Saturday, March 17, 2012

Kljukuša: A Bosnian Specialty


Iman Al-Dabbagh, a friend of mine here in Sarajevo, is a photographer. One of her latest photos she posted on Facebook, in the album iFoodography, inspired me to make kljukuša as a Saturday treat. Well, kljukuša is a traditional Bosnian dish made by grated potatoes mixed with flour and water or milk/yogurt/cream. It's baked in an oven until golden and crisp on the outside and soft inside. This morning, it's going to be my first, so I grabbed a few potatoes and told Milou that we're making a potato cake to make her get what I was doing while grating the fresh potatoes. I owe the rest of this great Saturday treat story to my photographic memory. In other words, I exactly followed what my mother-in-law usually does on weekend mornings for breakfast to make kljukuša. It's definitely a Bosnian specialty which is super easy and super tasty! Here comes the recipe.

Ingredients
5-6 medium potatoes
3 tablespoons flour
1 clove garlic
pepper, salt
milk
cream

Directions
1. Heat the oven to 175 °C. 
2. Peel the potatoes and grate into a large bowl.
3. Grate the garlic and add into the grated potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Be generous with salt. Add some flour. I added 3 tablespoons of flour. Stir well to combine.
4. Pour the potato-garlic- flour mixture into a baking pan. Pour in milk or milk-cream mixture until it cover the potatoes. The amount of cream depends on how much you like it. 
5. Bake in the oven until golden and crispy on the outside. It takes more than half an hour to bake it, around 45 minutes. 

6 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for posting this! I have been looking for a recipe for kljukuša in English for ages. I am making it for a large group of people, fingers crossed it turns out as good as yours did!

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    1. I got really happy when I read your comment! I hope yours turned out to be something great and everybody liked it!

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  2. Hi. Thanks for this great recipe. I tried it and it tasted wonderfully.. However, the potatoes turned into a pink, then gray mess. Any recommendations on how to keep it from turning such a yucky color?

    Thanks

    Amber

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  3. Hello there Amber,

    Happy to hear that your kljukuša tasted so good! For the 'yucky' colour you mentioned, you will find the answer and some other tips here:
    http://www.potato101.com/faq.html

    Thanks for giving it a try!



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  4. Thank you for posting this recipe (...in English!!) It looks deceptively easy, and a bit like something I sometimes make (with cheese rather than milk), but I often haveto cook the potato a bit first...well, not any more now I know what to really do. I hope to make it next Thursday, we are having "World Food" day at work on Friday, and I am researching Bosnian foods. I'm making my version of krempita to follow... Thank you. John R, Coventry, England

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  5. You're most welcome. Let me know if people will like it or not! I hope everyone will love it! Greetings from Sarajevo!

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