Bujta repa
This traditional Prekmurje dish won me over ‘on the first spoon’ and is still, along with buckwheat dishes, my favorite food of Slovenian cuisine. Then I tasted it with Prekmurje blood sausages (from buckwheat and-or millet), and I prepare it as an independent meal (
Preparation steps
- Put smoked meat / bones in lukewarm water (approx. 2 l). Cook covered over low heat for about 30 minutes.
- Add sour beets, chopped bay leaf, a few peppercorns and salt as needed. If you have a more sour beet, you can wash it a little beforehand. Add lukewarm water so that everything is covered with water, stir, cover and cook for about 45 minutes.
- Clean, wash and drain the millet. Add it to the beets with the meat and cook covered for about 20 minutes, ie until the millet is cooked. At this stage, do not mix the dish - if the millet falls to the bottom of the pot, it will stick.
- Meanwhile, clean and chop the onion and garlic. In a frying pan, fry the onion in a little oil until it becomes glassy. Add the chopped garlic, stir and immediately remove from the heat (to keep the garlic from burning). Sprinkle with sweet ground pepper, mix and add beets with cooked millet. I also put flour in the ingredients for the powder, but since I don't like the classic ‘roasting’, I don't add it - you make it the way you like it…
- Cook for another 5 minutes, mix and serve. You can remove the meat from the bones before serving (it is finely cooked so this is not a problem).
Serving
Note: this is a classic Prekmurje ‘kolinjsko’ dish (Prekmurski: bujti = to kill; poor gujdek, of course) - it is made with ‘meaty’ bones, which are plentiful at the time of kolin. I usually make it with smoked ribs, and you can put some other smoked meat as well. Vegetarians should eliminate meat from the recipe and they will have a very tasty winter meal…
