Sunday, March 1, 2009

I'm not Balkan at this Egg Sandwich!

There is an international grocery in a nearby town, run by Mersida, a woman from Bosnia. I don't get up there very often, but when I do go, I try to time it so I can get there to buy loaves of lepinja. Lepinja is a wonderful Balkan bread- sort of like pita, but without a pocket and not as flat.

While looking for a recipe for lepinja, I ran across a description of a dish, lepinja komplet, that really sounded yummy. The description was not very detailed, it simply said to slice the lepinja, spread it with kajmak (a soft cheese made from milk and heavy cream) or butter, crack eggs onto the bread and bake. So we did. Chuck spread the kajmak on the top and bottom of his bread, I didn't because that much milk fat would kill me. He put the top back on his before baking, I didn't. We baked them at 350 until the eggs set. (Apparently there is also something about lamb drippings- we skipped that part.)

Chuck's after baking

Mine after baking.

Chuck enjoying his
They were really good- the bread was crispy on the outside but still soft inside, the eggs were nicely done. Mine did get a little hard- I think it was wise of Chuck to put the top of the bread back on.
Man, I love egg sandwiches!

While playing around on utube, I found several videos with lepinja as the key word. One appears to be a traditional way of baking the bread, the other seems to be the making of these sandwiches. I have no idea what they are saying in these videos.





Sorry for the orientation on this one.

If you would like to try to make your own lepinja, here is a recipe:

6 comments:

Unknown said...

How come you guys didn't mix up your egg like the video?

Willa said...

I didn't see the video until after I made the sandwich. But, I probably still wouldn't have mixed it up- I like what we used to call "dead egg" sandwiches- I guess other people would call them "over hard."

Ruby said...

I haven't watched the videos, but am impressed by your pictures. We love eggs around here, and I have never, ever, thought of just baking them in the oven on bread.

Always wonderful to have a new food goal in sight!

Layla said...

Interesting experiments!! :)

I have eaten lepinja before, & it's really lovely!! (usually they are eaten here in Slovenia with chevapi or sort-of-hamburger some other meat product!)
Heaven't seen them this way yet, with eggs!!
(alas video#2 doesn't seem to be available anymore, hm!)

Have bookmarked your blog!! :)

Willa said...

Julia- have you tried it yet? I'm going to try making my own lepijna again- got some advice from Mersida, who owns the store.
Layla- thanks for your comments- Apparently the egg thing is very regional. I just checked the video and it worked OK, maybe it was just a glitch when you were trying it- check again and see if you can see it now- you might be able to tell what they are saying!

We like cevapi, that's how we were first introduced to lepinja and kajmak, as an accompaniment to the cevapi. Last week we bought a different kind of sausage- in a casing, and with a little bit of pepper- I liked them better but ca't remember the name.

Layla said...

Yes, it works now - thanks!! :)

Looks interesting!! :)

even when I was still a vegetarian (or semi-vegetarian) I was sometimes seduced by the cevapi!! ;)

Do you like burek too?

I agree, some amazing food comes from the more southern ex-Yugoslavia regions!!

The new sausage - was it dried meats or fresh, to bake?