It’s nearly four in the afternoon in the Macedonian town of Strumica, and guests will soon arrive. Time to break out the homemade baked items and pour water in the cezve to start brewing the rich, concentrated coffee so beloved in this part of the world.
In Macedonia, afternoons like these are a cultural tradition, a time to visit neighbors, friends, and family to share conversation over coffee and treats.
Blending time-honored ingredients with local Jersey Fresh products, Zora Levkovski, chef and owner of Little Balkan, brings a delicious sampling of authentic goodies to a weekly circuit of farmers markets.
“I started Little Balkan in 2022 after culinary school. I was working in New York at the Fulton Stall Market as their seasonal cook. It was there that I learned so much from other local producers and farmers,” Levkovski recalls.
“It started with halva as it’s naturally shelf-stable and a popular retail product.”
Halva is a dense delicacy made from finely ground sesame seeds. It has a velvety, somewhat grainy texture like fudge and is a genetic match for coffee. Levkovski often blends other flavor components into her halva, as her menu attests: Hazelnut & Turkish Coffee; Pistachio & Sour Cherry; and Vanilla Chocolate Swirl.
In some ways, though, Little Balkan started much earlier, when Levkovski was a girl and spent her summers with her maternal grandmother in the town of Strumica in Macedonia. Levkovski’s grandmother made most of their meals from scratch in a tiny kitchen.
“When I think about how my grandmother cooked and baked in her little kitchen it just amazes me. She used every available space. I remember how we used the dining table as a workstation. She’d cover it with a clean sheet to roll dough for savory pastries like banitsa.”
Banitsa is made by stacking very thin layers of phyllo, crumbly white cheese such as feta, plain yogurt, whisked eggs, and sometimes a vegetable like spinach or other leafy green, then baking the whole thing in the oven.
“She didn’t have any modern tools or gadgets, just classic utensils like a rolling pin, a flour sieve, a baking spatula. When she made sweet treats like cookies she would press the shapes out with a simple glass.”
While Levkovski happily avails herself of the best equipment, such as her beloved KitchenAid mixer, she also works in close quarters. In fact, you could say the Little Balkan is truly a cottage industry: Levkovski is officially a home baker, running her company out of her small kitchen in Hamilton under a New Jersey cottage food permit.
“There’s a lot of us actually, but we can only sell at farmers markets,” Levkovski says. “The cottage food permit also places some restrictions on what we can and can’t make, but it opens up so many possibilities. Artisan chefs and bakers who’d otherwise need their own commercial kitchens to bring their creations to market can share their gift with the world. And customers get to enjoy real-deal homemade treats.”
Some Little Balkan treats take advantage of in-season produce like Jersey-grown blueberries and strawberries, such as her shortbread cookies made with seasonal fruit jam or sponge cakes with fruit filling. Levkovski makes honey cookies, a variation on a traditional Balkan tea biscuit, with honey from local New Jersey apiaries.
Levkovski enjoys fusing Balkan specialties with American standards, such as her halva chocolate chip cookies: she tops a classic chewy chocolate chip cookie with chunks of melt-in-your-mouth halva.
And then there’s her tahini-peanut butter bars. As Levkovski explains: “After her first visit to America, my grandmother fell in love with — of all things — peanut butter! They don’t have peanut butter in Macedonia. So, when I make my tahini-peanut butter bars I think of her. I guess that’s a truly Balkan-American recipe.”
Those tahini-peanut butter bars, halva, and the rest of Levkovski’s confections have made Little Balkan one of the most popular farmers market stands in the area.
Look for the Little Balkan stand at Princeton Farmers Market every other Thursday; West Windsor Farmers Market on the first and third Saturdays of each month; Highland Park Farmers Market on the fourth Friday of the month; and the Pennington Farmers Market as a pop-up vendor (market dates are posted on the Little Balkan Website and Instagram pages).
For more information, visit www.littlebalkan.com or follow @littlebalkan on Instagram.
Zora Levkovski at her Little Balkan stand, which makes regular appearances at the Princeton, West Windsor, Highland Park, and Pennington farmers’ markets. ,
