Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian cuisine

  • Stuffed cabbage for Lent

    Stuffed cabbage for Lent

    Today’s recipe is a very special one, it
    is a Lent dish as prepared in monasteries in Oltenia Country. It is stuffed
    cabbage which has fish instead of the regular minced meat used in traditional
    recipe.




    You need 200g of smoked mackerel, a kilo and a half of white
    boneless fish (preferably pike or perch pike), 200 g of rice, a cup of tomato
    juice, two or three onions, 3 or 4 tablespoons of oil, ground black pepper,
    peppercorns, dill (fresh or dried), thyme, bay leaves, salt to taste, one egg,
    shredded sauerkraut, and whole sauerkraut leaves for the wrapping.




    Start by chopping the onion finely and sweating it in the oil, and
    when it softens add water and cover. After it is done, leave aside to cool.
    Make sure the rice is properly cooked ahead of time, and the fish, both smoked
    and raw, is minced. Mix together well the fish with onion, dill, salt and
    pepper. Add the egg and once again knead together well. The secret is to
    balance the salt you add with how salty the smoked fish and sauerkraut are.
    Roll the mixture in the cabbage leaves.




    Line a deep stewpot with oil, shredded sauerkraut and thyme, then
    proceed to lay the stuffed cabbage rolls in layers, sprinkling in between
    peppercorns and pieces of bay leaf. Cover the whole thing with whole cabbage
    leaves, pour over the entire thing the tomato juice, adding water until it
    almost covers the contents of the pot. Simmer on the stovetop for an hour and a
    half.




    Enjoy!

  • Stuffed Cabbage for Lent

    Stuffed Cabbage for Lent

    Here is a very special recipe, a lent dish as prepared in monasteries in Oltenia Country. It is stuffed cabbage which has fish instead of the regular minced meat used in traditional recipes.



    You need 200g of smoked mackerel, a kilo and a half of white boneless fish (preferably pike or perch pike), 200 g of rice, a cup of tomato juice, two or three onions, 3 or 4 tablespoons of oil, ground black pepper, peppercorns, dill (fresh or dried), thyme, bay leaves, salt to taste, one egg, shredded sauerkraut, and whole sauerkraut leaves for the wrapping.



    Start by chopping the onion finely and sweating it in the oil, and when it softens add water and cover. After it is done, leave aside to cool. Make sure the rice is properly cooked ahead of time, and the fish, both smoked and raw, is minced. Mix together well the fish with onion, dill, salt and pepper. Add the egg and once again knead together well.



    The secret is to balance the salt you add with how salty the smoked fish and sauerkraut are. Roll the mixture in the cabbage leaves.



    Line a deep stewpot with oil, shredded sauerkraut and thyme, then proceed to lay the stuffed cabbage rolls in layers, sprinkling in between peppercorns and pieces of bay leaf. Cover the whole thing with whole cabbage leaves, pour over the entire thing the tomato juice, adding water until it almost covers the contents of the pot. Simmer on the stovetop for an hour and a half. Enjoy!

  • Saxon dishes

    Saxon dishes

    The Saxon
    villages from Transylvania and Banat still preserve specific customs and
    traditions associated with Lent. From the Feast of the Epiphany until the
    beginning of Lent, these communities used to observe what is known as Fasching,
    or the Fifth Season. Most festivals and events held at this time of the year
    are always accompanied by various traditional dishes.




    In the western
    Romanian town of Resita, for example, this festive season started with the
    Noodles Festival, held in late January. These homemade noodles were originally
    a sweet dish and were served with poppy seeds, walnuts or homemade jam. Later,
    meat was also added to the recipe. The Fasching in Resita ends with the
    Doughnut Festival.




    Doughnuts were
    also served at the Masks Festival in Agnita, in central Romania. This custom is
    linked to a legend from the Middle Ages. It appears that while the citadel of
    Agnita was under siege by Ottoman troops, a brave young woman wearing a scary
    outfit came out of the citadel flicking her whip and making deafening noises,
    thus scaring off the attackers. Today, visitors who recognise the person behind
    the mask and the costume gets a free doughnut.




