Radio România Internațional

Tag: traditional recipes

  • SlanaFest

    SlanaFest

    Every
    traditional Romanian product has its own feast, and this time of the year is
    when several celebrations are devoted to fatback. Apart from the traditional
    recipes that delight consumers, every time there are new products that appear,
    which are the result of chefs’ ingenuity. At the SlanaFest festival held in
    Cluj in the first week of February, the public were happy to taste fatback and
    mozzarella pie and éclairs with pork rind cream, fatback specialties decorated
    with culinary gold leafs, as well as pralines with chocolate, chili and
    fatback. Apart from exchanging recipes and promoting products, participants
    were also interested in organic pig farming, using only grains and fodder, with
    no chemicals and preservers.


    SlanaFest festival in Cluj was at its 4th
    edition this year. Eighteen participants entered the competition, including
    Ionut Mangu, who combined traditional fat back with a variety of vegetables,
    like horseradish, beet and chili paste to obtain new tastes. To make things
    even more interesting, he improved the white and red mix with a little 24-carat
    gold, which according to chef Mangu, makes people happier.


    We also found out that out of the traditional fatback
    recipes, one of the tastiest is cooked by keeping the fatback in sauerkraut
    juice prior to smoking it, and then scrubbing beech sawdust into it to give it
    flavor.


    Another active participant in relevant festivals is Chef
    Radu Garba, who brought a variety of recipes to Cluj:


    I’ve cooked 4 types of fatback, one with chili powder, one with garlic and
    spring onion paste, one with coriander and caraway, and a smoked variety.


    Out of Chef
    Radu Garba’s recipes, the fatback-based deserts were particularly popular among
    visitors:


    My
    desserts are éclairs with pork rind cream, éclairs with bean paste and bacon, a
    ham, cheese and fatback pie, and pralines with chocolate, chili and fatback.


    Fat
    back pralines have been especially designed for the festival, because at such
    events people usually come with the expectation of trying something new, a
    variety of tastes and they are open to any new idea. But chef Gârba says that the idea of doing something
    new is not original:


    Last year at the SlanaFest one of our colleagues made something similar, and
    we wanted to continue the idea this year, by making different recipes. We made
    pralines. Our pralines are made of a chocolate shell filled with pieces of
    chocolate and of fatback and are coated with ground pistachio, sesame or
    walnut. Visitors have been delighted and promised to return next year.


    Another
    team came to Cluj with an impressive product from a visual point of view: a
    small house made of fatback from Mangalita pig and prosciutto, which replicates
    the Romanian traditional architecture. The house chimney was made from a sausage
    just like the fence. There came people at the festival who prepare pork in
    their households traditionally, without making it into a business. They see the
    festival as an opportunity to socialize and exchange recipes. We asked Chef
    Radu Gârba why he participates in such events:


    I like to compete, that’s why I take part in these festivals. I like what I do
    and I like to see others’ work, I find inspiration in my colleagues’ works.
    This year I have won the silver and bronze medals.


    We also
    asked Chef Gârba about the role which fatback can still have in today’s world when
    there is a lot of hype about healthy food, healthy meaning the opposite of fat:


    Fatback is an important product, it is a
    staple food, everybody eats it, it’s very tasty and in small amounts it cannot
    be harmful.


    This
    week another event featuring ‘fatback’ will be hosted by Sibiu, in central
    Romania. Chef Gârba, who will be there, says visitors are in for a lot of
    surprises.


  • Traditional fatback

    Traditional fatback

    Today we will be talking about a preparation that is fundamental to traditional culture in Romania, as well as the rest of the Balkans, fatback.



    In fact, that is an approximation of the term, since its preparation may be quite elaborate, and the better term is the Romanian one, ‘slanina, which is a term derived from the old Slavic word for salt. Most neighboring peoples use a similar term, since most of them speak Slavic languages. ‘Slanina generally indicates fatback with the rind on, and is most times salted and smoked, sometimes spiced and seasoned. It is the most common way of preserving pig fat from the back or belly.



    Its making is closely related to the entire range of winter traditions related to the slaughter of pigs in traditional households in villages. Each area has its own ways of preparing it, and the methods also vary in terms of how long it is expected to last. In some villages, it is kept buried in salt. In others, it is kept in a brine. One version of that is using a brine made by dissolving two tablespoons of salt per liter of water. After bringing the brine to a boil, crushed garlic is added, then peppercorns and black pepper powder, thyme, and bay leaves. The fatback is set into a barrel or a large pot, then covered in the cold brine, and left for about three weeks. Then it is sent to get smoked.



    In certain areas of Transylvania, people salt the fatback using brine in which sauerkraut was made, which has a distinctive flavor and salty tangy taste. They add peppercorns and bay leaves to the brine. They first boil the fatback until a fork can be pushed into it easily, then they press it. After draining it, it is covered in a garlic paste, then sprinkled with paprika, sometimes mixed with chili powder. It is then kept in a dry, cool place.



    Before refrigerators, people used a room, sometimes a dedicated one, for hanging out their preserved pork products. In Medieval Saxon villages in Transylvania, the fatback was kept in rooms set aside in defense towers. Almost every fortified church in Transylvania has a fatback tower, which is actually called just that. Every family had its own set of hooks for hanging out their fatback. You could only go in there on Sundays, because the temperature was kept low by blocks of ice covered in straw, brought in during the winter months.



