Left: Merjem Mededovic in her hometown of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Proper: Kljukusa on a plate.
Merjem Mededovic/Collage by NPR
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Merjem Mededovic/Collage by NPR
Left: Merjem Mededovic in her hometown of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Proper: Kljukusa on a plate.
Merjem Mededovic/Collage by NPR
All Issues We’re Cooking is a sequence that includes family recipes from you, our readers and listeners, and the particular tales behind them. We’ll proceed to share extra of your kitchen gems all through the vacations.
As a younger little one, Merjem Mededovic spent her first years in Germany earlier than she and her household settled in the USA, having fled war-torn Sarajevo. After they returned to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2003, Mededovic wasn’t fluent within the language. Her grandmother helped bridge that hole.
“With each of my mother and father working, my grandmother took care of each me and my sister throughout the day,” Mededovic mentioned. “She would choose us up from college. She would make lunch and ensure we do our homework. And oftentimes she would put together dinner as properly.”
Mededovic typically would be part of her grandmother within the kitchen as she made dinner and discovered the names of various issues in Bosnian.
“She was very, very, very affected person with educating me easy methods to make all of the meals and the way every ingredient is named. We’d go to the marketplaces collectively and she or he would even present me easy methods to haggle,” Mededovic mentioned. “So it was a really pure means for me to sort of take up all the tradition and all the language.”
One of many dishes that Mededovic watched her grandmother make is kljukusa — a potato and onion dish that she describes as a cross between a “latke and a baked pancake.”
Her grandmother was having issue describing the dish till she referred to it because the “cousin” to pita, a kind of cheese pie that the household eats. It’s just like spanakopita.
“Attributable to our language limitations, my grandma did not know easy methods to clarify it so she advised me ‘You realize pita? Properly, that is pita’s cousin.’ Ever since that day, we now name kljukusa ‘cousin,'” Mededovic mentioned. “This led to enjoyable conversations … ‘I am having cousin for dinner tonight,’ or ‘I’ve actually been craving cousin.'”
The distinctive identify has led to plenty of laughs, too, Mededovic mentioned, particularly when she talks concerning the dish and has to do not forget that it is really known as kljukusa by everybody else, not cousin.
The potato pancake is commonly topped with a garlic yogurt sauce, and Mededovic mentioned her household likes to eat it with quartered uncooked onions and slices of tomatoes, with salt on the aspect.
At this time, Mededovic resides in Ann Arbor, Mich., the place she’s engaged on finishing her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. She mentioned she typically calls house to Bosnia and talks along with her grandmother about recipes and extra.
“We chitchat very regularly. She’s been a really massive supporter,” Mededovic mentioned. “So at any time when I’ve points and difficulties with college … I name her up and she or he jogs my memory to be affected person, to be steadfast, to not hand over.”
Kljukusa
Recipe submitted by Merjem Mededovic
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Substances
- 1 pound of potatoes, grated (about 2 massive potatoes)
- 1 onion, grated
- 1/4 cup oil
- 3/4 cup and a splash of milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of pepper
- Non-compulsory: 1 tablespoon of Vegeta, which is a spice combine like Herbamare
For the yogurt sauce
- 1 cup of liquid yogurt (just like kefir, however can water down Greek yogurt)
- 1 cup bitter cream
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
Instructions
Warmth oven to 450 levels Fahrenheit. Put together a baking dish (massive baking pan with a minimum of 2-inch excessive sides) by oiling it liberally.
Grate potatoes and onion in a big bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the oil, milk and eggs collectively. Add the liquid combination to the potatoes and blend.
Slowly add flour, salt and pepper to make a batter. It ought to have a chunky, thick cake batter consistency. If too skinny, add flour; if too thick, add milk.
Pour batter into the baking dish and bake for 25-Half-hour till golden brown.
Combine elements for the yogurt sauce, and pour them over the new kljukusa. Let relaxation for a minimum of 10-Quarter-hour.
Get pleasure from. We frequently eat this with a aspect salad of onion, cucumber and tomato, or with simply uncooked onion or spring onion with some salt.