    Another event
    connected to the Fasching celebrations is the Pancake Festival held every year
    in Prejmer, in Brasov County, central Romania. An old Saxon custom has been
    revived in recent years: groups of young men wearing masks roam the village in
    a cart giving away pancakes they cook on the spot on a stove they take with them.
    In exchange, people give them flour, sugar and eggs. These ingredients are used
    to prepare the doughnuts served at a masked ball held later that same day. The
    young men not only make the pancakes, but also ‘steal’ a local young woman whom
    they hold as ransom. Until her parents pay the price for her release, this
    young woman travels with the young men in the cart. The pancakes are, of course, delicious, being served with gem or
    preserve, walnuts, honey or grated apples as filling.




    This is actually
    quite an easy dish to make. You need a glass of flour, one egg, half a glass of
    milk, mineral water or soda, some sunflower oil, sugar and salt. Mix the flour
    and the egg and add the milk until the mix is soft and creamy. Add the salt and
    sugar and leave to cool in the fridge for half an hour. Pour some oil in a pan
    then pour or scoop the batter into the pan, spreading the batter into a round.
    Brown on each side, flipping the pancakes carefully with a spatula. Transfer to
    a platter, stacking the pancakes. Serve with the filling of your choice, and of
    course, enjoy!

  • Dishes of Transylvania

    Dishes of Transylvania

    In the Apuseni Mountain area, in Transylvania, self reliance is the norm. People work hard, and therefore their food is rich and heavy. Pork and mutton, cabbage, potatoes and dairy products are the norm. Lard is used rather heavily, alongside plenty of smoked fatback eaten with onion and homemade bread. Homemade spirits are also a local staple.



    One local recipe you might be interested in is rich soup made with smoked meat, based on either cabbage or potatoes. Another local specialty is the pork and sausage stew, with lard-fried onion. Another delicious local preparation is pies that resemble a stuffed crepe, with salted cheese inside. The crepe dough resembles bread dough, a plain flour, water and salt combination. After the dough is left to rise, it is rolled into thin sheets, which are then layered with cheese in-between. The resulting pie is served topped with butter or sour cream. It can also be served as a desert if the filling is sweet.



    Another rich dish is layered polenta, prepared in various ways throughout the country. It is typically made in a metal or clay pot. Take sliced sausage and finely cubed pork and brown them separately, preferably in a Dutch oven. Also separately make a soft polenta. Use some of it to cover the bottom of a larger oven dish, previously greased with the liquid left from browning the meat and sausage.



    Spread out over the polenta the above-mentioned meat products, then another layer of polenta, add on top of that crumbled hard sheep cheese, the salty kind, then another layer of polenta. You can also beat an egg and brush it on top of the whole thing. Bake in the oven until golden brown. When serving you can top it with a dollop of sour cream.



    If you are terrified by the caloric content and the amounts of fat in this dish, remember it was meant for people in the countryside who worked hard all day in the field and in the household. Enjoy!

  • The Path of Culinary Delights

    The Path of Culinary Delights

    This, in turn, became a guide for a tour of good places to dine: sheepfolds, B&Bs and monasteries. The book is an invitation to cuisine travel, with its descriptions of traditional menus consisting of local food and drink.



    Vasile Avadanei, representative of the Mountain Forum of Romania, Neamt branch, told us about the circuit: “We went step by step through all the villages in the Neamt mountain area, and wrote a book called ‘Gastronomy in Neamt Mountains, with recipes supplied by the locals. Someone provided us the idea to make a book and put it into practice. This was the origin of the Festival of Mountain Gastronomy, which we held this September in Piatra Neamt. We subscribed for the European Excellence Destination competition, considering that this year the theme was Excellence Gastronomy Destinations, and we believed we had something to say there. We associated with the association of promoting tourism in Neamt, more specifically Ozana Valley, and we came in fourth in the competition, and now we are here to argue that in Neamt County, as in many other places in Romania, gastronomy is a niche, which may be a way to develop tourism, but at the same time we rediscovered it as cultural heritage. This prompted our slogan, ‘eating is an act of culture.



    This cultural itinerary takes the tourist to places with strange sounding names, offering them equally strange sounding dishes. Vasile Avadanei from the Romanian Mountain Forum has more on the issue: “We gathered almost 300 recipes, of which we selected 20 and put together a promotion product named ‘The Mountain Delight Trail for Neamt County, with various representative recipes, including traditional drinks. You can find them all over Neamt County in places you can eat, and we discovered an opportunity we would like to turn into a tourist trail, including sheepfolds. Sheepfolds offer food with a specificity that does not rise to official standards, but the fact that they are fresh and made on the spot offers enough food security to get us to promote them.



