Food treasures from Slovenia: Pumpkin oil and reindeer carpaccio

There are some countries that dominate the international European food scene; France, Italy, Spain, and Greece are the first that come to mind, and for good reason. Then there are others whose specialties have made it abroad, though they have almost become culinary stereotypes — German sausage and sauerkraut, Austrian schznitzels, Swedish meatballs, Belgian fries, and Hungarian goulash, to name a few. Then there are countries with great local food that gets little attention outside Europe, such as Serbia and Croatia. And finally, there are countries such as Slovenia, whose cuisine is all but unknown.

I was lucky to spend a few days in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, where I consistently ate fresh, delicious food. I’ve listed some of the places I liked, but I doubt it’s possible to go wrong by picking a random restaurant; the food in Slovenia is that good.

By the end of my week there, I fell madly in love with Ljubljana and daydreamed about owning an apartment on bank of the river Ljubljanica, which flows through the city. One of the most memorable meals of my life was the one I ate at a restaurant by the Ljubljana castle.

Slovenia is a small and gorgeous country tucked between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, with a coast on the Adriatic Sea. Slovenian food is tough to describe because it does not have distinguishing flavours unique to Slovenia. Instead, Slovenian food is a hybrid of the best culinary influences from its neighbours.

Kudos to Cubo

Luckily, my introduction to food in Slovenia came at a restaurant called Cubo in Ljubljana. The owner and award-winning Slovene chef Boštjan Trstenjak, came to our table himself to take our order. I had just enough time for a simple — and somewhat hurried — lunch. I started off with crudités (fresh, raw vegetables chopped into sticks) with a sweet and creamy honey mustard dip. Slovenia is known for abundant fresh vegetables and fruits. True to the hype, the bell peppers were easily the juiciest I have ever eaten, so juicy that they were wet on the serving plate.

Next I was served a fabulous fresh pumpkin soup, as delicate as they come, with a sprinkling of chives. Some others at our table ordered a very mild noodle soup in beef broth, almost like a consommé. This type of soup tends to show up in menus quite a bit in Slovenia. The soup paved the way for the main course, a creamy seafood risotto with shrimp and squid.

The quality of the risotto depends on the chef. While it is a type of rice (Arborio), cooking it requires a bit more skill as risotto needs to be watched during the cooking process. It’s not a difficult process, though I have had my share of mediocre risotto, including several that I prepared myself, until I learned the right way. Onions and garlic are cooked in olive oil, rice is added to the pot and fried, then white wine or vermouth is poured in, and finally hot chicken, vegetable or seafood stock is added in ladles. When the rice absorbs the first ladle of stock, it’s time to add the next, and the next until the rice is done. Typically, cheese and fresh herbs give it a creamy texture and flavour. But once you master the basics, it’s easy to play around with risotto.

The food at Cubo draws on Mediterranean influences, and now there are two international award-winning cookbooks featuring food from the restaurant, such as marinated beef carpaccio with celeriac foam and asparagus; salad with truffle mayonnaise and shrimp; tagliatelle with scampi, port wine and prunes; and sea bass baked in salt with herbs and cottage cheese gnocchi with lime. These might sound daunting, but in fact they are all very simple preparations. True to the Slovenian style, greater emphasis is on the quality and freshness of the ingredients, rather than on a complicated recipe. The dessert cookbook, however, is something else. It features several sorbets made with fruit and champagne, gin, vodka, and vermouth.

If intriguing desserts pique your interest, consider these: apple bread pudding made with baked apples in a crumble and topped with whiskey sauce; a guava roll cake of fresh guavas, rum and the simplest cake; bananas with rice where the rice is cooked with milk, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and egg yolks, accompanied with caramelized banana slices; and — perfect for summer — refreshing watermelon soup made with cinnamon, cloves, lemon and lemon zest, and sugar, topped with marinated mangoes, strawberries and ginger.

Reindeer carpaccio Lunches I ate in Ljubljana were generally simple and my favourite local lunchtime meal was ricet (pronounced ree-chet). Ricet reminded me of what a great but underutilised grain barley is. Ricet is extremely economical and a bit like minestrone; it is a chunky vegetable soup with mild flavors – nothing in Slovenia is spicy – and can be thrown together with leftover veggies. Typically, ricet has barley, onions, beans, tomatoes, celery, garlic, and parsley. I was served a juicy and thick slice of ham with its fatty skin crisped on the grill. I cut it into pieces and added it to my ricet. Absolutely fabulous, and it has the potential to be a viable competitor to chicken soup.

