Kačamak

Ingredients

• Maize flour300 g
• Potatoes600 g
• Young salted cheese300 g
• Kajmak200 g
• Butter100 g
• Milk200 ml
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Boil the cut potatoes in salted water for twenty minutes, until completely soft.

   25 min

2. 2

   Without draining, rain in the maize flour in a thin stream, stirring constantly.

   8 min

3. 3

   Cook on a low heat for fifteen minutes, stirring with a wooden paddle; the porridge catches quickly.

   17 min

4. 4

   Mash the potato in the pot together with the porridge until uniform.

   6 min

5. 5

   Work in the crumbled cheese and kajmak, adding hot milk, and beat with the paddle for five minutes.

   8 min

6. 6

   Turn it into a bowl, make a hollow and pour in melted butter. Serve at once.

   5 min

About the dish

The potato boils together with the maize flour and is mashed in the pot. It supplies the starch that makes kačamak pull rather than crumble.

The cheese goes in hot and is worked with a paddle until the mass draws into threads behind the spoon. That is the test of doneness, and you have to work up to it.

Kajmak — thick salted clotted cream — is not fully replaceable by soured cream. It is richer and saltier, and kačamak made with it is a different dish.

Worth knowing

• — Rain the flour into boiling water in a thin stream. All at once it lumps, and a paddle will not break the lumps up.
• — Kačamak is eaten hot, straight from the pot. Cooled, it sets like polenta and the pull disappears.
• — You need a heavy-based pan and a wooden paddle. On a thin base it catches within a minute of inattention.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

720 kcal

Protein

24 g

Fat

44 g

Carbs

58 g

More from Montenegro

• Njeguški steak — A pork chop with a pocket stuffed with Njeguši prosciutto and cheese, fried in breadcrumbs.