GYPSY MAZUREK

On Saturday I started to explore my gypsy cookbook and dropped there across a recipe of a festive gypsy cake that is also said to be traditionally made at Easter. It's a flat cake filled with raisins, figs and dates with a good handful of grated orange rind. It's very similar to the one my granny used to prepare.

As figs are not seasonal yet at this time of the year, so I've just substituted them for prunes and they even added to the richness of flavour!
And, here's the recipe:
Ingredients:


6 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cup unrefined milled golden cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped figs
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup raisins
peel of 1 orange
1 3/4 cups crushed walnuts
3 tbsp grated lemon peel
6 tbsp cornstarch

Method of Cooking:

Preheat the oven to 160C. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gradually add the sugar, whisking all the time until the meringue forms firm peaks.
Fold in the lightly beaten yolks and vanilla. Combine the figs, dates, raisins, orange rind, walnuts and cornstarch. Gently add the fruit mixture to the egg white mixture.
Shape into a circle on a greased and floured cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

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And here is the cookbook I've taken the recipe from! I even couldn't imagine when I typed "gypsy cuisine" in the search bar of amazon.com that I might get any positive result! Since you know, there are some books written about gypsies but I never met not a single one dedicated to the culinary traditions of the Roma people. And now it seems to be the only one published gypsy cookbook in the world!    The book is really enchanting and features lots of old gypsy recipes accompanied by lovely drawings along with the description of some of the main gypsy feasts, healing properties of herbs, a bit of history and some observation of everyday life. This book is defenitely a precious research lively written and I'm very happy to have a copy of my own!

* Photos by me