The Slavic east and the Balkans · Volume 30, The Living Culture, the Roman Vein and the Rose Valley
Kavarma
Bulgaria
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 2 hours
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Bulgaria, the clay-pot slow stew that is this chapter's clearest demonstration of rung two.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 2 hours.
Ingredients
- 800g pork or chicken
- 2, sliced onion
- 2, sliced pepper
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 200ml a little wine or water
- a small handful, savory and thyme, chopped fresh herbs
Method
- Brown the pork or chicken with the onion and pepper.
- Transfer to an unglazed clay gyuvech with paprika and only a little wine or water.
- Cook low and slow until the meat is falling apart and the sauce has reduced to almost nothing.
- Finish with fresh herbs.
What a modern chef changes
A sous vide confit and a charred pepper base, keeping the clay pot's own logic intact
Rung 2
Method
- Sear the meat hard first for real Maillard colour.
- Confit it at a controlled low sous vide temperature before its final turn in the clay pot, concentrating flavour without the risk of overcooking a leaner cut.
- Char the peppers directly on the Big Green Egg before pureeing them into the sauce base.
- Dehydrate a portion of onion first to intensify its sweetness before it goes into the pot.
- Blend the pot's own reduced juices smooth and pass through a chinois.
- Finish with a bright herb oil rather than chopped herbs stirred through.