Walnut Syrup Cake (Orehove rezine)

Just in time for the holidays, I have discovered a wonderful new addition to the Slovenian dessert menu: walnut syrup cake, or orehove rezine ("walnut slices").

I've had my eye on this recipe for some time. I found it in my favorite modern cookbook, The Food and Cooking of Slovenia, by Janez Bogataj. The source is impeccable, but I hesitated to make it, because the recipe struck me as unusual. And I'd never seen it anywhere else, so I wondered if this was really a traditional Slovenian dish.

The cake includes chopped walnuts, white and whole wheat flour--and uncooked polenta. (See Note below.) After baking, it is soaked in syrup. There is honey and cinnamon in the cake, plus honey in the syrup. I couldn't quite imagine how all these ingredients would come together. 

Finally, a few weeks ago, I took the plunge. I shouldn't have worried. This unusual sweet is amazing.

To call this a "walnut slice" doesn't do it justice. This is a rich, moist dessert that straddles the line between decadent and wholesome. It looks like a dense cake or torte but it tastes like a less cloying version of baklava. And it keeps beautifully. 

As it turns out, the recipe can be found in many places on the Internet, usually without attribution. One Slovenian blogger who grew up in Maribor, in the northeastern part of the country, confesses that she had never heard of this dish before, but perhaps that is because it is traditional to the northwest!

The directions below closely follow Janez Bogataj's recipe in the English language version of The Food and Cooking of Slovenia.

Enjoy!


Note: In a recipe like this, "polenta" refers to the uncooked product--in other words, a medium grind of yellow cornmeal. For further discussion, see my previous cornbread post, or check out this link.

Walnut Syrup Cake (Orehove rezine)
                                                                  --from Janez Bogataj

1-1/2 cups (175 g) walnuts, toasted
10 tbsp (150 g) butter, softened
2/3 cup (150 g) light brown sugar
4 tbsp (60 ml) set honey
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (50 g) white flour
1/2 cup (50 g) whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon (I used 2 tsp)
pinch of salt
1/2 cup, generous (65 g) polenta (or medium grind yellow cornmeal)
5 tbsp (75 ml) milk

(for syrup)
1/2 cup (90 g) golden caster sugar
4 tbsp (60 ml) set honey
1/2 cup (120 ml) water


Notes on ingredients: Set honey is referred to as spun, creamed, or whipped honey in the US. Regular honey can be used, although it is probably harder to blend. For golden caster sugar, I substituted raw cane sugar, which also has a slight caramel flavor.
 





First, prepare the walnuts: Spread out on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees F (180 C) until toasted. Let cool, then chop roughly and set aside.

For cake: Sift together the white and whole wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl beat butter, sugar, and honey until fluffy. Beat in eggs gradually, then add vanilla. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and fold in. When partially combined, add the nuts, polenta and milk, and fold in.

Spoon batter into an 8-inch round cake pan (or spring form pan) that has been greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 C) for 45-50 minutes, until firm and light brown.

While cake is baking, prepare syrup: Combine sugar, honey, and water in a pan. Heat gently until sugar dissolves then simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off heat.

When cake is done, let cool slightly. (If desired, remove from pan and place carefully in a pretty serving dish with sides.) Pour warm syrup slowly over the top, so that it is absorbed evenly. Let cool. To serve, cut into thin slices.

Slovenian Dinner Week 35: Ljubljana Egg Dish, A Touch of Old World Elegance

Menu
Ljubljana Egg Dish (Ljubljanska Jajena Jed), or Mushroom-Asparagus Souffle
Green Salad with Asparagus, Tomatoes, and Radishes



I found this unusual mushroom-asparagus souffle in a contemporary source:  The Food and Cooking of Slovenia (2009), by Slovenian professor and cooking expert Janez Bogataj, Ph.D.

This beautifully produced book has received much attention, at least in Slovenian American circles. So I was excited to discover that I could browse through the online preview.  But I promised myself :  I wouldn't add it to my cookbook collection just yet.  For now, I wanted to retain my focus on vintage Slovenian American cooking.  I assumed this glossy book was a modern take on Slovenian food.  But I was wrong.

Take this egg dish.  It definitely qualifies as vintage.  It first appeared in 1868, in a book by Magdalena Pleiweis.  This was one of the earliest Slovenian cookbooks, and the first one to be copyrighted.  It was also the first dish to be named for a particular place: Ljubljana, Slovenia's largest city and now the small nation's capital.

