Refinement from the village. How can traditional Romanian dishes compete with the most demanding restaurant menus
Romanian cuisine is considered simple, peasant and full of culinary imports. Beyond these prejudices and clichés, lies an incredibly refined traditional Romanian cuisine with dishes that can always rival the culinary fads of the modern world.
Roast pork with prunes and walnuts PHOTO savoriurbane.com
Romanian cuisine is often undervalued and still little known in its depth. In general, including in the collective mind of Romanians, our national cuisine is reduced to a few clear symbols: mititei, belly soup, sarmales, cozonacs and borschts. For the most part, these are dishes imported from the neighbors, indeed reinterpreted locally and even improved. Not to mention the fact that, at an international level, at first glance, Romanian cuisine appears to be peasant or urban-bucolic, simple, without too many pretensions and without sophisticated dishes in the classical French sense, with complex techniques and refined sauces. Moreover, for Western tastes from countries with a refined culinary tradition, Romanian cuisine “falls hard” on the stomach and liver, being much too consistent and dominated by meats, fats and fried foods.
Beyond appearances, prejudices and an insufficiently promoted local culinary culture, Romanian cuisine is a real treasure trove of flavors, of extremely refined, sophisticated and so delicious dishes that you risk everything just to get one more portion. It is that almost forgotten Romanian cuisine, on the verge of extinction, buried by culinary imports, but also by the swallowing of the traditional rural world by the forced urbanism of communism.
Next, we present three traditional Romanian recipes that would not be laughed at even in the most demanding modern restaurant and that could compete with the refinement of French, Italian or Japanese gastronomy at any time. It is impossible for anyone to resist them once they smell the aroma while cooking. And the preparation method is easy, with ingredients at hand. The result, on the other hand, can earn you a reputation as a masterchef at the family table.
A queen of Transylvanian flavors
In general, refined cuisine is a fan of unexpected combinations, with ingredients that at first glance seem out of place in the same pot. The combination of meat with fruit, spicy with sweet and a special infusion of flavors is in fashion. Traditional Romanian cuisine is already a veteran of these combinations. For many it is surprising, but as true as it can be: the rural and pastoral Romanian gastronomy is, in fact, a master of sophisticated delicacies in which the sweet and the spicy and the flavors of different types are combined. Unfortunately, most of these recipes from the streets of the villages, from the aristocratic kitchens or the ovens of the household peasants have been almost completely lost, surviving only here and there.
One of the best examples is pork stew with pears. It seems like a dish from the era of “reductions” and “pan-raising”, but it is several hundred years old and was cooked in the hilly areas of Transylvania. In fact, the flavor of fresh piglet meat was combined with the aroma of late autumn pears.
“The dish of pears with meat is indisputably a little-known dish, for most it is only a possible regional curiosity (…) But the stew exists, it has been stubbornly preserved here and there, in Transylvania, and not necessarily in hidden places, without having changed even a molecule of the original core, left as it was with their foremothers at home (…) It is a composite dish, which mixes the simple and juicy taste of an honest stew with one of the safe values of the great world cuisine: the concept of sweet and sour”stated the late journalist and author Radu Anton Roman in “Romanian Kitchen Stories”.
You need one kilogram of pork, two kilograms of pears (preferably late autumn pears), lard (or lard, although lard gives the real traditional taste), a glass of wine and three red onions. Don't forget the spices: salt, pepper, paprika, tarragon.
Cut the onion and cook it in lard. After it becomes glassy, add the diced pork (not too small, but big and healthy). Brown the meat with the onion (without burning it!) and extinguish with water. Put the wine glass in the resulting juice. Season with pepper, tarragon and paprika (those who prefer a spicy taste can add a hot Hungarian paprika).
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While you let the meat simmer on low heat, take care of the pears: peel them, cut them in half and remove the spine with the seeds. Then, cut the halves in half again, so that the result is quarters. They are fried in lard until they form a crust and acquire a copper color. After the meat has cooked, season with salt and add the pears. Leave them to simmer for another quarter of an hour on low heat together with the stew and then take the pot off the heat.
A “criminal” delicacy from peasant households, with airs of “Viana”
We stay in the area of Transylvania, but we go along the banks of the Someș, through the villages raised in the meadows, full of dishes that won't let you leave. Only here you can find a delicacy so refined that it could have sat on a large silver platter at the table of Viennese aristocrats. It's called steak from Someș and it was served with good plum brandy, in large wooden bowls. A country food, but with the pretensions of a great Viennese lady.
“There is more Vienna here, in these sweet sauces, than in all the poetry of Lenau, the waltzes of Strauss, and the columns of the Kunsthistorisches Museum put together! These peasant leaves that confuse us”specified Radu Anton Roman.
You need a kilogram of veal leg, a cup of compote syrup, a teaspoon of sugar (or honey), oil, sweet wine, a little brandy, three tablespoons of flour and the usual spices (salt, pepper, paprika). Don't forget the greens: parsley, beetroot and collard greens.
Cut the meat into suitable pieces, pound them with a mallet and salt them. Roll the pieces in flour and brown them in oil. After they are browned, put water over them and leave them to boil until the beef is tender. Meanwhile, caramelize the sugar (lightly, without burning it) and set aside. In a bowl, dissolve the flour in water or make a light mash with butter and flour.
Remove the meat from the pot and keep warm, covered. Pour the stock into the remaining stock to thicken the sauce (careful: don't use too much cooking water, just enough to soften the meat and make a thick sauce). Then add the rest of the ingredients: compote syrup (preferably pear or peach), burnt sugar, a cup of boiling water, peppercorns, paprika and salt. Let everything simmer for 15 minutes for the flavors to meld. We chop the greens and add them to the sauce, along with a little sweet wine and a “hammer” of brandy. Return the meat to the sauce and simmer for another 10 minutes. The result is a sauce worthy of Michelin stars.
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Another traditional dish is simply called “plum dish with meat”. Although rural, this dish can achieve a sophistication that is hard to imagine. Here is the first option, the simplest, the most rural. You need a kilogram of veal, prunes, an onion, butter, a spoonful of sugar and a spoonful of flour, plus salt and pepper. The cubed meat is browned in butter. Add finely chopped onion and saute together with the meat. Pour water and let it boil for an hour.
Meanwhile, pit the plums. When the meat is cooked, dissolve the flour in warm water, caramelize the sugar in a pan and extinguish it with two glasses of water. Add the plums, caramelized sugar and flour mixture over the meat. Some also add crushed apricot kernels for extra flavor. Leave on the fire until the plums swell.
There is also a more sophisticated version, of well-to-do bargains, of a sophistication hard to match. Roast pork stuffed with plum and walnut. Rolled pork loin is used, and inside is a filling consisting of prunes, croutons and walnut kernels, previously soaked in sweet wine. Everything is put in the oven, resulting in a legendary dish.
