Gibanica or cheese pie from Balkan

Gibanica is one of the most recognizable pastry dishes from the Balkans, whether served on festive occasions or as a comforting family snack. In Serbia, the dish is eaten as breakfast, dinner, appetizer and snack, and is often consumed at traditional events such as Christmas, easter and Slava.

Gibanica is a traditional Serbian cheese pie made with delicate layers of filo pastry and a rich filling of white cheese, eggs, and dairy products such as sour cream or yogurt. Baked until golden brown and beautifully crisp on top, this beloved Balkan pastry is known for its flaky texture, creamy interior, and comforting homemade flavor.

The name Gibanica is believed to come from the Serbian verb gibati, meaning “to fold,” “to shake,” or “to move.” The name reflects the traditional method of layering and arranging thin sheets of dough to create the pastry’s signature texture.

At its core, Gibanica is made from simple ingredients that come together to create a remarkably satisfying dish. The filling typically combines crumbled white cheese, eggs, sour cream or yogurt, and a small amount of oil or butter. Many traditional recipes also include sparkling water, which helps create a lighter filling and contributes to the pie’s soft, airy texture.

I do mine as called guzvara which means that I don't layer mine, I dip the pastry in to the egg-cheese mix and just layer and fill up the tray, faster and much easier to make.

Traditionally its made in a round large pie form but I do make mine in square, the shape doesn't matter really, take whatever you have and here is a simple recipe that I use.

4 egg

500 gram white cheese of any kind

200 gram of yogurt or sour cream

100 gram of sparkling water

1 teaspoon baking powder

salt to taste

1 pack of filo pastry

mix everything in a large bowl

Dipp 1 filo sheet at a time and arrange in the baking dish that you have

the last sheet should go on top as a cover and brush some oil on it

bake at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes until nice color

Thai priest tattoo adventure

 A few years ago, I spend some time with a Thai Buddhist priest in his home outside Bangkok, this was on recommendation from a Thai friend who was tiered of me asking all these questions about Buddhism why, who, where, howe come, I wanted to know as I am born curios.

To spend time with him was very expiring and full of new insights not only of Buddhism but also from various religions like Taoism, Confucianism and also different aspects of Indian religions, super cool and very educating with new wisdom for myself, such an inspiring person and I could spend so much more time just to have interesting discussions around many different topics, mind blowing.

You who know me also knows that I am not religious in normal since as believing in books written by humans guided by whoever, this is no go but I do believe in higher powers and in universal power that do have impact in all human life, some people find solutions and absolutions by defining a god and some of us do not need it to still pray and believe, what is your opinion regarding religion? share with me.

One thing that I still have on me is the Thai prayer tattoo where chanting and prayers was part of the process when performed with a sharp bamboo stick and hammered into my skin- NO PAIN AT ALL and this is absolutely crazy, all my other tattoos I still remember the pain but this one nothing, I cannot explain why and how but I'm happy to have this as a reminder of this guy.

  

China adventure 1

 I travel a lot and have meet chefs from many places with their own history, challenges and future dreams but have to say that Chinese chefs are from another planet, extremely curios, knowledgeable, determinate to do their best and also very humble, I love to work with Chinese chefs and somehow wish to end my career in China, how cool wouldn't that be!

I was invited by the Chinese government to do 3 special private dinners to celebrate 70 years of peoples revolution and also some masterclasses at the culinary collage of Beijing (another story later)

This trip was amazing and even better because they invited my wife Christina to join me and explore Beijing on her own, she was really touring around while I was doing my thing, lucky her.

The venue is the former Belgian embassy property in center city that was taken over by the government years ago and is now the playground for male population where they can bring party girls nobody knows about, not even the taxi drivers know about this address, very cool indeed.

In the compound is a beautiful garden, very big manor house and other budlings for staff, security and so on, with own canteen and living quarters.

The main building has a super nice lounge areas of curse and a very nice kitchen that serves the small restaurant, exclusive table wear but in totally different style that we are used to, sometimes very tacky! 

