Albania, Albania...Where you been so long?

Ok, so my modified lyrics to Eric Clapton's Alberta do not really work.  It was worth a try though.  As previously stated at the end of the last blog entry, this week we are looking at Albanian cuisine.  My friend Janis, upon hearing that this week we were exploring Albania via food, expressed her skepticism.  Apparently, growing up, she was often told that if she didn't like the food on her plate, then it could be given to "the starving Albanians".  Obviously, times have changed a lot since then!  Albanian food is heavily influenced by Turkish, Italian, and Greek cuisine, and I am excited to try it out.  A fellow postcrosser named Alva, who hails from Albania, suggested this website as a great place to find traditional Albanian recipes.  After some deliberation between Marian and I, we have decided upon the following recipes to try:

 Gjellë me Arra (Chicken or Veal with Walnuts)

2 tablespoons flour
15 finely crushed shelled walnuts
2 beaten egg yokes
1 minced garlic clove
1/4 lb. sticks butter
2-3 lbs of Veal or Chicken meat cut up in 1" cubes

Cooking Instructions:

Place the meat or chicken in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until tender. Then remove the meat setting it aside in a dish while leaving the remaining juices in the saucepan. In another saucepan, add the flour and sauté over heat until it becomes light brown in color (do not overcook!) and add the half a stick of butter. Then, add the finely crushed walnuts, minced garlic clove, and the two egg yokes, stirring constantly. Add the juices from the other saucepan and sauté until all the ingredients thicken. Immediately remove from the heat to avoid solidifying the egg yolks. Then fold in either the meat or chicken. Pan fry the remaining half stick of butter until brown and pour over the four servings.

Turli perimesh (Main Dish of Vegetables)

2 lbs various vegetables (peppers, eggplant, okra, zucchini, potatoes, etc)
1/2 cup oil, divided
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup peeled chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt
Pepper

Cooking Instructions:

After cutting off inedible tips of vegetables, wash and slice them into 1-inch squares. Sauté vegetables in half of the oil and remove them from the frying pan. Sauté onion and tomatoes in the remaining oil, and season with parsley, salt, and pepper. Put everything in a stock pot with a cup of water, cover tightly, and simmer until almost all moisture has cooked away. Serve hot, accompanied by steak, meatballs, or any other main dish.

Of course, according to Alva, no Albanian meal is finished without Baklava...so we will probably have some of that as well :).  Both dishes seem to be a bit heavy on the fat (a whole stick of butter in the first!), so hopefully this is not a heart-attack waiting to happen.  Stay tuned!