    A brochure was launched called “The Mountain Delight Trail. Small Gastronomy Treaty, at the Gastrofest 2015 Mountain Gastronomy Festival, where local producers were invited to introduce food and dishes of an original nature. Visitors could sample the local food and drinks, including wine and local spirits, with specificity in terms of when they are served, such as on the weekend or when working in the field.



    Vasile Avadanei says where it is worth eating: “We found in every village farms, local accommodation, as well as a local folklore. Everywhere you step out of your car you can ask where you can find a good place to eat, and you will always be pointed to such a place. You also have village celebrations, annual events or religious holidays, when people meet visitors with traditional dishes. You also have monasteries, which boast tempting menus, especially Vovidenia Monastery, which has a delightful lineup of dishes.


    (Translated by Calin Cotoiu)

  • Beef and Pork Stew

    Beef and Pork Stew

    This recipe can nowadays be encountered all across Romania, and each of the regions has its own approach to making it, using a variety of different ingredients. We are talking about the Romanian dish known as ‘tochitura’, a quick beef and pork stew, that very much resembles a braise made with a mixture of meat and organs. In Moldova the stew is made without adding the tomato juice or paste. Transylvania on the other hand, is known for its appetizing pork dishes, which is why householders often add homemade smoked sausage to the stew.



    To make this Romanian dish, you need half a kilo, about a pound, of leaner pork fresh ham, and about a kilo of pig liver, spleen, heart. For the sauce you need two medium-sized onions, a head of garlic, a glass of red wine, oil, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper, and optionally tomato juice or paste.



    Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic. Wash the meat and slice it into cubes. Heat oil in a skillet with a cover, then brown the onion. When the onion is brown, add in the meat and organs, and cook until they are no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Then add in some water to barely cover, the glass of red wine, and leave to simmer under the cover.



    If you want to add pork sausage, add it not long before the mixture of meat is ready. When everything is done, add the garlic and the other herbs and seasonings. A few minutes before turning off the heat add the tomato paste or juice if you wish to use them, and optionally another glass of wine. Sprinkle some finely chopped parsley on top and leave to rest. This mixture is traditionally served with a side of polenta with a fried egg sunny side up on top, over which we grate cheese. It goes well with a mix of sauerkraut, pickles and cornichons, and of course, a glass of red wine. Enjoy!

  • Recipes from Dobrudja

    Recipes from Dobrudja

    A province stretching between the Danube and the Black Sea, Dobrudja has many strong oriental influences because of its Turkish-Tartar minority. These influences are also visible in the regions cuisine.



    Dominated by fish and mutton dishes, the food of Dobrudga also includes poultry meat, beef and pork. The main dishes are usually accompanied by rice and vegetables side-dishes. Sheep dairy products, such as yoghurt and telemea, a white cheese similar to Greek feta cheese, are also used in the preparation of other dishes. Some of the regions typical dishes are different types of fish soup, marinated fish, fish stew, rice pilaf, different salads, mutton sausages and spit-roasted lamb, as well as Turkish dishes such as kebab, cured sausages, moussaka, made with aubergines, minced meat, green peppers, tomatoes and potatoes, and rice side-dishes.



    Last but not least, Dobrudja is well-known for its sweet dishes with raisins and Turkish delight, not to mention baklava, which is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of unleavened dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey.



    While consisting of vegetables such as tomatoes, green peppers, onion and cucumbers, the Dobrudjan salad is different from other salads. It also includes two hard-boiled eggs, olives, cream, telemea cheese, lemon juice and thyme. Chop the tomatoes into medium-sized pieces, finely-slice the cucumbers and the green peppers lengthwise and the onion. Mix everything together. You can also add some lettuce, finely cut. Prepare a sauce mixing the boiled yolks with some cream, finely cut egg-whites and finely-cut olives. Add a bit of lemon juice and ground thyme and mix components well into one another. Pour the sauce into the salad bowl with the vegetables, and grate the telemea cheese on top. This salad can also served as a side-dish for grilled meat.



