Re: Request for Slovak Recipes....

I am still searching for several recipes for specific Slovak Dishes (my Father gave me more information, in that their village was not far from the Hungarian border, so it is possible my Grandmother's cooking may have had a Hungarian flavour to it??)

The specific dishes I am searching for include the following:

- A baked rice-pudding like dish baked in a loaf you could slice (made with rice, a lot of eggs, milk and cinnamon) - my Dad believes was called "Koch". This rice loaf was only made at Easter.

- Prune buns in a sweet dough (I have received a few recipes for this,called "Kolache", but my Dad isn't sure if that was what Grandma called it.)

- A clear broth Mushroom soup, made with some variety of dried mushrooms her sister sent her every fall from Slovakia. She also cut up into squares, broad egg noodles (she also made). Someone suggested this may be "Jushka" , but Grandma's soup did not have saurkraut (or sour cream in it, either). Also, This soup was only made by Grandma at Christmas (probably due to the availability of these special mushrooms sent to her from the Old Country!)

- A bean stew-like dish, made with salt pork and navy beans (no milk or cream). to which we always added vinegar just before we ate it - also made at Christmas.

- A poppy seed roll, similar to a jelly roll, but with crushed poppy seeds, possibly mixed with honey? (I have received a few variations of this one.) This was made at Christmas and Easter, only.

- A grated potato pan cake (that's what we called it, though it wasn't in pancake form!) - made with a combination of grated raw pototoes, salt, and pepper (Dad says no flour was used) and baked in cake pans in the oven. Not sure of oven temp, etc.

- A lefse-like pancake my Dad calls "Looksha" (not the spelling, this is just how it sounds), made with boiled potatoes (riced) and flour - no lard, fat, or margarine like the Norweigen Lefse has.

- Canned citron (a kind of fruit)

- A canned green tomato which was quite sweet, but not really a pickle.

I am not sure of the names of most of these dishes either, and neither is my Dad.

It is unfortunate Grandma did not have any of these written down. She did try to tell me (kind of) how to make a lot of these dishes, but it never turned out the way her's did,or taste any thing like her's if it did half turn out (she would just shrug and say, "Oh, well.")

Again, thank you in advance for any help you can give me.... Have a Happy and Blessed Easter Season....

- Mary Ann (Swift Current, Saskatchewan CANADA)