Flavour of the homestead
There is no “excuse” that on the homestead they only cook what they know how to cook and what they cook for themselves. After all, in “better” inns and restaurants they cook the same dishes and in the same way for years and years. And yet, in many places it is not as “chef-like” as the dishes of three generations of Kovačnik cooks! This is because chef-likeness is not (only) in modern techniques and modern appliances, but in cooking, which is always best on a home stove and just like your mother taught you.
With taste
Outside and inside, on the terrace and in the garden, on wood and wood chips, on chairs and benches, on the floor and on the walls, on the ceiling and from the ceiling, everywhere there are details… that are Kovačnik’s. Whether they are more beautiful or more fragrant, more caring or more sincere, above all, nothing is the same everywhere. Everything is with feeling and taste, from the wooden fork for the cucumber greeting to the large spoon for the small soup bowl, from the natural shade under the trellis in the yard to the natural linen tablecloth by the stove.
Placemat
In top restaurants, it is now fashionable to invite you to enjoy at bare table, while in generic bistros, the casual eating is as cheap and papery as possible. That is why Kovačnik’s linen tablecloth, its cream color, its homely service, its better cutlery, its wooden greeting, its elegant glasses, with a whole bunch of loving details, from colorful flowers to hanging herbs, are that welcome difference that made such hospitality a favorite!
Greetings
Greetings not only from the kitchen, but also from the stable, from the farm and from the homestead: homemade rye bread in a bread bowl, on a wooden plate “our bunka and salami”, Frešer cow’s cheese, marigold flower, black and red currants, on a copper plate pumpkin seed oil spread, homemade pâté, jam, fresh blueberries, kale chips, and in a glass cucumber salad with yogurt, topped with fresh currants.
Vegetable soup
Vegetable cream soup and sage lollipops on a stick. This is Sunday (or Saturday) lunch, so you know what’s coming to the table and when.The soup is literally from the garden, so it is always the same thick, hot and deep, but never the same. It does not depend on the taste of the “cream” or the fashion of the vegetables, but only on what is growing and has the most natural flavor today. So how could I not notice with gratitude that elsewhere they would crumble too much old bread into it, but here they baked bread biscuits, which simply seasoned the thick vegetable soup with home-grown sage.
Beef soup
Beef soup with noodles and meatballs. A soup without which there is no Sunday! Really? Then why do we so often eat soups that are not so sincerely beef, but insincerely diluted and instant, that do not have so much homemade noodles, but industrial “spaghetti”, that do not have so much sweet carrots, that do not even have parsley, let alone onion rings, and that, above all, do not have such dumplings.
Sorbet
Strawberry and lavender sorbet. A pleasant summer refreshment.
Salad
Salad: mixed greens, green beans, cabbage with beans, buckwheat popcorn sprinkled on top. One of Kovačnik’s details is that each plate is the right shape and made of the right material.
Lunch
Kovačnik’s Sunday lunch is also classically composed of soup(s), main course with side dishes (on a “plate”) and dessert (from the oven). But it differs from other classics not only because of the welcoming (in three “courses”!) and the refreshments in between (in a bowl), but also because of – “obligation”. In Slovenian home-style inns, as well as on mass tourist farms, side dishes on or next to large meat platters are only obligatory; they are only there to fill the empty space. In really good home-style inns, and even more so on really sincere tourist farms and homesteads, side dishes are – better than meat! Like at Kovačnik’s.
Spelt risotto
Spelt risotto with porcini mushrooms and vegetables, nasturtium flowers.
Meat
Roast pork (with fried strips of carrot and celery sprinkled on top), fried chicken ball with wild garlic, fried chicken, sous vide beef, rhubarb, apple and Blaufränkisch chutney.
Side dishes
Fried kale with buckwheat flour, leek pie with vegetables, curd štrukelj, semolina pear, “our” fried potatoes and fried sage on them. Kovačnik’s details: how carefully and finely the potatoes are cut, how gently the onions are fried, how freshly fried the crispy sage is, how the kale leaves crunch in the buckwheat, how gently stretchy the štrukelj dough is, how independent the leek pie is, and, of course, how much we’ve missed Kovačnik’s semolina traditionalism since our last visit.
Gibanica
Curd gibania, raspberry sauce, crumble with pumpkin seeds and oil. You haven’t been to Kovačnik’s without Mama Angelca’s gibanica! It’s just a gibanica made from homemade curd… but exactly like it should be here and after a lunch like this, or rather, it’s the best. Because this curd, these eggs and this dough don’t need any details, because it’s simply about – nostalgia. We love that!
For home
If it were still Friday (…), after the gibanica there would definitely be “petit fours” homemade cookies from Kovačnik’s sweet treasury. But since it’s Sunday (or Saturday), the board has written down what’s for later.
Acompayning wines
Three generations of Šterns work together at the Kovačnik homestead. The oldest makes it so homely and good, the middle one makes it so beautiful and enterprising, and the youngest one makes it so wine-loving.
Aperitif: sparkling wine Rose 2023, Leber Vračko (Pinot Noir); lunch: Alter 2021, Šumenjak and Šipon 2015, Bartol.