    We end with another typical, mouth-watering dish from Dobrudga: mutton shish kebab. You need one kilo of mutton leg, several onions, pepper, ground thyme and some wine. Finely slice the meat, add a bit of salt and marinate it in wine, thyme and pepper for a couple of hours. Grill the meat on a skewer together with the onion and serve with pickles or sauerkraut salad.


    Enjoy!

  • Mincemeat stuffed cabbage rolls

    Mincemeat stuffed cabbage rolls

    There are some dishes
    in Romania that served as inspiration for festivals, most of the time with
    double purpose: to pass down traditional dishes and recipes from one generation
    to another, and create an event that would benefit the community. There are
    several suchlike events in Romania: the festival of sausages, of pies, cheese,
    trout, pancakes and of course, cabbage rolls.




    Two cabbage roll
    festivals are taking place in Romania in September, one in Salonta, now in its 7th
    year, and another one in Praid, with a tradition going back 20 years. Apart
    from prizes for the most delicious cabbage rolls, the festival in Praid has,
    along the years, seen prizes being awarded for the smallest, the biggest and
    the most original cabbage roll. The biggest prize-winning roll one year was of
    nearly one meter long and as thick as one’s arm.




    A traditional meal in
    all the Balkan countries, though claimed by each country, cabbage rolls are
    original from Turkey where they were called sarmak. In Turkey, the original
    recipe consisted of minced beef mixed with rice and raisins all wrapped in vine
    leaves, but in other countries the vine leaves have been replaced with cabbage
    or sauerkraut, and the meat was replaced by pork, chicken, or even fish. A
    traditional recipe in Bukovina, a province in northern Romania, is called
    ‘cabbage roll nest’, with filling or wrapping of different types. The filling
    is pork, beef, chicken, goose, or mushrooms. In spring, vine leaves, dock, horseradish,
    beet, and lime tree leaves are used for wrapping. Wrap the rolls and boil them
    in enough water to cover. Then add tomato paste or juice boil them in the oven
    at low heat for about two hours, pouring water or white wine from time to time.
    The cabbage roll nests should be taken carefully out of the pot and placed on a
    plate. Add cream on top and a slice of polenta by their side.





    The
    traditional Romanian recipe for cabbage rolls uses sauerkraut wraps and pork.
    For that you need one or two heads of sauerkraut of medium size. Place cabbage
    leaves in cold water to take out excess salt. You need 1.5 kg of pork, mixed
    with one cup of rice and two finely chopped onions; cut off the thick veins of
    the cabbage leaves to wrap them more easily around the meat. Then we place them
    in the pot together with some dry thyme, a bit of tomato juice, cover them in
    water and boil them at low heat for a couple of hours. Add some bacon as for
    the smoky flavour. Serve hot with cream on top, some polenta and, why not, a glass
    of red wine. Enjoy!

  • Zucchinis

    Zucchinis

    Domestically grown
    zucchinis are all the rage right now in farmer markets in Romania. It is a very
    popular ingredient, with loads of applications, which is why we will be
    bringing you today a few of them. We will also be looking at cooking them
    depending on size.


    In one version,
    you can peel and cube them, then boil in salted water. After that you can mix
    them into eggplant paste, Middle Eastern style. You can also use them to
    simulate meatballs you use for making a popular soup in Romania, by mixing them
    with cheese.


    The easier road
    you can take is that of frying them. Peel the zucchinis, and slice them into
    finger thick chunks. Sprinkle salt on them, then leave them to sweat a bit.
    Beat a couple of eggs with a bit of ground black pepper, then douse them in
    flour, then soak them in the beaten egg, then pan fry them. We recommend a
    garlic sauce, either water or yogurt based.


    One other, more
    involved recipe, is stuffed zucchini, a meat dish. Take 6 to 8 zucchinis, about
    half a kilogram of minced pork, a cup of rice, two onions, a bunch of fresh
    parsley, tomato juice, salt and pepper to taste. Peel the zucchinis and slice
    them in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to core them, and then fill them. To make
    the filling, chop finely the two onions, add the finely chopped parsley, with
    salt and pepper to taste. Put the filled zucchinis in the oven dish, then put
    in the dish tomato juice and water. Place in a low heat oven for about 20
    minutes, until the zucchinis are done. Serve with a yogurt or sour cream
    garnish. Enjoy!

