It was Jacques Houdek who once said, ‘Dare to dream, make a meal’ – ok yes, that wasn’t quite the lyric, but with this year’s slogan ‘Dare to Dream’ why not make a few adaptations! With this year’s contest quickly approaching, it’s time to start planning your Eurovision parties. With the help of Eurovision Union, you can plan out the ultimate Eurovision party for you and your friends!
Over the last month, we’ve gathered some of the tastiest and most intriguing dishes from across the participating nations and we have put our aprons on to test out these recipes! We selected a diverse range of food, as well as both savoury and sweet dishes, so if you are hosting a Eurovision party this year, you can take inspiration from our cooking adventures across Europe and recreate these dishes for you and your friends!
Burek (North Macedonia)
Börek, or Burek is the name given to a range of baked filled pastries which possibly originated in what is now modern day Turkey, although is now popular in the Balkans as well as other regions across Europe. The Burek is usually prepared in a large pan and then cut into portions after it’s baked, although it can also come as individual pastries.
In many of the Balkan countries such as North Macedonia, the burek is often baked in a large circular pan and has layers of dough, such as a phyllo as well as fillings inclusive of minced meat and onions or cheese. The recipe we used featured meat and onions, and we also made ours in a large round pan. This might not be the best finger food, but if you want an easy dish to make that guests can serve themselves, this is definitely it.
Here is the recipe we used (credit: Macedonian Cuisine)
Ingredients:
- 500 g ready phyllo dough for pie
- 1 head onion finely chopped
- 300 g minced meat
- 100 ml oil
- salt, pepper
Instructions:
- First, slightly fry chopped onion and add the meat and finally add salt and pepper.
- Coat baking pan with oil.
- Place the first layer of phyllo in the pan and sprinkle with oil.
- Prepare a mixture of oil and water in a cup, and sprinkle each layer with this mixture.
- Place the second layer, sprinkle oil and water and add part of the fried meat. Continue until you finish all layers and meat.
- Coat the last layer with oil and bend the ends to close burek.
- Bake at temperature of 200-230 C degrees until it gets a beautiful brown/golden colour.
Here’s what we started with:
And here is our finished product!
Beer List
Our resident beer expert has done research (and a whole lot of tasting) to come up with some of the must-try beers of the nation. For each nation there are three suggestions:
- The National Treasure – this is a beer that is recognisable and accessible to buy
- The Party Starter – this is a nicer alternative, but still fairly accessible to buy
- The Show Stopper – this is for the beer enthusiasts or those with a sense of adventure, but may not be as easy to purchase outside of that nation
North Macedonia
The National Treasure – Skopsko Svetlo Pivo (Pale Lager – 4.9%)
The Party Starter – Starogradsko Red (Vienna Lager – 5.6%)
The Show Stopper – Temov Blackout (Porter – 5.0%)
Listen to our Dare to Dream, Make a Meal playlist below: