{"id":54,"date":"2018-03-03T23:30:15","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T21:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atthesofra.com\/?p=54"},"modified":"2018-03-03T23:30:15","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T21:30:15","slug":"lentil-yahniya-stew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atthesofra.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/03\/lentil-yahniya-stew\/","title":{"rendered":"Lentil Yahniya (Stew)"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\n\"yahniya2\"
\nHere in Bulgaria we were hit by the same storm that just pelted the rest of Europe last week, but spring is on the way. The 40 cm of snow we got here in Shumen just a few days ago is melting so rapidly that it sounds like it’s raining.\u00a0The heaviest day of snow happened to be on what is celebrated in Bulgaria as the first day of spring–March 1st, also called \u0411\u0430\u0431\u0430 \u041c\u0430\u0440\u0442\u0430 (Baba Marta). On this day people exchange red and white bracelets of twisted yarn and pin red and white tassels on their clothing to please Baba Marta (Granny March), thus helping to usher in the warm weather. These string creations are called \u043c\u0430\u0440\u0442\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0446\u0438 (martenitsi<\/em>, singular martenitsa<\/em>). You wear your martenitsa<\/em> until you see the first stork of the spring, and then you tie the martenitsa<\/em> to a flowering tree. Although there was snow everywhere this week, seeing people selling martentsi <\/em>has served as\u00a0a reminder that warm weather is just around the corner.
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\"martenitsi\"
Martenitsi<\/em> for sale out on the sidewalk<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nA couple of weeks ago, I knew my next post would be my simple and tasty lentil\u00a0yahniya<\/em> (\u043b\u0435\u0449\u0430 \u044f\u0445\u043d\u0438\u044f, or lentil stew). I imagined this would be a simple post to make because I’ve been cooking this stew for years; I figured I would just make a batch, take some photos along the way, and post it. But I suddenly felt an added sense of responsibility that comes with posting publicly, so I decided I should do some extra research first. This additional work coincided with the start of the spring semester at the university where I teach, and making the simplest lentil stew suddenly seemed an impossible task to schedule. On top of that came the worst snow storm of the winter, and I took the train back to my town of Shumen to discover my water pipes frozen. But the snow was beautiful (though it was more beautiful back home than on the train–the photo on the right, below, is from the train), and with things back to normal, I’m finally offering a recipe for an easy lentil yahniya<\/em>.
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\"snowy <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"snowy <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\nYahniya<\/em>, by the way, comes to Bulgarian from the Turkish yahni<\/em>, which in turn has a Persian origin. This dish can be found in other Balkan countries, too–Greek\u00a0\u03b3\u03b9\u03b1\u03c7\u03bd\u03af, for example. Bulgaria has a whole range of one-pot dishes of various vegetables or legumes in liquids or sauces, with or without meat, ranging from supa<\/em> [\u0441\u0443\u043f\u0430] to chorba<\/em>\u00a0[\u0447\u043e\u0440\u0431\u0430] to gyuvech<\/em>\u00a0[\u0433\u044e\u0432\u0435\u0447] to yahniya<\/em>\u00a0[\u044f\u0445\u043d\u0438\u044f] to mandzha <\/em>[\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0434\u0436\u0430]–basically, dishes to be eaten with a spoon. Three of these terms entered Bulgarian from Turkish, while the final one–mandzha<\/em>–is from Italian. (This may not be obvious to everyone. I was having dinner at a friend’s house recently when his father mentioned the mandzha<\/em>, then corrected himself, noting he shouldn’t say mandzha<\/em>, because it’s “probably a Turkish word, ” so it’s better to use yahniya…<\/em>) All of these dishes, regardless of vocabulary, and part of the basic Bulgarian menu.
\nSo, back to the lentils…
\nA couple of weeks ago I began reading different recipes for lentil yahniya<\/em>, trying to decide if I was really making it the best way I could be. I read about a dozen different recipes and tried incorporating some of their elements. In the end, I decided to stick with the recipe I usually use, because it’s delicious and easy. The basic recipe is from an American cookbook of Bulgarian cuisine, Linda Forristal’s\u00a0Bulgarian Rhapsody<\/em>, but with some modifications I’ve made over the years.
\nThe major variations I saw in the many recipes I read were mostly a question of 1) whether to saut\u00e9 the vegetables beforehand; 2) whether to include a fresh red pepper among the vegetables; and 3) whether or not to make a \u0437\u0430\u043f\u0440\u044a\u0436\u043a\u0430 (zaprushka<\/em>–a typical Bulgarian roux made of oil, flour, paprika, and sometimes onions and\/or tomatoes, added to the dish to thicken and flavor it). I tried saut\u00e9ing my onions and carrots before adding them to the lentils, and while this definitely gave them an aromatic sweetness, I couldn’t decide whether or not I actually preferred this flavor in the soup; because I was ambivalent, I decided it wasn’t worth complicating the recipe for a step with questionable value. I decided against trying a fresh pepper because it’s still winter, so this hardly seems like the time to be cooking with fresh peppers; maybe I’ll try that this summer. And as for the zaprushka<\/em>, I decided to use it because it does add some flavor, and I prefer cooking the fresh tomato in the zaprushka<\/em> before adding it (the recipe in Bulgarian Rhapsody calls for canned tomatoes, but also twice as many lentils as I use, and a whole can of tomatoes would overwhelm this quantity of lentils). Also, a zaprushka<\/em> adds a typical Balkan touch to a stew or a pot of beans!
\n\"ingredients\"
\nNecessary Ingredients [\u043d\u0435\u043e\u0431\u0445\u043e\u0434\u0438\u043c\u0438 \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0434\u0443\u043a\u0442\u0438]:<\/strong><\/p>\n