    No matter how you prepare it, you can eat the fatback as is, sliced thin, alongside other entrees, preferably with red onion or cloves of raw garlic, as the people in villages traditionally do when they go work in the field. Also, smoked fatback is essential to many other dishes, because it is the main method of lending a smoky flavor to cooked dishes. One of them is the famous ‘sarmale, of which we speak often in this feature. In some areas of Romania, it is even used to give a smoky taste to meat and vegetable soups, usually thick concoctions eaten in the cold months of winter. One other popular preparation is the so-called ‘spiked roast pork. The hunk of meat is stuck with the tip of a knife, and in the cuts people put cloves of garlic and slices of smoked fatback, which gives it a unique flavor. In any case, there is nothing like the taste of smoked and salted fatback.



    Enjoy!

  • Traditional fatback

    Traditional fatback

    Today we will be talking about a preparation that is fundamental to traditional culture in Romania, as well as the rest of the Balkans, fatback.



    In fact, that is an approximation of the term, since its preparation may be quite elaborate, and the better term is the Romanian one, ‘slanina, which is a term derived from the old Slavic word for salt. Most neighboring peoples use a similar term, since most of them speak Slavic languages. ‘Slanina generally indicates fatback with the rind on, and is most times salted and smoked, sometimes spiced and seasoned. It is the most common way of preserving pig fat from the back or belly.



    Its making is closely related to the entire range of winter traditions related to the slaughter of pigs in traditional households in villages. Each area has its own ways of preparing it, and the methods also vary in terms of how long it is expected to last. In some villages, it is kept buried in salt. In others, it is kept in a brine. One version of that is using a brine made by dissolving two tablespoons of salt per liter of water. After bringing the brine to a boil, crushed garlic is added, then peppercorns and black pepper powder, thyme, and bay leaves. The fatback is set into a barrel or a large pot, then covered in the cold brine, and left for about three weeks. Then it is sent to get smoked.



    In certain areas of Transylvania, people salt the fatback using brine in which sauerkraut was made, which has a distinctive flavor and salty tangy taste. They add peppercorns and bay leaves to the brine. They first boil the fatback until a fork can be pushed into it easily, then they press it. After draining it, it is covered in a garlic paste, then sprinkled with paprika, sometimes mixed with chili powder. It is then kept in a dry, cool place.



    Before refrigerators, people used a room, sometimes a dedicated one, for hanging out their preserved pork products. In Medieval Saxon villages in Transylvania, the fatback was kept in rooms set aside in defense towers. Almost every fortified church in Transylvania has a fatback tower, which is actually called just that. Every family had its own set of hooks for hanging out their fatback. You could only go in there on Sundays, because the temperature was kept low by blocks of ice covered in straw, brought in during the winter months.



    No matter how you prepare it, you can eat the fatback as is, sliced thin, alongside other entrees, preferably with red onion or cloves of raw garlic, as the people in villages traditionally do when they go work in the field. Also, smoked fatback is essential to many other dishes, because it is the main method of lending a smoky flavor to cooked dishes. One of them is the famous ‘sarmale, of which we speak often in this feature. In some areas of Romania, it is even used to give a smoky taste to meat and vegetable soups, usually thick concoctions eaten in the cold months of winter. One other popular preparation is the so-called ‘spiked roast pork. The hunk of meat is stuck with the tip of a knife, and in the cuts people put cloves of garlic and slices of smoked fatback, which gives it a unique flavor. In any case, there is nothing like the taste of smoked and salted fatback.



    Enjoy!

  • Preparations from Moldavia

    Preparations from Moldavia

    In this edition of the cooking show we present you with preparations specific to the eastern region of Moldavia, which has its specificities, some of them famous all over the country. Moldavia is also famous for its vineyards, which yield some of the most appreciated wines in Romania.



    That being said, let us see some dishes typical of this region. For instance, one popular breakfast with farmers is fried eggs with fatback crackle and grated cheese. Lunch typically consists of potato or bean stew, baked sauerkraut, bean soup, or giblet soup, made with plenty of carrot, onion, rice and parsley, as well as plenty of fermented wheat bran.



    We would like to present next a typical dish for the region, which has a name derived from the word quiche, but has little to do with the preparation of that name. It is more like a sausage, the casing being the lower intestine of the pig. To make it, you need about 2 kg of ground meat. Boil a cup of rice separately. Chop up a couple of onions and sweat them in oil. Mix together the ground meat, the onion and the rice. For the casing, take pig intestine, which needs to be cleaned thoroughly, first by rubbing it well with cornmeal, then washing it several times. Fill the intestine with the meat mixture. Tie both ends, then prick it along its length from place to place. Now you can cook it, by simmering it with a few bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme, a few peppercorns, some coriander and some allspice. Let it cool, slice it up, and serve as a cold cut.



    Another preparation typical of Moldavia are meat patties. They are roughly the size of a hamburger, and are made with pork, beef, or both. The mixture also contains soaked stale bread, chopped onion, a couple of eggs, dill, salt and pepper. After kneading well, douse them in flour, then soak them in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs, and fry them in vegetable oil.



    A 19th century recipe for upper class households recommends that the stale bread be soaked in milk. It also recommends for the beaten egg mixture to include bone marrow and lemon rind, as well as parsley. This is optional, but should lend a special flavor to the end result. A white wine goes well with the patties.


    Enjoy!