Mary Berry has nothing on Mersiha - Bosnian cooking class, Sarajevo

Had a quiet morning in the old Ottoman town, looking for souvenirs and enjoying a coffee - I’m trying. But I knew the highlight of the day was the cooking class.

[I did make a quick stop in the Sarajevo Museum which located on the counter where Ferdinand and Sofia were assassinated. It’s only one room. But if you consider that WW2 was caused by the settlement to WW1. A wrong turn had a lot of consequences]

Taxi picked me and Yuri, a South Korean girl who stated she was quite hungover and was acting very strangely. It wasn’t the start I was hoping. Mersiha and Mustafa live up on the hillside opposite the bobsled track overlooking the city.

When we arrived we were greeted by Mersiha and soon found out it was just Yuri and I for the class. I was a little more concerned.

We would be making two basic items. Dolma which are vegetables stuffed with seasoned beef. And burek. A puff pastry stuffed with cheese/potato and coiled into a crown.

All our ingredients were coming from their farm in the country. The dolmas are pretty straight forward except everything was tiny as opposed to our supersized versions. Pale green peppers, onions and Swiss chard leaves. Ground beef with some risotto rice, grated onion and spice. Stuff and bake.

Now yo the burek. 

From my experience you either buy puff pastry or via British Baking, you fold it over and over to laminate layers of butter between the pastry. We would be stretching our own and rolling.

So it is basic dough. Flour and oil. Folded together and after resting slowly rolled out. And then stretched over the roller and then gently pulled and stretched u til it is like paper. It’s amazing that it doesn’t break.

Add the filing in a long line and then gentry roll over, cut and repeat. The filled pieces are then coiled up. 

The traditional method is to make a large pie and put in a shallow pan over coals. And then lower a lid that is cover with coals so that it bakes evenly. Mersiha used the oven.

Thankfully Yuri was good fun and it was a great afternoon.

Mersiha told some very impassioned stories of her experiences during the war. And was just overall good fun.

About the time everything was ready, Mustafa rocked in and more conversation ensued. Then a bottle of local red wine appeared and before I knew it, it was 8pm.  (We arrived at 3pm)

Mersiha really wants to go to Dubrovnik with us on Friday but she has a class.

That would be a hoot.

So this will be my last day in Sarajevo. It’s an interesting place. The division between the towns is crazy. And on the way to class, we drove through the modern downtown with western hotels and a huge mall. It’s a little gritty, panhandling. Certainly would not be everyone’s preferred destination.

Dubrovnik will be a bit of a rest stop. A full apartment. Plenty to do and see but a comfortable pace.  I have a few things to finish planning. Like the actual Albania itinerary. And hotels in Greece.