Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Projara- Serbian Corn Bread with Cheese (Serbian = Пројара)


Proja is another authentic Serbian dish. It was a popular food among peasants, in the old days because it is cheap to make. Proja is made of eggs, cornmeal, flour, milk and oil. Now that we can afford a little more flavor in our food, we make a fancier version of proja, called projara. Projara has the same ingredients as proja, but in addition it also contains fetta chese, which gives it a really nice flovor.

My friend Svetlana is the master of projara. She makes them in a mini muffin pan, which is great for parties as finger foods. You can also make them in a regular baking dish and cut it into pieces. Here is her recipe, and it is quire easy to make.


Ingredients:

4 eggs
200ml oil
200ml kefir or yogurt
1 cup flour
1 cup corn flour, fine grind
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
300-400g crumbled feta
2 Tbsp corn flour, course grind


Preheat the oven to 400F.

Start with mixing the eggs.


Then add oil and yogurt.


Mix in the dry ingredients (flour, fine corn flour and baking powder).


At the end add feta cheese and mix it with a spoon.


Oil the baking ban. Mini muffin pan is ideal to use for projara. Then sprinkle the coarse corn flour onto the bottom of the pan.


Finally, pour the mixture into the pan, but don't overfill since it will raise in the oven.



Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes.




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6 comments:

  1. yuuuuuuuum, this is soo good!
    I didn't know these were serbian style corn bread, otherwise I would have tried one!

    we need to have cooking session, I know some cool stuff to make!

    - Loosineh

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  2. Interesting that cornmeal is an authenic Serbian dish. I wonder how far back the recipe goes. Because as we are taught in school maize(or corn) is a New World product originating in probably what is now Mexico. Or was it? The book Ancient Egyptian Maize claims that maize was in Egypt in 3,000 BC. So maybe it had been in the Old World after all.
    Also like the cute little colorful cups.

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  3. Well, corn should indeed be a New World plant; but once it made its way to Serbia (through the Ottoman empire, apparently as one of the Serbian synonyms for corn is "the great Turk"), they had to figure the recipes out on their own.

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  4. This is the best recipe for projara ever!
    Making them a the moment :) Thanks a lot! :)

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  5. Hi. I am from India . I came across this through a Serbian friend. Your cup measurements are the same as the standard baking cups? Or is it a ceramic cup you personally have?

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  6. And is it a thick Greek yoghurt you use or the basic yoghurt with no flavour?

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