You say buzaru, I say buzara...

... buzaru, buzara, buzzara, bouzzara, let's sort the whole thing out. There are at least four ways of spelling this word; buzara is the most common on English websites, but many of the Croatian pages use buzaru. I thought this meant buzara must be an English translation, hence using that throughout this post, but a reader, David, has helpfully explained in the comments that buzara is the feminine noun which ends with a 'u' instead when the noun becomes a direct object.

In my recent post, 101 ways to eat octopus salad, I said that buzara seemed to refer to seafood, most commonly skampi (scampi) or dagnje (mussels), cooked in white wine with garlic, breadcrumbs, parsley and, in some cases, tomato. Thanks to David I can now translate this more accurately as stew, which would explain the variations.

I managed to get to the fishmonger yesterday, so I am excited to be able to share one of the fresh seafood dishes that I actually sampled on the Dalmatian coast (until now my Dalmatian theme has been limited by the poor selection on offer at the Sainsbury’s fish counter). Sadly, they didn’t have any octopus, so for now the most celebrated dish from my trip remains untested, but they did have mussels and plump, juicy king prawns which I used as a substitute for scampi.

All the recipes I looked at contained the core ingredients mentioned above and it seems to be a general rule that scampi is always served with the tomato base, mussels without. The only major differences between recipes were the quantities used and whether or not they used Prawn buzara using peeled, frozen prawnscognac or vegeta – a popular seasoning in Croatian cooking. I have now made the prawn buzara twice, testing it out with frozen prawns from the supermarket before making it with the fresh ones yesterday. The first time I used cognac and I found that it gave the dish an unpleasant aftertaste, so I left it out the second time and it was much better.

Another minor difference is that some recipes use tomato puree, while others use fresh or tinned tomatoes. I have also tried both of these and, perhaps surprisingly, I preferred the puree. This is partly because it was most reminiscent of the scampi buzara we had in Dubrovnik and also because the smoother consistency is more suited to being mopped up with bread.

The only major difference between my recipes and the ones I have looked at online is the amount of olive oil used. Every Croatian recipe I have read contains between 100 and 250ml of olive oil. Admittedly, Croatian olive oil is a delicious and they are using larger quantities of seafood than I, but it does seem rather excessive. In both these recipes, as well as in the recipe for oven baked fish, I have drastically reduced the amount of oil.

The recipes below each serve two people. I made both of the dishes yesterday and served them as a main course along with a mixed salad and some crusty bread. If you are just making one of the dishes, I would say that they would only be enough for a starter. 

Scampi (or prawn) buzara

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

100ml white wine

2 tbsp tomato puree or 150ml tinned tomatoes

8 scampi or large king prawns, raw (approx 300g)

2-3 tbsp breadcrumbs

Handful fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

Heat the olive oil over a low heat in a large fry pan or wok (not very Croatian I know, but it works well for sautéing). Sauté the garlic in the oil for 1 minute or until it is pale and translucent. Before the garlic starts to brown, turn the heat up high and add the white wine. Let the wine bubble for a minute, then turn down to a medium heat and stir in the tomato puree.

Add the scampi or prawns to the pan and cook until they have turned a bright shade of pink or orange all over; how long this takes will depend on the size of the scampi or prawns, but it should not take longer than 8 minutes.

Breadcrumbs are used in this recipe to thicken the sauce, so the amount you use will depend on how much liquid is released from the scampi or prawns. The sauce should be of a medium thickness, similar to a basic tomato pasta sauce which has been sieved or pureed. When the scampi or prawns are almost cooked, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs to the pan, stir until fully incorporated in the sauce, and if it is not quite thick enough, add some more.

When the scampi or prawns are cooked, remove from the heat and add a handful of parsley, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Mussel buzara

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

150ml white wine

500g mussels, rinsed and cleaned

1 tbsp breadcrumbs

Handful fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

Heat the olive oil over a low heat in a large fry pan or wok. Sauté the garlic in the oil for 1 minute or until it is pale and translucent. Before the garlic starts to brown, turn the heat up high and add the white wine. Let the wine bubble for a minute and then add the mussels.

Cook until all (or almost all) the mussels have opened, this will only take a few minutes. Just before the mussels are done, add the breadcrumbs and parsley.

Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Unlike with the scampi recipe, the sauce for the mussel dish should be a thinner, stock-like consistency. This being the case, I am unsure why the breadcrumbs are used, but in keeping with the traditional recipes, I have included them.

If you are interested in looking at some of the original recipes and websites I used to research this post, here is a list of some of the links: 

• http://www.croatiatraveller.com
• http://www.free-old-time-cooking-recipes.com/croatian-recipes/scampi-buzara.html
• http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10728/scampi-buzara
• http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/skampi-na-buzaru
• http://dalmatiancooking.com/2007/10/12/mussels-buzara-video-recipe/
• http://islandbrac.net/index.php/english/Gastronomy/Recipes/Buzara-of-mussels.html
• http://www.vegeta.com/
  

Skip breadcrumbs for a gluten-free meal.

Comments

[David]

Hello my friend. I am the furthest thing from a Croatian language scholar. But I live in the former Yugoslavia, and have studied the language a little. This much I know. Let's translate "buzara" roughly as "stew" -- a feminine noun in the normal (nominative) case. Then the phrase "into stew" would be "na buzaru." That is because in Croatian -- as in most Slavic toungues -- a feminine noun that ends in "a" in the normal (nominative) case changes to ending in a "u" when the noun becomes a direct object (the accusative case). I'm sure this is very confusing, but it is a simple way of trying to expain why buzara and na buzaru are essentially the same word. In any event, delicious (ukusno).

[Vix]

Hi David, thanks a lot for your helpful comment. I have changed the post accordingly! :)