  • Clay Pot Baking

    Clay Pot Baking

    Claypot baked bread is typical of the region of Oltenia, in southern Romania, and its history goes way back millennia, as it is still made as the ancient Dacian population used to make millet, oat and wheat cakes inside a clay pot placed upside down on a hot bakestone. The method was used during the Roman colonization, then later in the Middle Ages, and the recipe has been passed down from one generation to another down to this very day. In fact, the Romanian word for this type of baking, tzest, comes from the Latin testum, which means turtle shell and suggests the shape of the clay pot.



    Baking bread this way was rather common all across the Balkans. As compared to the oven, which is larger, the tzest has the advantage of reaching the right temperature faster and not needing wood for the fire, only twigs and vegetable remains of sun-flower, corn or other types of dried vegetation. Another advantage is that the method can be used not only to bake bread, but also to cook meat and vegetable dishes.



    Before telling you how to make this type of bread, we should first say that this mobile oven would be built, according to tradition, only on the Ropotin day, a feast celebrated on the third Tuesday after Easter, or, according to other local customs, on the first three days of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday after Easter. Making these clay-pot ovens was a ritual, and its main aim was to keep away the hail storms that could have damaged the crops. It was made of yellow clay, mixed with horse manure and straws. Before being used, it had to be fired first, just like any other object used in the household. It can either have a handle to which a chain is attached to keep the top above the bakestone or holes through which metal rods are inserted, with the same role, of lifting up or down the claypot on the hot bakestone.



    The first thing to do is to light a fire, and keep the embers under the bakestone for about half an hour. To make the dough you need flour, water, salt and yeast. In the old days, women would not use yeast, but the foam left by fermented fruit, used to make the traditional brandy called tzuica. So, first knead the dough and then leave it to rest and grow. Place the flattened dough inside the hot clay pot, which you must first coat in egg or tomato juice. Place the pot on top the hot bakestone, where it should stay for about half an hour. If the heat is too much, you can remove the burnt top layer. But, in order to prevent that, fresh cabbage leaves can be placed on top of the dough, which are later removed.


    As we mentioned earlier, the method can be used to also cook meat or vegetable dishes. So, inside an enamelled pot we can put chicken, covered in spices and a little bit of oil, alongside potatoes, carrots, paprika, onion and green beans. The pot is kept on the bake-stone for half and hour and the food can be served right away. Enjoy!

  • Sour cherry desserts

    Sour cherry desserts

    Sour cherries are quite popular in Romania, and
    are the basis of a wide variety of desserts. They are even turned into a widely
    enjoyed sweet spirit, left to soak into grain alcohol sweetened with sugar. At
    the same time, they can also be served as a regular dish, namely a soup, which
    is one of the more exotic influences left in Transylvanian cooking by the
    Saxons, an ethnic German group that settled in that region in the Middle Ages.
    The other obvious application is to make preserves, and sour cherry preserve is
    part of every Romanian’s childhood memories.




    Today we’ll start by presenting a simple
    preparation, a fluffy cake with sour cherries. Take 3 eggs, a cup of milk, 200
    g or sugar, 250 g of flour, baking powder, the shredded rind of one lemon, and
    half a kg of sour cherries. Pit the cherries and sprinkle them with a couple of
    tablespoons of sugar in a bowl, leaving them to take it in. With a mixer blend
    thoroughly the sugar and eggs at higher speed, then add the milk and flour and
    set the mixer at lower speed to blend. Put the mixture in a tray lined with
    baking paper, then drop the cherries on top of it. Bake in a preheated oven on
    medium for about half an hour. It can be served hot or cold, sprinkled with
    powdered sugar.




    One other possibility is sour cherry cookies.
    We use almost the same ingredients, with the exception of the fact that you
    only use the yolks of the eggs. Take 200 g of sugar, three egg yolks, 100 g of
    butter, 200 g of flour, baking powder, a pack of vanilla sugar, the shredded
    rind of one lemon, and pitted sour cherries. Use a mixer to blend the butter
    and sugar to a cream, and add gradually the flour until it forms a light dough
    that doesn’t stick to the bowl. Take tablespoons of the mixture, lay them on a
    baking paper lined tray, then flatten them. Stick a sour cherry on top of each
    dollop, then bake on medium in a preheated oven about 20 minutes, until golden
    brown. You can also drizzle melted chocolate on top of the cookies.

