For a very long time, the most popular and the cheapest savoury cake of the small place called Rude near Samobor. The story goes that during the Middle Ages, German miners took it with them into the underground copper mines. Together with bermet (red aromatic wine made from selected sorts of grapes, wormwood and southern fruit), this cake used to be on the menus of diners in Zagreb.
This cake made of sweet corn flour batter from Hrvatsko zagorje is not recognized only in the descriptive name of its ingredients, but also in the victuals that the people then had in their households. It is to be assumed it was not prepared very often, because adding a bit of home-made jam or marmalade to it is a real treat.
Soparnik, zeljenik, uljenak or blitvenjak (Dalmatian chard filled pie) are all names for this traditional dish in Dalmatinska zagora. It goes back from the time of Republic of Poljica. This simple dish made of pastry and Swiss chard stuffing is baked on “komin” – hearth, cut in rhombs and served with a pitcher of wine.
