Patatnik is a traditional Bulgarian potato-based dish typical of the Rhodope region. It is prepared with grated potatoes, onions, salt and spearmint. The meal is originally cooked over fire or a stove, but nowadays is also baked in the oven. Some people add traditional Bulgarian white brine cheese, eggs, yellow cheese (kashkaval), garlic, parsley or even peppers .The name of the dish comes from the word Patati (meaning potatoes in the Rhodope region). Every Rhodope village has its own recipe for this delicious meal. In some places it is used as a substitution of the traditional cheese pastry. In other areas it is served as a big potato pancake or potato kofta. However, it must be cooked under an authentic recipe and the potatoes must be grown in the Rhodope Mountains. The tasty dish must be served fresh. The fans of potato-based meals will definitely love it.

The Rhodope meal is close to the emblematic Spanish potato omelet tortilla espanola, the British hash browns, or the Swiss Rösti. You can taste different types of patatnik this Saturday (July 21) in the Rhodope village of Narechenski Bani which hosts the first edition of the Patatnik Festival.

The festival begins at 6 pm on July 21. Our main purpose is to show the culinary riches of the Rhodope Mountains and promote traditional Bulgarian taste, Alis Murterova who is one of the organizers of the event told Radio Bulgaria. The initiative belongs to the local spa complex and the village council. We have invited many community centers from our region to attend the festival. Most of them confirmed their participation. Representatives of hotels and restaurants from the region will also arrive for the festival and join the patatnik competition. A jury will select the winners of the culinary competition in the festival. The festival will be accompanied with a lot of dances, fireworks and potato-related games. The interest towards the event is huge and I hope that we will meet the expectations of the people who will attend the festival. We are planning to develop the festival and make it more popular and interesting in the coming years. The organizers will entertain the visitors with plenty of music and folklore performances. Zabardovski Babi folklore group, Vezanitsa dance formation with Hristo Botev-1945 community center in the village of Narechenski Bani, a folklore group with the community center in the village of Pavelsko and local bagpipers will perform during the Patatnik Festival.

Here is a quick patatnik recipe from the region of Middle Rhodopes for those who will not be able to join the first edition of the festival. To make this dish you need one kilogram of potatoes, two eggs, salt and spearmint. First you need to grate the potatoes. Then, mix the eggs into the potatoes and add spearmint and salt to taste. Fry the mixture in a pan until golden brown and flip it onto a wooden board. Slide gently the meal back in the frying pan and bake the other side of the meal. It is important to cover the dish with a lid while cooking, so that it does not stay raw in the middle. Enjoy it!

English version: Kostadin Atanasov