Another great Slovenian soup is jota (pronounced yo-ta), a tart bean and sauerkraut soup. The Austrian influences are obvious. Here, kidney beans are cooked with ham or pork neck. If pork neck is used, then once the beans are cooked the bones are discarded and the meat is put back to the pot. Cooked potato cubes are added to the pot, then sauerkraut of cabbage or turnip, followed by tomato paste, fragrant fresh bay leaves, and garlic. Jota, like ricet, is cooked differently in different regions. As is typical, I was served a plump sausage on the side, which I cut up into pieces and added to my soup. Sausages taste different in different countries, but the one I had with my jota was so good that I doubt I can ever return to Slovenia and not gorge on sausages again.

Based on a recommendation, we found ourselves at Sokol , a tourist hotspot, but also visited by locals.  Sokol is known for “traditional food and drinks". The signboard outside the restaurant advertised traditional mushroom soup, which was enough to invite us in. Mushroom-picking in the rainy season is common in Slovenia, and the chance to eat mushrooms should not be missed. Our rich and creamy soup prepared with a variety of mushrooms arrived in a tureen made of bread. To my surprise, the stag steak with mushroom sauce turned out to be one of the best steaks I have ever eaten.

Steaks in Europe tend to be cut or beaten thin, and this was no different, and very tender and juicy. I could have cut through it with a butter knife. With a side of savoury bread and potato pudding, the meal did not disappoint. One of my travel companions ordered the grilled “trout in paper", which arrived at the table all wrapped up in foil like a large Christmas gift. Inside was a whole steaming trout served with vegetables and lemon. Local white wine flowed at the table for us wine drinkers and restaurant-brewed beer for the others.

On a very rainy day, we ate at Most, a charming little Italian restaurant (Most, restavracija, Petkovškovo nabrežje 21, 1000 Ljubljana, Tel: + 386.1.232.81.83). I have eaten at many an Italian restaurant outside Italy, and the typical places offer the same boring menu: lasagna, fettuccini alfredo, pasta carbonara, and eggplant parmigiana. Most has Italian food that tastes so good and so different. It serves everything from lobster to lamb chops to pasta, with the most elegant presentation.

We ordered a decadent starter: polenta slices served with fried cheese and mushrooms tossed in a creamy sauce, followed by potato soup with truffles. The rain put me in the mood to eat grilled calf’s liver on potatoes with cranberry relish. Nothing could have made me happier; I’m a huge fan of calf’s liver, but only when it is cooked properly, which is quite rare.

Vegetarians can enjoy spaghetti with smoked ricotta, goat cheese and tomatoes, or a salad of roasted vegetables. Venison enthusiasts can enjoy the three-course menu: reindeer carpaccio, gnocchi with venison sauce, and deer meat with cranberry sauce, stewed apples, polenta and potatoes. Seafood lovers can have saffron risotto with garlic foam or a marinated seafood salad. Most is a wonderful place with reasonable prices.

A few of my travel companions were missing home. We decided to go for pizza one night, which we drank with local beers, at Dvor, a restaurant that has an unending menu of different types of pizza served in very large portions (Ljubljanski dvor, Dvorni trg 1, Tel: +386.1.251.65.55). The amazing vegetarian pizza at our table had eggplant, mozzarella, and olives with the pits still in them, which is a bit unusual. I ordered a seafood pizza with crab, mussels, and squid, on some warm bubbling cheese.

The castle dinner One evening, we went up to a restaurant by the Ljubljana castle where our generous host had arranged for several courses of traditional Slovenian food. Pretty carafes of Slovenian red and chilled white wines started us off to a cheery dinner.

Our meal began with deer pâté served with dense slices of bread. Deer pâté tastes quite gamey, giving it a stronger flavor than goose or duck pâté. It is prepared with deer liver, typically cooked in butter, then mashed in a food processor. Depending on the recipe, pâté might include a variety of spices such as bay leaves, oregano, thyme, garlic, grilled onions, peppercorn and so on. I love pâté in almost all its forms, so I sopped up the flavours.

