Proja, traditional Serbian corn flat bread - Proja, la focaccia di mais serba - Pirotska Proja (za "Patin petnaesti")

My uncle bakes the best original "proja" I've ever tasted. It is amazingly soft and tasty and it's really difficult to get a cornmeal dough with soft texture. My mother still keeps his handwritten recipe as a souvenir and we all love my uncle's specialty served with a cup of good yogurt for dinner. Often the cornmeal is used only for the cornmeal mush combined with some sauce, well...a lot of sauce, or with plenty of melted butter and cheese. And I can assure you, it is divine when served with a good braised meat and vegetables. So is "proja" too, served with good cheese, or thin slices of lard it is really divine, especially if still hot!
This time I offer you a kind of very, very rustic "proja" recipe. It comes from an old cookbook wrote by Serbian author Spasenija Pata Marković and it's part of the contest I found in the web - more precisely in this foodblog. Since some time I like to take part of these easy and amusing contests and to meet nice and very able cooks from all over the Balkans. This is my contribution to this round of "Patin petnaesti" contest.

The recipe is really simple and it's made with old-fashioned ingredients, ingredients that I don't use in nowadays cooking, but the flavours are genuine and we should discover them again. I'm trying to do this!

As the recipe is just a part of the joke, and this post would appear poor without pictures, I went to the countryside to find some corn left after last summer harvesting. I "stole" some leftover corns from the moist ground, as this time the setting had to be as much rustic as possible!

My advice is to serve "proja" until hot, or to reheat it, because it harden quickly and cornmeal flavour is more intense if the dish is hot.

PROJA FROM PIROT

For baking tray with diameter 24cm

250 ml cold water

1 whole egg

salt

150 gr fine cornmeal

50 gr mixture for cornmeal and buckwheat mush

1,5 tablespoon of lard fat

fresh cottage cheese

In the bowl mix water, egg and salt. Little-by-little add first the mixture for cornmeal and buckwheat mush and then the cornmeal. The mixture should not result too dense.

Grease richly the baking tray with the lard fat and add the cornmeal mixture into it to get one-finger high “proja”. Add some cheese on top and bake in preheated oven at 200°C. When it thicken a bit, do some holes with the fork and add some more lard fat on top of “proja”.

Continue baking until golden brown. If the cheese remains on the top it will get coloured first and the “proja” will remain less coloured.

Serve it hot, it’s perfect with the yogurt.

PROJA DI PIROT

Per la teglia diametro 24cm

250 ml di acqua fredda

1 uovo intero

sale

150 gr di farina fine di mais

50 gr di polenta taragna (misto di polenta di mais e grano saraceno)

1,5 cucchiai di strutto

formaggio fresco tipo fiocchi di latte o feta

In una ciotola mescolare l’acqua, l’uovo ed il sale. Gradualmente aggiungere nel liquido la polenta taragna e poi la farina di mais. L’impasto non deve risultare troppo denso.

Ungere bene la teglia con lo strutto e versare nella teglia l’impasto spesso un dito. Sulla superficie sistemare il formaggio (se usate il formaggio feta aggiungete meno sale nell'impasto!) e infornare a 200°C (nel forno già caldo). Quando l’impasto diventerà solido praticare qualche foro con la forchetta e spalmare la superficie dell’impasto con un altro po’ di strutto.

Continuare la cottura fino a quando il formaggio e la “proja” diventeranno dorati. Se il formaggio rimane sulla superficie diventerà dorato prima della “proja” che risulterà meno colorata.

Servire caldo, preferibilmente con lo yogurt.

PIROTSKA PROJA

Za pleh promjera 24cm

250 ml hladne vode

1 cijelo jaje

sol

150 gr sitnog kukuruznog brašna

50 gr miješanog brašna za palentu od heljde (kukuruz i heljda)

1,5 žlice svinjske masti

svježi kravlji sir

U posudi izmutiti vodu, jaje i sol. Postepeno dodavati u tekćinu najprije brašno za palentu od heljde, a potom kukuruzno brašno. Masa ne treba biti pregusta.

Dobro namazati pleh hladnom svinjskom mašću i naliti masu proje da bude debljine jednog prsta. Po vrhu proje dodati svježeg kravljeg sira i staviti peći u zagrijanu pećnicu na 200°C. Kad se masa malo stvrde, izbosti površinu vilicom i premazati s još mano masti.

Nastaviti peći dok sir i proja postanu rumeni. Ako sir ostane na površini, prije će porumeniti, a proja će ostati manje rumena.

Poslužiti dok je topla, najbolje s jogurtom.