Bulgarian Rhapsody : The Best of Balkan Cuisine

The Bulgarian kitchen is heavily influenced by Mediterranean cooking, not a surprise since the neighboring Turks occupied it for 500 years. Greece is also a neighbor, along with Romania and Yugoslavia. Bulgarians favor the slow cooking of stews and soups. They use fresh vegetables, particularly tomatoes, sweet red peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and potatoes. Stuffed grape leaves, phyllo pies, and mousaka--the Bulgarian spelling--will be familiar. Forristal offers a meatless mousaka made with zucchini and several kinds of plakiya, stews that are vibrant with tomatoes and onions, similar to dishes you find in Greek restaurants. The gyuveches are baked stews that resemble their Romanian counterparts. The typical meatless one made with string beans, tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, red and green bell peppers, and zucchini, resembles a ratatouille. The one made with sausages and red peppers is much simpler.

If you enjoy discovering new dishes, tutmanik, a quickbread made with cheese, and Baked Peppers Stuffed with White Beans are alluring. The potato salad seasoned with oregano and paprika is also different from the usual. Do ignore one technique Forristal uses: peeling roasted peppers under running water washes away much of their flavor. Better to leave a few charred specks of skin than to do this. --Dana Jacobi

In order to make our entire church feel a part of our "mission", the team sponsored a Bulgarian dinner. Seeing as no one had either been to Bulgaria nor ever sampled Bulgarian cuisine prior to this endeavor, we were all a bit nervous. I supplied recipes from Linda J. Forristal's book to about 15 people. Combined, we prepared nearly half of the recipes from the book and had the most incredible "spread" you could imagine!

The recipes are generally simple, and entirely delicious, and most require foods found regularly at most grocery stores (even in a secluded town of 17,000). We were pleasantly surprised that our mid-western USA tastebuds rejoiced so fully in these "new" foods. We all agreed that although we each had our favorites, there was nothing we didn't enjoy!

It is important to note that the author herself acknowledges a lack of use of certain widespread Bulgarian ingredients, in the recipes she has adapted. Food stuffs such as organs and even lamb, are not to be found in this book. For me, that is fine. For complete authenticity, however, those ommissions must be noted.

I understand that duplicating Bulgarian recipes is not an easy task, but according to a young woman I recently met, this book comes pretty darn close! This woman has recently returned from 6 years in Bulgaria. She told me that she, too, had this book, "Bulgarian Rhapsody..." and that she cried when she first saw the recipes for foods she had fallen "in love" with!

The recipes, as well as the sprinkling of folklore, culture, and history, make this book a definite countertop mainstay in my kitchen!


Unique book about Bulgarian cuisine and culture   September 13, 1999
Roumi Radenski (radensr@wfu.edu) (Winston-Salem, NC, U.S.A.)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

"Mother Linda's Bulgarian Cooking BULGARIAN RHAPSODY" is among the very few cookbooks published in English about Bulgarian cuisine. The author, Linda Forristal, visited Bulgaria on several occasions since 1990. During her stays in Bulgaria she observed her friends cooking and collected many recipes. Majority of the recipes in the book are authentic Bulgarian (like "tikvenik", "lyuteniza," etc.). There are some recipes, which are imported from Western cuisine, but are favorites in every Bulgarian house (like "Garash cake"). In addition to common recipes, the book includes chapters on Bulgarian holiday cooking and Bulgarian-Jewish cooking. Thus, book represents pretty much the contemporary trends in the Bulgarian cuisine.

The book benefits very much from the rich and tastefully chosen illustrations and design. The reader will find in it fine color pictures of Bulgarian dishes, embroidery, national costumes, dances, architectural monuments.

Valuable additions to the book are Bulgarian proverbs, explanations of cooking techniques and customs which are inserted in appropriate places. Special place is devoted to such unique Bulgarian holidays as March 1st (day of the "Marteniza") and May 24 (the day of the Bulgarian culture). List of UNESCO supported historical and architectural monuments in Bulgaria could be found at the end of the book.

Linda Forristal's love to Bulgaria, its culture and people helped her create a unique book. It is much more than a cookbook: it is a book for Bulgarian style of life. I would rank it as one of the best books about Bulgaria and its cuisine published in recent years.


I re-discovered my own culture!   December 11, 1999
Petia Kostadinova (Tallahassee, Florida)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

I am extremely pleased to own a copy of Bulgarian Rhapsody. This is a wonderful book, that offers an in-depth perspective of many aspects of Bulgarian culture. Among the most valuable things about this book is the way it integrates delicious recipes and stories about Bulgaria. This is more than simply a cookbook and is a must-have for anyone even remotely interested in this small Balkan country. I promise you that after reading Ms. Forristal's book, you will fall in love with Bulgaria. This book helped me, a native Bulgarian, to rediscover certain aspects of my own culture! Thank you, Mother Linda!


Highly recommended for anyone interested in Balkan cuisines   March 25, 1999
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

This entertaining and informative cookbook is an excellent introduction to a cuisine that few Americans are familiar with. Forristal not only introduces the reader to the foods of Bulgaria, but also to the history, geography, people, and culture of this Eastern European country. If you like Greek or Turkish food, you'll also like the dishes featured in this cookbook. Forristal's selection of more than 100 recipes reflects her own preference for light, healthy--yet authentic--Bulgarian dishes that can be prepared easily in American kitchens. The emphasis is on vegetarian foods, but there are also several recipes for dishes made with meats. Separate chapters focus on traditional Bulgarian breads and desserts. The author tells you how to make your own phyllo dough for flaky pastries, how to make pita bread in the shape of a sunflower, and how to make a pudding that, according to legend, contains all the foods left on Noah's ark when it landed on Mt. Ararat. Another section on "Ceremonies and Celebrations" provides menus and recipes for a Bulgarian Christmas Eve dinner, a Bulgarian Jewish dinner, a traditional barbecue, and even a low-fat feast. Printed on high-quality paper, this cookbook contains many color photographs illustrating the recipes. Throughout the book you'll find Bulgarian proverbs, tips from Bulgarian cooks, short folk tales, and descriptions of Bulgarian customs and holidays. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Balkan cuisines in particular, international foods in general, or just healthy, tasty, home-style dishes that can be easily prepared from readily available ingredients.


Excellent   June 5, 2002
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

I am a Bulgarian, and I just bought this book. I have read just a handful of the recepies, and I think that they are excellent. I highly recommend this book.

Bulgarian cousine is very rich in flavor. It is not spicy, the taste usually comes from the combined aroma of vegetables and meat. Yet, the dishes are not bland. I believe that there is something that everybody will love in this book.

Btw., if you decide to pickle vegetables - turshia (as briefly described in the book), I must say that you must have the pickled water circulate in the jar. For that purpose you difuse the water out of the jar (with a hose) several times, to let the water circulate and get enriched with oxygen. Do not pour in fresh water!!!

There are two types of lyutenitza described in the book. I would recommend the book even only for those two recipes. My mother (a lyutenitza gourmet) cooks as a simple combination between the two described recipes.