My little pot

Various pots are favorite meals worldwide. I always have in mind a picture of a cottage near the river, with nice little pot on fire and there's something bubbling and boiling inside, aaahh... Heaven, I'm in heaven...
Unfortunately, I don't have any cottage near the river. Old house is already gone for generations and besides, it's been in very harsh, rocky part of mountainous Croatia, in Lika, and the closest river is some 20 kilometres far. Ok, never mind for river, although I like trout and perch, but then again, who doesn't? What is important is that I have a pot and I know how to make nice, a bit hotish meal, especially good for dinner with nice glass of cooling wine. The idea is not entirely mine, as Macedonia has inspired me, but it can well be Hungarian or Croatian (Slavonian) dish. Let's call him simply my little pot!

This is a result of my pot

Basic meat is baby beef, without bones, just cut in small cubes. What is necessary for excellent pot is to have excellent, fresh vegetables. I use for it lots of tomatoes, red pepper (hot), green pepper, carrots, mushrooms (cepe is the best), spring onion, and a little bit of more paprika. As for herbs, I put in it fresh parsley, chives and just a touch of marjoram.
First, braise meat on hot oil with onion, adding a bit of water, salt and pepper. After meat gets tender, add carrots, sliced tomatoes and thinly sliced peppers, as well as the herbs. Stir on low heat until meat becomes really soft. Then add mushrooms, and when they get darker, add sliced spring onion, white wine and water. Then it has to boil on low heat for a while. In meantime, prepare gnocchi (most of you, as I myself will have bought gnocchi, that is not even close to home made, but we live in hard times).
And in no time, pot is ready for dinner. It can be thick if you cook a bit longer and with adding more wine than water. I like it that way. Just don't overdo with hot peppers, but if you do, a nice glass of cool white wine will help your mouth.
In more rural areas and poor families, pot like this, with meat or potatoes was the easiest thing to do. Everything that garden gives, goes into the pot. In time, various cuisines, especially in Slavic world made masterpieces of culinary experience out of this, primarily peasant food. Varieties can be numerous and tastes are magnificent. Cooking in a pot altogether is very old way of making meals. Just randomly I can say several dishes; from North African tagine, over Balkan pots like Bosnian pot, to Russian pots with potatoes and other vegetables. In Croatia there was even a story about one of these pots. It is Lika pot (lički lonac), made of sheep, resembling Irish stew in a way. A writer from Lika, Mile Budak, unfortunately local Nazi sympathizer who was very much literary genius like Knut Hamsun from Norway, wrote a literature piece evoking old traditions of village. The name of the book is „Fireplace“ (Ognjište) and men who are still conservative as Budak was, bear the name of „fireplacer“ (ognjištar). Why am I writing about this? It is because Budak wrote 40 pages in that book about cooking Lika pot! All the history can be seen in that pot cooked in middle of winter in harsh land of mountainous Croatia.