Macedonia: The Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Balkans

by Katerina Nitsou, Oliver Fitzgerald (Photographer)

Overview

Discover the flavors and traditions of North Macedonia




Macedonian cuisine is a rich mosaic of influences from the Mediterranean and Middle East, and the neighboring countries in the Balkan Peninsula. It is known for its opulent family meals, and the regional dishes play important symbolic roles in local traditions and family celebrations.

Macedonia: The Cookbook is a love letter to Macedonian culture, and a cuisine deeply rooted in its land and traditions. Through over 100 mouthwatering recipes for mezze dishes, salads, soups, fish, poultry, meat, vegetables, and delicious sweets and preserves, chef and food writer Katerina Nitsou shares the authentic flavors and wisdom brought along with her family, recreated and adapted in her North American kitchen.

With beautiful photography of the food, people, and landscapes of North Macedonia, this cookbook captures the country’s essence and belongs on the kitchen shelf of every food lover.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623718794
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/21/2021
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	1,092,656
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Katerina Nitsou spent her childhood in the kitchen helping her grandmother, mother, and aunts prepare meals using fresh herbs and vegetables from the family’s prized garden. Growing up in a large Macedonian-Canadian community in Toronto, she was immersed in the Macedonian culture through language, dance, and celebrations. She began writing about traditional Macedonian cuisine long before she completed her training at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. She honed her recipe writing skills in the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen and developed her cooking style working as a food stylist, caterer, and private chef in California. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two young children, whom she is teaching to cook.

Table of Contents

5 Preface 7 Introduction 9 Mezze: Appetizers 6 Salata: Salads 63 Supa: Soups 86 Meso: Meat 115 Zhivina: Poultry 139 Riba: Fish 152 Zelenchuk: Vegetables and Sides 176 Leb: Breads 205 Slatko: Sweets 229 Zimnica: Preserves

Editorial Reviews

06/21/2021

A descendant of Macedonian immigrants to Canada, Nitsou combines a connection to her roots with a strong handle on culinary skills in her intriguing debut. The “rustic and unassuming” food of Macedonia, she writes, assimilates Turkish and Greek flavors and even echoes the cuisine of Tuscany, but the results are distinct, as evidenced in her mezze of crepes filled with leeks, ricotta, and feta, and a meat pie with traditional pastrma (“salted dried meat”) replaced with a juicy pork tenderloin. Nitsou, an alum of the Los Angeles Times test kitchen, has a knack for tweaks—such as roasting meatballs for extra flavor before floating them in a lemony soup—and her instructions are clear and direct. She provides an involved recipe for a coiled savory pastry, a “labor of love,” then thoughtfully follows up with a version using store-bought puff pastry that’s “as close as you can get to homemade dough.” Homey desserts include an orange peel–infused rice pudding and a sour cream Bundt cake with cinnamon, walnuts, and brown sugar, while a snappy chapter on preserves features fig jam alongside instructions for making yogurt, a key component in everything from her chilled cucumber soup to marinated chicken skewers. By turns inviting and professional, this shines a spotlight on a little-known cuisine with eminently doable results. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Katerina Nitsou’s Macedonia is a vibrant introduction to a Balkan culture and cuisine ... The clear recipes are introduced with bits of family and cultural background. Most are accompanied by instructive color photographs of the finished dish, while endearing photographs of Nitsou’s family members, and others of Macedonian landmarks and its mountainous, sun-dappled landscape, are welcome additions to this personal interpretation of a distinctive culture.

Foreword magazine

This is a book written straight from the heart. Katerina’s stories and recipes are an affectionate celebration of her Macedonian heritage, transporting you right to her family table, enjoying dishes that are respectful of tradition and yet accessible to everyone.

Irina Georgescu

Nitsou’s passion for her heritage is evident throughout ... her personal variations on dishes, and her unassuming perspective on life and on food ... Nitsou's family hails from Macedonia, a southeastern European country nestled between Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, and Kosovo/Serbia. Traces of all these nations plus Italian, Turkish, and more influences are evident in the 100-plus colorfully photographed dishes Nitsou provides here ....

Booklist

Katerina Nitsou describes the food of Macedonia—of her family’s origins—as ‘modest, simple and honest.’ That makes it the kind of food we love to eat now: unfussy, easy to prepare, and whose ingredients speak of the diverse influences of a cuisine poised between the exoticisms of Greece and Turkey, and the heartier notes of the Balkans. Paprika and cabbage rub shoulders with Mediterranean peppers, tomatoes, and feta; Ottoman baklava sits beside pear strudel and sesame cookies. This book has what it takes for creating a colorful, tasty table that will be popular with the whole family.

Carla Capalbo

Katerina Nitsou describes the food of Macedonia—of her family’s origins—as ‘modest, simple and honest.’ That makes it the kind of food we love to eat now: unfussy, easy to prepare, and whose ingredients speak of the diverse influences of a cuisine poised between the exoticisms of Greece and Turkey, and the heartier notes of the Balkans. Paprika and cabbage rub shoulders with Mediterranean peppers, tomatoes, and feta; Ottoman baklava sits beside pear strudel and sesame cookies. This book has what it takes for creating a colorful, tasty table that will be popular with the whole family.

author of Tasting Georgia: A Food and Wine Jou Carla Capalbo

This is a book written straight from the heart. Katerina’s stories and recipes are an affectionate celebration of her Macedonian heritage, transporting you right to her family table, enjoying dishes that are respectful of tradition and yet accessible to everyone.

author of Carpathia: Food from the Heart of Ro Irina Georgescu