Ingredients:
2 cups dried beans (mix, white, red kidney, black turtle, mixed colour pole-bean), soaked
1lb fresh beef (short rib/brisket/shank are all good cuts), cut into chunky pieces
1/2 - 1 lb smoked meat, cut into bite-sized pieces (basturma with fat or sujuk) / optional
2 yellow onions, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, finely diced
2 celery stalks (optional), finely diced
2 L broth (veg/meat)
1 generous handful of parsley including the stems (finely chopped)
4 tablespoons (vegetable) oil, or ghee
Salt & pepper (as needed, preferred)
Roux:
8 tablespoons oil / butter
7-8 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon red paprika (preferably Hungarian)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Directions:
Soak the beans overnight by placing them in a pot of warm water, with water to the top.
Chop all your vegetables into small cubes (onions, carrots, celery, garlic). Chop the smoked sausage or basturma into bite sized pieces.
Heat up your cooking pot with the oil, then all the vegetables, cooking them until almost browned. Then add the fresh beef meat, cooking it with the veggies, then adding the red paprika, salt and pepper and the cup of the chunks of smoked meat.
15 minutes in, you can add the soaked beans to the pot, spreading it around so everything is mixed nicely. Then you add the broth or water, as much as you need to cover all the meat and beans, adding another two inches at first for it to start boiling. Cook on medium for a good hour, checking on the amount of water once or as needed. You can keep cooking the beans for another hour, the longer they cook, the more the flavours form, not to mention the flavour the day later. You can use canned beans, which will reduce the cooking time, however the dish is better and authentically made with pre-soaked beans.
The roux is the final step to complete the recipe. Although many people do not make a roux for grah, I like it, but then again I like my flavours present. To make the roux, warm up 8 tablespoons of oil, butter or ghee, as you prefer in a small frying pan. Dust the flour into the oil, slowly and spoon by spoon and all while adding it, stir it. When a bit of colour from the flour and oil starts to develop, add the red paprika, salt and preferably freshly cracked pepper. Most Bosnians will add VEGETA seasoning to the roux, you can too, it’s delicious with umami and if you do, skip the salt. As soon as you add the spices, mix the roux and pour over the beans. Stir once to allow the roux to do its job, and cover the beans. Remove from the fire and let sit for a bit.
Note: this dish is much tastier on day 2 and even 3.
In Ksenija’s childhood home, the pantry was generous in size, closer to a walk-in closet than a cupboard. During the war, it became something more essential, a place of quiet refuge, shielded from the hills, from the snipers, from the outside world.
Grah (Balkan Bean Stew), always announced itself through its unmistakable aroma that would move through the house. It was both comforting and grounding, carrying with it the promise of sustenance. Her earliest memory of it is from kindergarten, served simply with pieces of wieners. At its core, it is a humble bean stew, most often made with red meat, and in more abundant times, deepened with fresh and smoked beef.
It is, for her, a dish that never loses its hold as a marker of cultural identity.