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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

In which she learns that an annoying A can lead to a very pleasant B

I bet this doesn't look appetizing and you're probably wondering what the hell it is and why does it deserved to be pictured.

This is what you get when you boil fresh cow milk and leave it to cool down overnight--in the morning you find a layer of kajmak (clotted cream is the closest I can translate this to English). If you leave the milk like this for a few days you can get a dense, cheesy and slightly sour cream which you can use as a spread, or to eat with cevapcici and freshly baked bread.

But you can also skim it that very first morning when it still has a neutral, milky taste and put it in your coffee. This is how I used to drink coffee in childhood and it's absolutely divine (please, don't talk to me about cholesterol and saturated fats--we can leave that conversation for some other time).

I think I started drinking coffee only to be able to put kajmak in it, and I would stuff so much of it in the cup that the taste of caffeine would almost be lost. It was more kajmak with coffee than the other way round.

My grandmother, who knew about the passion (and who taught me how to make coffee at the tender age of eight) would skim kajmak and store it in the fridge especially for me, so that there would always be some when I came to visit. Those were the days...

But here I am, slurping kajmak again, and all thanks to crazy, last-minute food shopping that left us with about 30 liters of beer and a bottle of whiskey, but no milk. I was a tad annoyed at first but now I see that it was all part of a greater plan to reunite me with kajmak. Thank you, Providence and Rodopi cows!

5 comments:

Lynne said...

I love the memories of simple things, and how they can suddenly turn us into time travellers. Really enjoyed this post!

Geotacs said...

it is so cool to learn about kajmak!

i've learnt something new today

thanks for sharing!

Jelica said...

Lynne and Geotacs, thanks for stopping by our blog and leaving a comment! And don't miss an opportunity to try kajmak if you ever have a chance :)

julochka said...

sounds like a shopping trip at my house, only here it's wine and a bottle of gin. :-) i had kajmak in russia, but always bought it ready-made, i never knew anyone who made it themselves. mmm...we just ate it for breakfast tho', with homemade cherry jam. i didn't know you could put it in your coffee.

Nats said...

hm... not good to read when hungry...