Radio România Internațional

Tag: cookery

  • Dishes in Marginimea Sibiului

    Dishes in Marginimea Sibiului

    The ceremony for granting this award, previously held by 7 regions in Europe, involved a culinary demonstration by 50 chefs, who prepared special meals for cadets with the Academy of Land Forces in the city of Sibiu. A national chain of stores had promotions dedicated to this event, selling locally made products. Representatives from the organization that granted the award, as well as representatives from other European regions granted the award, were invited to Sibiu to visit the county of the same name and take part in culinary events. Members of the local consortium who hold this year the event to promote Sibiu as a European Gastronomical Region plan to launch the concept of Sibiu local cuisine under the name of “Shepherd Cuisine.



    Shepherding is the traditional occupation for the inhabitants of the 18 Romanian and Saxon villages around Marginimea Sibiului, a tourist destination where we find many traditional households that are ready for hosting guests. The Romanian villages in Marginimea Sibiului have a rich food tradition with dairy and mutton as staples. One of them is the so-called ‘bulz’, which is sharp cured cheese covered in polenta. It is often cooked on a charcoal grill. To make bulz, you ideally would make a sturdy polenta out of traditionally milled maize. The balls of polenta with cheese are cooked on the grill until the crust starts cracking. They are then covered in sour cream. One other version is to cover the bulz in raw clay, and then set it right in the fire to cook. Speaking of covering in clay for cooking, the locals have a tradition of cooking an entire sheep covered in a layer of clay.



    One traditional dish from Marginimea Sibiului that drew our attention is a Saxon dish, a veal stew. If you happen to stay at a B&B in Marginimea Sibiului and you catch a day with nice weather, you may have the pleasant surprise of witnessing the host cooking this veal stew over an open fire in a Dutch oven. To make this at home, first take a few onions, peel and chop them finely. Sweat the onion in oil. Cube the veal in small chunks, place it in the Dutch oven, and add water to cover, then start simmering it. Slice two green peppers finely, finely cube 2 or 3 tomatoes, mince a few cloves of garlic, and add them to the preparation. When it is almost cooked, add a bay leaf, a cup of red wine, and salt to taste. The stew is served hot, with a side of polenta, and a glass of fine wine. Enjoy!

  • Dishes from Wallachia

    Dishes from Wallachia

    The Wallachian cuisine was influenced by the Greek and oriental one, by the French and even by the Italian cuisine. Wallachian recipes include lots of vegetables, meat, meat products, fish, milk, pasta and fruit. Rooster, goose or pork jelly are some of Wallachias staple dishes. In the old days, foreign guests who were invited to princely banquets were simply taken aback by that dish, which also had bits of vegetables in it, which made a very good impression thanks to vegetables lively coloring. No less amazing were fruits preserved in brine, such as apples or melons, which always went with the fatty dishes.



    Soups were soured with under-ripe fruit, such as green cherry plums or grapes. Later stocks were soured with lemon and wheat bran brew, which was of Russian origin, with vinegar being much less used for that. Stocks could also be soured with sauerkraut juice. Chicken, beef as well as lots of vegetables were used to prepare the stock. The nobles very much favored the meatballs sour soup, with sour cream dressing and garnished with lovage leaves.



    Here is the recipe for the meat jelly, one of Wallachias traditional dishes. If you want to prepare chicken jelly, you need a kilo of chicken wings and drumsticks, as well as a bunch of chicken feet and heads, so that the jelly congeals as quickly as possible. You also need two onions, two carrots, a head of garlic and a bunch of fresh parsley leaves. Leave the meat to boil, together with the carrots and the onion. Skim and allow everything to boil until the meat comes off the bone easily. Add a bit of salt towards the end.



    Remove the meat, mince it and strain the remaining juice, which you then put in a bowl, mixing the mashed garlic into it. Get a larger pot or a couple of bowls ready and fill them with carrot rounds, fresh parsley leaves, or maybe thinly-sliced bell peppers in vinegar, as well as the pieces of meat. Pour the juice over all that, very carefully, so as not to make a mess of the entire setting. Allow everything to cool, then place the pot or the bowls in the fridge. The jelly is ready to serve the following day. Enjoy!

  • Garlic dishes

    Garlic dishes


    In the Romanian folk beliefs evil spirits emerge on the night of November 29th prior to St. Andrew’s Day, November 30th. In order to ward them off, people would grease their body with garlic. In the past, girls who wanted to know their future husband would eat a sort of pie made of flour, water and salt and the future husband would appear in their dream. On St. Andrew’s Day, a fermented drink is made of maize flour and flour called “covasa” having a sweet-sour taste. Peasants would give it out to their neighbors in clay pots hoping their cows would give more milk.



    In the Romanian cuisine, garlic is used for various dishes such as “ostropel” — chicken in tomato sauce — or Dutch oven – roasted pork chop. Today we’ll give you a recipe of a smoked fish dish called “scordolea” made in the Danube Delta, which is to be found in the Greek and Turkish cuisine too. In Greek “scordo” actually means garlic.



    You need one 1 kilo of potatoes, 1 kilo of smoked fish, cooking oil or milk, butter, nuts, garlic, pepper and celery leaves. In the Danube Delta potatoes and the fish are boiled in the same pot. You needn’t add any salt to the mashed potatoes since smoked fish is salty. You can add a bit of the water in which the fish was boiled to the mashed potatoes as well as a few pounded nuts, crushed garlic, pepper to taste and a few minced celery leaves, a bit of olive oil or milk to make the mashed potatoes creamy. Pieces of smoked fish are put on a platter being covered by a layer of mashed potatoes, but you can also mix pieces of smoked fish with the mashed potatoes. You should also have a glass of white semi-dry wine together with this dish called “scordolea”. Enjoy!