The local team was magnificent and so nice to work with, this is my Chinese team every time I go back for more adventures.

What do you think of the menu I provided? let me know in your comments.

XieXie

Dinner last year at Capitol Club

 How time flies so fast, last year in September I did a dinner at the Capital Club in Nairobi, this is a high-profile members club in beautiful setting over 4 floors with great view over Nairobi skyline.

I was super happy to be asked to cook for a bunch of guests including my wife!! I love it and a few other persons that I know of.

The menu was created as a memory lane throughout countries that I like but unfortunately my original plan of 14 curses was cut down to 6 only, but well it turned out pretty well anyway and I gave many Kenyans a challenge with some of the flavors they are not familiar or used to,  

Overall, the dinner went well and I hope to be invited back some day

Asante

Time to vote them out - Du gamla du fria

 Yesterday as I am currently in Kenya I went to vote for the parliamentary election that all free and democratic people take for granted, its not like this everywhere as we all know and corruption is very present in many world countries.

I do appreciate to live in a democratic country but not full of stupid people in our government who encourage 3 world people to use the system that was not built to host them, a total F up 

As a true Swede I took the opportunity to vote at the Swedish embassy in Kenya not to miss out on this, well at the embassy I had a chat with the staff there and asked how many voters they were expecting, she told me around 5500-6000 voters !!! I said WHAT how is this possible? then I asked how many Sweds live in Kenya, the reply was around 150, so what is the rest?

All the rest is Somalis that obtained Swedish right to live in Sweden and by facto have the right to vote, they all get governmental money support but live in Kenya and make so called business here, this is totally absurd that we as country accept this and keep this kind of people using the system,

We have failed as country for sure by letting foreign people using taxpayers' money to support them like this, 

Its time to take a stance like they do in Finland, Polen and Denmark, start sending back and revoke all residencies from people who cheat the system.... I am truly pissed off.

Du gamla du fria finns inte langre.

 

Live fire cooking

 To cook food over open fire somehow brings out our ancient dinosaur brain habit the we all love and flocks around, no matter if it's a fire pit or an electrical BBQ it all appeals to us in a strange and funny way, I know people who basically never cook but when it's time to flip burgers on the grill they are the first to take the lead, interesting with us human.

I enjoy very much to cook over open fire because it demands more precise watch and are very unapologetic if you forget to watch, burning food is another topic.

outdoor camping, cooking, showering is what I love and that have to do with my ancestor's gipsy bloodline, move, change, reroute and never look back is what have always formed me, be brave and strong and adapt to whatever is in front of you, that was my dad's advice when I was young and still feels very much alive today.

To cook traditional dishes is actually much easier over open fire because that have historically been made that way so return to roots can be av very nice discovery for a lot of people, you should all try

Also to enjoy the outdoors with family and friends is so much easier and everything taste so much better, don't you think? 

Who says that airline food needs to be boring?

 I follow a lot of social media people who share the airline meals globally and some are rely bad and some are decent, Turkish suppose to be very good but I have seen terrible photos from t6heir flights, The middle eastern carriers are decent all depending in what cabin class you are flying, high and lows, 

Lufthansa new Fox upgrade is very nice and the first class Alegris is on top of things with a wide selection to choose from and all new cabin.

In my opinion the European carriers are generally far superior from the rest on long-haul flights and business class also the staff is way more educated and professional like the KLM crew and also the older Lufthansa crew, they still understand the meaning of hospitality.

BUT I also need to be honest that IF you receive some dry chicken or chewy beef with gray broccoli and a slightly burned cover this is NOT from the caterers side, this is a crew mistake overheating your food badly, and this my friends are the main reason you will have shitty food on your flight trips including business class flights, 90% of the crew don't care about you for sure and some airlines this is up to 100%

Choose your flights carefully and you will have a nice delicate meal up in the sky.

Here I'm sharing some dishes that we currently uplift from Nairobi, in my opinion not too shabby if not destroyed by cabin crew