Index
Potica (Aunt Katie’s Recipe)
Mushroom Soup
Potica: Aunt Katie’s recipe
Dough
Dissolve 1 ½ cubes active dry yeast in like warm water, 1tbs sugar and flour and water to make a pancake batter. Put on stove and let rise. Cover with a plate. (This measures ½-1cup)
Sift 6 cups of flour in a big dishpan. Make a hole in the middle. Add one heaping tablespoon salt, 1 ½ coffee scoops sugar. Grate 1 orange and 1 lemon. Put half of the rind in the flour. (save rest for walnuts)
Melt ¼ lb butter and add ½ qt cold milk. Add 1 ½ coffee scoops sugar. Get like warm.
Separate 4 eggs. (Put whites in refrigerator for walnuts.L
Beat eggs with spoon, add a little oil.
Add part of lukewarm milk /butter to flour (in the hole in the middle) stirring so the flour kind of falls into the milk with a wooden spoon until half the flour is mixed. Then add yeast and eggs yolks and mix. Add rest of milk and butter mixture a little at a time as needed. (Mixture should not be too hard or too soft.) Best mixed with a wooden spoon. Then knead it on a floured board til like a ball.
Grease a bowl. Then put the dough in it , set in a warm place covered with a cloth to double in bulk. About 2 hours. Punch it down again on flour board.
Grease bottom of bowl and let it rise to about the same size.
Walnut Filling
5-6lbs walnuts (before cleaned). Chop or grind fine. ½ lb raisins ground, ½ qt of cold milk. Mix in 1 pt pure honey and the rest of the orange.lemon rind 1 ½ coffee scoops sugar, ¼ lb butter ½ cube margerine and a little oil. Mix and let cook for 20 minutes.
Add ½ can of cinnamon, 1 ½ jiggers of brandy or rum, ½ pint of sour cream, 2 egg yolks- beat in quickly- add shoot of vanilla and cook (about 40 minutes all toll). Be careful not to burn it. It sticks to the pot.) Beat egg whites including those from the last two eggs until stiff and when walnut mixture cools fold in.
Cut dough in half, roll half an a clean canvas to a very thin sheet.
Spread the filling (warm-not hot) all oveer with a spatula. Lift cloth and roll. Use about ½ lb butter to grease pan. Use 2 angel food pans or one big flat pan.. Shape like a snake in the pan. Set in a warm place and let rise 1 ½- 2 hours. It should double.
Brush the top with egg. Bake it at 325 for 1 ½ hours. Test with toothpick. Let cool on wire rack before turning out.
Mushroom Soup
4-5 Tablespoons butter
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 Tablespoon flour
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
- 1 pound wild mushrooms, cut into chunks (ideally bolete or other meaty mushrooms),
if you don’t have access to these you can substitute a combination of 1/2 pound store-bought mushrooms with 3 Tablespoons crumbled dried mushrooms that have been soaked in warm milk for at least 20 minutes–reserving the soaking liquid for some other recipe)
- 1 large potato, peeled and sliced into small cubes
- 3 cups warm water
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- pinch of marjoram (or oregano)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup semi-dry white wine
(ideally, a traminec or true rizling)
- salt to taste
Garnish: 2 Tablespoons minced parsley and dollops of sour cream
Melt the butter in a large saucepan and cook the onions until they are transparent. Stir in the flour and 1/2 teaspoon garlic, and cook til frothy, about 30 seconds. Stir in the mushrooms (either fresh chunks, or a combination of fresh chunks and rehydrated mushroom bits). Pour in the water, bay leaves, pepper, and marjoram (this last, crumbled between your palms). Bring to a simmer, then cook on low for about 10 minutes, stir in another 1/2 teaspoon of garlic, then continue cooking for 5 minutes, until the potatoes are tender–stirring frequently.
When the potatoes are cooked, stir in the wine or wine vinegar. Salt to taste. When ready to serve, ladle into small bowls, sprinkle each with parsley, and spoon a dollop of sour cream into the middle of each bowl.