Basa (Lika)

Ingredients:

• cow’s milk
• sour milk
• salt
• crust (cream)

Preparation:

Strain the cow’s milk through gauze, so that it is clean. Put it in a dish (padella), then on the stove ( sparket)  to boil. When the milk has boiled, remove it from the stove to “rest”. After it has stood, it should be left to cool for about an hour. While it is still lukewarm), add sour milk ( yeast ) and a little salt and mix well, cover, wrap with a cloth and leave to stand in a warm place. It should cool completely before putting it in the refrigerator. If the base is pickled in the morning, it should be left to stand until the evening.

When the mixture has hardened, drain the whey, and wrap the base in a cloth and let it drain. Put the finished bass in a bowl, cover with cream and mix well.

Remark:

Basa is eaten as a spread on bread or potatoes, as an appetizer or as a side dish. Basa is today one of the recognizable specialties of Lika, but once it was a dish that was not sold but was prepared only for home use. Two methods of preparation were recorded in the Lika area, each with its own traditional name: Wallachian bass,  which was prepared mainly by the Orthodox population, was prepared mainly from boiled milk to which sour milk was added, while the Carniolan basa  which is associated with the Catholic Croatian population, was prepared from fresh, unboiled milk.

Bassa is also prepared in many places in Bukovica.