Next arrived an interesting version of bruschetta, which used ricotta cheese instead of the traditional mozarella. Thin, small slices of toast drizzled with olive oil were layered with sweet oven-roasted tomatoes and topped with a small ball of herbed ricotta cheese and garnished with fresh dill. There isn’t much to this appetizer and it can easily be replicated at home for impressive starters during a party.

Fear not the anchovy as it adds incredible depth of flavour to a meal. After some more wine, we were served a most delicious tomato salad of finely chopped marinated anchovies mixed with sweet, juicy, cherry tomato halves, pine nuts, mint leaves and capers. This salad had a perfect mix of flavours and textures: sweet/salty, soft/nutty, juicy/dry.

Just before the main course we were served shallow bowls of bean and caramelised onion soup, drizzled with local olive oil and lightly crushed black peppercorns.

Finally, it was time for the main course. Platters of various specialties were brought to the table to be shared. First, a venison goulash with savory bread pudding. The meat in a thick and flavourful dark sauce, vaguely akin to gravy, melted away in my mouth. Unlike the pâté, this second version of deer meat was not gamey at all.

Bread pudding is almost always thought of as a dessert, but in Slovenia, I had the savoury version made with bread and potatoes. It is a common side dish that replaces traditional mashed or roasted potatoes. Next came crispy deep-fried chicken wings with a honey-mustard sauce. When cooked right, fried chicken’s crackling seasoned skin over moist chicken meat is perhaps something meat eaters all over the world love.

Spread out across the table were plates of ricotta and mashed potato balls, flavoured with salt, paprika and black mustard seeds. I have never used black mustard seeds other than in Indian recipes, but the unusual use was a complete success. The ricotta and potato balls were the perfect accompaniment for the fried chicken.

The meal was finished off with three types of dessert: First, a Slovenian style štrukli, prepared with boiled dough filled with a sweet and nutty filling, resembling a dumpling. This was my absolute favorite. Second, a plum pie made with fresh, juicy plums. Plums make fantastic tarts and pies. Third, rekmurska gibanica, a dessert made of curd cheese, poppy seeds, walnuts, apples, and raisins. With good coffee, the desserts completed the meal.

The castle dinner was one of the best and most memorable of my life.

Local Products Some good things are easy to discover early on in Slovenia: abundance of fresh vegetables, pumpkin oil, olive oil, sea salt, honey, and wine, especially white wine.

Glass jars of pumpkin oil are frequently placed at the table in restaurants, right by the olive oil and vinegar. Commonly, it is drizzled on salads and soups like ricet and jota, but also over ice cream. Pumpkin oil very lightly drizzled over a scoop of vanilla ice cream and topped off with toasted pumpkin seeds is a pleasantly surprising combination.

Slovenia produces olive oil. It is a small, but excellent production. It is best to ask locals for recommendations and places to buy. There is a fantastic Oliviers and Co. store (Slovenska cesta 46, 1000 Ljubljana, tel: +386.1.232.22.92) in Ljubljana. I highly recommend a visit. You can spend quite a bit here, and pick up a bottle of Slovenian olive oil. Drizzling soup with a fabulous olive oil makes quite a difference to the end product.

Slovenia has great wines, although they are difficult to find internationally. One wine I particularly liked was Zelen, a crisp, local white wine that is only available here. “Agricultural tourism” enthusiasts might enjoy spending time at farms in Slovenia, which serve local wines, food with just-picked ripe ingredients, and cured meats. A plate of thinly sliced Karst ham and prosciutto and cheese makes the perfect accompaniment to local wine. Bread and lard flavored with bacon bits might also accompany the meal. Prosciutto is cured meat, which in Karst may be simply air-dried. Restaurants in Ljubljana will serve Karst prosciutto.

Salt is not salt. I enjoy buying unique types of salt when travel: pink salt, black salt, grey salt, smoked salt. They are fairly inexpensive to purchase, and it is an easy way to take a cool cooking product home. In Slovenia, natural sea salt is produced from the Sečovlje and Strunjan salt-pans on the Adriatic using traditional methods dating back to the fourth century. I came home with a container of Piran unrefined sea salt for cooking (Piranske Soline, Mestni trg 19, 1000 Ljubljana, tel: +386.1.425.01.90). The store also sells soaps and other products with a salt base.

Right across the salt shop is the honey shop, where several types of honey with various flavours and textures can be sampled. Slovenes are extremely proud of their honeybees and I brought some jars of linden honey back home with me. Honey ice cream is a treat.