Cookbook project: Bosnia and Croatia

I forgot to take photos, sadly, but the book was 'Cooking in Croatia and Bosnia' by Karmela Kis which I bought on our return from Zagreb last year, as I couldn't find an English language local food cookbook in either Banja Luka or Zagreb.

The meal was delightful, a success even though I forgot to cook any starch.

We had pork with a prosciutto sauce with stewed courgettes, followed by apple pudding.

There's a sort of Dalmatian ham called pršut which is (almost?) impossible to buy here but is very similar to prosciutto, and this dish involves frying it with onions, garlic, wine and a little sour cream, then adding to pork steaks in the last few minutes of cooking. Very tasty, would work also for chicken (or perhaps a fish like swordfish).

Stewed courgettes - slice your courgette thinly, plonk in a saucepan, cover with chopped onion and garlic, pour in a tin of tomatoes and some chopped parsley, shake, and leave to cook while everything else does. THe book said eat hot or cold, I tried both and it was delicious. B normally doesn't like courgettes, he liked this, so a winner.

Apple pudding was a sort of stewed apple custard topped with whipped egg whites and chopped walnuts before baking. Apple and walnuts is a common combination in Bosnia - we were fed apples three times a day, and at least half the time the dish involved walnuts too - and it works really well.

So, three easy and delicious keeper dishes.