SIREKI - TRADITIONAL SMALL CHEESE CONE

This is a traditional small dish, great snack, from the North-Eastern part of Slovenia. Dried fresh cheese cones made of cottage cheese with spices are served with good white wine.

Sireki - Curd Cheese Cones

This traditional Slovenian snack is another diary product that was a rich source of proteins and minerals during times when meat was not so often on the table. Made from cottage cheese with spices, it was shaped into cones and dried on the stone plate in the sun or in a dry and warm place in the kitchen. This was also a good way of conservation.  

Ingredients:

200 g of cottage cheese

salt to taste

1 tsp of red pepper powder

1 pinch of chilli powder - optional

1/2 tsp of cumin powder or caraway seed powder

Cottage cheese with spices

Make cones

Put cottage cheese in a bowl and smash well with a fork. Add all the spices and mix well. Make small balls and shape them like cones. Traditionally Sireki were 6 to 8 cm high. I also make them in the size of one bite which are very convenient to serve. 

Put them on a plate and dry them in a warm place or in the sun. Serve with white wine. You can also serve them with dry fruits bread like Christmas bread. That is a delicious combination. If you like bread, buckwheat bread with walnuts is also very good.

Dried Sireki

Today Sireki are often served at the receptions as a traditional speciality. They can be part of a cheese plate in the end of dinner or lunch. 
If you want, you can make sireki of different flavours and different shapes. 
I also made them with herbs - delicious! 

You can read my previous post - TRADITIONAL COTTAGE CHEESE SPREADS, and get some ideas. 

If you cannot get cottage cheese in the store, you can make very delicious and creamy fresh cheese from yogurt. You need to drain the water out of yogurt. You will need a sheet of clean cotton, napkin and strainer. Put the yogurt into cotton and hang it over a bowl overnight. You can drink this drained water - whey, it is actually very healthy. 

You can use that instead of cottage cheese and sour cream.

See more photos on this LINK!