many classics such as Shopska salad, Banitchki, and even a Garash torte recipe - but it is a slight disappointment that not one of Bulgaria's many lamb dishes show up, nor any organ meats or things like tripe soup.

It is a very good and well played out book beyond that with many thoughtful traditional and modern cuisines gathered through many of the author's life experiences with Bulgarians, but I can't help but feel it missed the mark on some things true Bulgarians would have thrown in to the book.
3 people found this helpful
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