I was intrigued by this dish, which sounded like a cross between a mushroom-asparagus omelet and a souffle, partly because it had such a contemporary feeling.  It was hard to believe that a delicate, elegant-sounding brunch dish was in vogue in 1860s Slovenia, even among city-dwellers.  I doubt that it had a place in the kitchens of my own peasant ancestors, and it doesn't seem to have become a part of the Slovenian American cooking repertoire.

Subsequently, I found a version of the recipe in a Milwaukee newspaper article about Slovenian cooking and Dr. Bogataj's book.  This recipe, presented with the American cook in mind, looked even easier to follow.  So I made a mental note to come back to it, when the time was right.

On Tuesday of Week 35,  the time felt right.  My husband and I were feeling drained after a weekend trip to Chicago, where we had attended another memorial service for our friend who had died in the summer. We came home to more sad news, the death of my husband's stepfather.

The thought of a light, meat-free souffle for dinner seemed appealing.  So I went back to that newspaper article and followed the recipe, making just a few small modifications.   I also expanded the directions.  To follow this recipe, which was more elaborate than I realized,  read on.

Ljubljana Egg Dish

½  “short loaf” (long roll) of French bread
1 c. milk
5 hard-cooked eggs
3 uncooked eggs, separated
2 T. butter, room temperature
1 T. chopped fresh marjoram
1 t. salt
1 lemon rind, grated
2 T. sour cream
½ to ¾ oz. dried morels or other wild mushrooms
2 T. fresh parsley, chopped
1 T. dry white wine
1 oz (or more!) fresh asparagus tips


First, prepare the mushrooms.  I found morels too pricey, so I used a small bag of mixed wild mushrooms. Rinse mushrooms and then either boil or soak in very hot water.  (Note: There are two schools of thought about this. Some argue that boiling creates a tasty broth, but is not a good idea if you want to use the mushrooms themselves in cooking.) Drain the softened mushrooms, saving the liquid for another use.  Slice mushrooms and set aside in a small bowl.

Crumble French bread or roll into a small bowl, add  milk, and set aside to soak.

Shell the hard-cooked eggs and separate whites from yolks.  Press the yolks through a strainer into a small bowl and set aside in a medium bowl.  Slice whites into thin strips and set aside in another medium bowl.

Squeeze milk from bread and discard.  Add half the bread to the sieved cooked egg yolks, along with 1 T. softened butter.  Mix, then add the raw egg yolks.  Mix well.

Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl until stiff, adding a pinch of salt if desired. Fold them into the egg yolk mixture.  Add marjoram,  the remaining salt, lemon rind, sour cream,  and the remaining half of bread.  Fold and mix until well combined.

In a skillet, saute the sliced mushrooms in 1 T. butter for two minutes.  Add parsley, white wine, and asparagus tips. (Note: the recipe considers the asparagus optional and calls for 1 ounce.  I consider it essential and used a good half cup, plus more asparagus in the salad!)

Now, assemble the dish:

Butter a souffle dish.  Spread one third of the egg mixture on the bottom.  Add half the mushroom-asparagus mixture and then half  the egg white slices.  Repeat, ending with a final layer of egg mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the egg dish is browned and set.

I  garnished the egg dish with a few branches of fresh marjoram and served it with a green salad, along with a few olives and some ajvar.

How did it taste?  Scroll to the end of the photos to find out!

dried wild mushrooms, before soaking

mushrooms, after soaking

lemon rind, marjoram, and parsley

the mushroom-asparagus filling

sliced egg whites and sieved egg yolks

before baking

Ljubljana Egg Dish, after baking

Ljubljana Egg Dish, side view

The verdict:   The Ljubljana Egg dish is indeed an unusual concoction. It seems to exist in a culinary border region, somewhere between an airy omelet and a dense souffle.  The elaborate preparation process does seem hard to justify, given the end result.  It is definitely another one of those Slovenian dishes with simple ingredients combined in complex ways.  It tasted fine but the texture was odd. Sliced cooked egg white, baked for the second time, is definitely an acquired taste.  I have to confess that I am not in a rush to make this again.

Still, I am very glad I tackled this intriguing dish. It was like taking a step back into Slovenian history.  It gave me a glimpse into a refined nineteenth century urban culture that I, like many Slovenian Americans, know little about.  So that is a good thing.