    Enjoy!

  • Smoked prunes

    Smoked prunes

    People have been cooking with prunes in Eastern Europe for centuries, and it is a staple of fasting in the Orthodox tradition.



    To make such a dish, popular in Romanian monasteries, taken one kilo of smoked prunes, two onions, a cup of rice, oil, a pinch of salt and one of sugar. Set the prunes in cold water over low heat until they come to a boil, then add the rice and the finely chopped onion. Simmer everything, making sure that the prunes stay whole. At the end add the oil, salt and sugar. If you want a nicer colour, you can actually mash a prune or two and mix it into the dish.



    If, however, you want a fuller meal, one excellent suggestion is prune stuffed roast chicken. Take a whole chicken, about a quarter of a kilogram, or half a pound, of pitted smoked prunes, a few mushrooms, a carrot, a green pepper and one onion. Also you will need a few cloves of garlic, a bunch of green parsley, salt and pepper. Sautee the finely sliced onion, add the finely sliced mushrooms, the green pepper cut into small squares, and the shredded carrot. Sautee on low heat for about 10 minutes, then add the smoked prunes for a few minutes. Rub the chicken with oil, salt and pepper on both the inside and the outside. Stuff it with the sautéed vegetables, then, if any stuffing is left, put it in the oven tray you will be using for roasting. Add a cup of water, then set into the oven for three quarters of an hour, until the chicken is perfectly roasted. Use the stuffing as a side dish for the pieces of chicken you will be serving.



    Enjoy!

  • Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage

    Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage

    These days, Romanian Orthodox Christians, who make up some 80% of the country, are, according to religious tradition, in the middle of Nativity Fast, when many of them observe the rules of fasting in Eastern Christianity. They abstain from meat, dairy, eggs, fish, oil and wine, before the days right after Christmas, when they can feast on traditional pork products.



    Of those traditional pork products, one of the definite musts in any home, in addition to sausage and aspic, to name just the obvious, is stuffed cabbage. Stuffed cabbage, in case you were still wondering, is sauerkraut leaves stuffed with a minced meat mixture, cooked in a closely packed pot. One cannot afford to underestimate the importance of stuffed cabbage (known as ‘sarmale’) in Romanian culture. For one thing, it is the staple food when Romanians break fast after the two most important fasting periods of the year, Lent and Nativity Fast. Skill in making them is a fundamental requirement for any traditional homemaker.



    Also, they are made slightly differently depending on the region. In the west and north of the country, where there are influences from Germany and Poland, each individual piece is huge, a course in itself. In the south and east they are medium sized. Only pickled cabbage leaves are used, and the space in between them when cooking is filled with shredded sauerkraut floating in a loose tomato sauce. The minced meat mixture has rice in it. The spice of choice is black pepper, the herbs of choice is dried thyme and bay leaves.



    However, you may ask what happens if the faithful get a craving for ‘sarmale’ during their fast. That is not a problem, as you may have guessed. The solution is rice, and if you want a richer filling, mushrooms.



    In order to make the vegetarian stuffed cabbage, you need leaves of pickled cabbage, stemmed, two cups of rice, rinsed and drained, two or three onions, two carrots, oil, tomato paste, peppercorns and ground pepper, two bay leaves, and salt to taste. Slice the onion thinly, sweat in oil, then add the rice and the carrot, which you have shredded finely.



    Here is the point at which you have a serious choice to make: to go savory or sweet. If you want to go savory, then add finely chopped mushrooms. However, the more creative and surprising choice is chopped dried fruit, such as raisins or prunes. Whichever choice you make, after you throw in the rice, add the tomato paste, ground pepper and salt to taste, stir well, and cook the rice.



    Wash well the cabbage leaves, then pack them carefully with the rice mixture, rolling them while tucking in the ends, like you would spring rolls. Lay them in a oven proof vessel, pour on top boiling water with tomato paste, peppercorns, a sprig of dry thyme, and the bay leaves. Cover everything with shredded sauerkraut. Put it in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until the sauerkraut on top starts to brown nicely. Enjoy your meat free Romanian delicacy!