Recipe Cheesecake

The cuisine of northern Slovakia is influenced by the harsh climatic conditions of the area, where it is usually intensively cold at least three months per year. This is one of the reasons why smoked meat, potatoes, sauerkraut, dairy products and pulses are typical for this cuisine. In Slovakia, the pulses belong to the oldest cultivated crops. The most famous dish, still popular of the Slovak kitchen, is the bean soup, which used to be part of the Christmas Eve dinner for many families.

This hearty soup, pronounced ‘looshcosh’ in Romanian, hails from Ardeal (a region of Transylvanian Romania) and probably comes from the Hungarian soup called lucskos kaposzta.

This goulash owes its name to the ever-hungry coachmen who drive the famous carriages (or ‘fiacres’) around Vienna. The beef ragout is topped with a garnish of sausage and fried egg – while its rich juice is permeated with sweet paprika powder. For this latter ingredient, as well as the numerous other variations of goulash, the Austrian cuisine owes a debt of gratitude to its neighbours in Hungary.

The traditional Slovak dishes are most commonly referred to as gnocchi with sheep cheese (Bryndzové halušky), sheep cheese (Bryndzové pirohy) and other dishes produced using traditional methods.The sheep cheese is a soft salty cheese made of sheep’s milk with a strong aroma and taste. Like Bryndzové halušky, Bryndzové pirohy is a characteristic Slovak dish that belongs to traditional Slovak specialties. The recipe is quite simple. The preparation procedure, however, is quite different and we can distinguish them reliably by sight and taste.