Cozonac

"Classic Romania Christmas and Easter cake, stuffed with walnut, Turkish Delight or raisins"

One of the things that most Romanians associate closely with Christmas is ‘cozonac’, a sweet eggy cake or bread which has various fillings running through it. It somewhat resembles a brioche in texture (when made well and fresh). The filling that I’ve most commonly encountered in Romania is a cocoa-walnut paste, but you frequently find it with other things, such as raisins and ‘rahat’ (Turkish Delight/Lokum) or even candied fruits.

Ideally, I’d be baking it in my wood-burning oven in the countryside, but, due to the pandemic and social distancing, it’s really not worth my firing it up to bake 20 cozonac when there is nobody to share them with, and besides, it’s probably more useful to experiment in the regular oven as that's what most people will be using. So, fingers crossed, here goes my first ever attempt at making a Romanian cozonac!

Time: 30 minutes working time, 90 minutes proving, 45 minutes baking

Servings: two to three cakes

Ingredients:

For the dough:

500g of warm milk, as fatty as possible
200g of sugar (brown or white)
100g of melted butter
100ml sunflower/vegetable oil
5 egg yolks, beaten
2 cubes of fresh yeast (about 50g)
1kg of good plain white flour
1 vial of vanilla essence (optional)
Zest of one lemon

Walnut filling for one cozonac (dough above makes 2-3 cozonac):

250g of walnuts, ground (coarsely or finely, according to preference)
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
3 tablespoons of icing sugar (I found it quite bitter so put more if you like a sweeter cake)

Other/additional fillings:

200g of Turkish Delight/candied fruits
200g of raisins

For glazing:

One egg yolk
A splash of milk
A little sugar
Poppy seeds (optional)

PRO TIP: make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature before starting.

Method:

1.       First of all we need to make the yeast starter. Crumble up the two cubes of fresh yeast into a small bowl, add a heaped tablespoon of the flour and a teaspoon of the sugar and pour on four or five tablespoons of the warm milk and beat into a smooth paste. Leave it in a warm place for 15-20 minutes and you should see it start to swell and bubble a little, meaning the yeast is good and has become active.

2.       Pour the rest of the warm milk into a bowl, add the 200g of sugar (can be white or brown, according to taste) and stir until dissolved. 

3.       Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast starter, which should have shown signs of activity by now. Add the grated lemon zest and the five beaten egg yolks. Add about half of the milk/sugar mix to the flour and start to mix them together. Continue added the milk and mixing until you get a fairly consistent but sticky mixture. The dough for cozonac should be quite a sticky one, not as firm as, for example, bread dough.

4.       Once it is well combined (only takes a couple of minutes) you can start to add the melted butter (100g) and oil (100ml). If you want a more luscious texture, you can use just 200g of melted butter, particularly if you haven’t used very fatty milk. Whatever combination you use, add a little, knead, add more, knead, and so on till it has all been combined. At this point you can sprinkle on the vanilla essence too if using it.

5.       Next comes the hard work – the kneading. Go at it hard, stretch it, punch it, pull it, throw it – really work at it. And you need to do this for 10-15 minutes until you achieve an elastic texture. You could use a machine if you don’t feel like the work out. Once done, cover with a clean towel and leave in a warm spot to prove for about an hour, or however long it takes to roughly double in volume.

6.       While it’s proving, you can prepare the fillings. Put the ground walnuts into a bowl, mix in the cocoa powder and the icing sugar, and then add a splash of milk and start to beat the mixture into a paste, something like the consistency of peanut butter – not too liquid but spreadable. Set aside. NOTE: The quantities for the walnut mix are enough for ONE of the two cozonacs. I chose to make one with walnuts, and one with raisins and Turkish delight. If you want walnut paste in both, then double the quantities.

7.       [See ‘observations’ below before starting this part] When the dough has risen sufficiently, prepare a workspace by oiling or flouring it. Cut the dough into two equal parts, take one of the halves and with your hand spread it out into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Spread some of the walnut/cocoa paste over the dough, keeping a few centimetres back from the edges, and then, if you like, you can sprinkle on some raisins and/or some Turkish delight cubes (as much or as little as you like). Repeat with the second half, using whatever filling you fancy.

8.       Roll up the dough, starting from the longest edge, and put into a long narrow loaf tin (lined with baking paper) with the join at the bottom. Leave it in a warm place to rise until level with the top of the tin or slightly proud. Once they have risen well, brush the top with a mixture of egg yolk and milk and sprinkle with sugar and/or poppy seeds if you wish.

9.       Pre-heat the oven to a medium heat, around 180 Celsius (360F) and bake the cozonac for about 40-45 minutes. Do NOT open the door for the first 20 minutes but after that you can check on it from time to time to make sure you don’t overcook it. I checked it by sliding a knife into the middle and seeing if it came out sticky – if so, then the centre is still raw and needs more time.

10.   When cooked through, remove, de-tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Observations: 

This was my first time cooking cozonac although I’ve got quite a lot of experience eating it, especially home-cooked versions from the countryside. My attempt, well, it was ok for a first go, I suppose.

On the positive side, the cozonac was light, fluffy and delicate, but perhaps needed a little more sweetness, especially the one with the walnuts. The walnut paste was a little bitter (fine if you’re a black chocolate lover) but next time I think I will increase the sweetness of the walnut paste.

The one mistake I made was not using big enough loaf tins. Mine were 25cm long and two portions of dough was too much for them meaning that they puffed up too much and the extra cooking time (maybe an hour in total) left the inside perfect, but the crust was a little burnt and bitter. For the Turkish Delight one, I reduced the amount of dough and it came out a lot better – cooked inside and golden brown on the outside. So, I would recommend the above quantities for three 25cm tins or two if they are the longer ones (I’ve seen some around 35cm which would probably be ideal).

Good luck and pofta buna!!

Lichiu sau Hanklich

"Saxon style bread-base and sweet dairy topping dessert" 

'Lichiu' (pronouned 'licky-oo') or 'Hanklich' in German is a dessert most Romanians from Transylvania will be familiar with. Typically attributed to the cuisine of the Saxons of Transylvania, this dessert or pie is made up of a bread base, something like a thick pizza base in a way, which is then topped with a sweet creamy mixture and baked - ideally in a wood-fired oven. It is mostly something cooked at home, particular at times of the year when there is a surplus of eggs (my countryside neighbours frequently cook it around Easter time), and the recipe varies considerably from household to household.

The picture on the left shows the lichiu made by my neighbours in the countryside, freshly removed from the wood-fired oven, out of the tins, and cooling down ready to be sliced. As you can see, when they make it, they make a lot (it's hard worth firing up the wood oven unless you plan to do a big bake). Alongside this, they also baked bread, cozonac (a kind of traditional cake) and a few other goodies. In the end I think they made 12 tins of lichiu!

I have seen it on rare occasions in restaurants - a pizza place I visited once advertised it on the menu and out of curiosity I ordered it. It was basically a pizza base with the vaguely lichiu-like topping but with plums added. So if you want to try something less commonly known from the Romanian countryside, why not put on your baking hat and try some lichiu. 

Time: A couple of hours of prep and baking, depending on the oven 

Serving: 8-10 slices 

Ingredients: 

For the base dough:

350g of white flour 

25g cube of fresh yeast (or a teaspoon of dried) 

2 egg yolks (save the whites for the topping) 

Zest of one lemon 

3 tablespoons of sugar 

50ml of oil (vegetable is fine) 

1 teaspoon of salt Warm milk (have about 

250ml to hand, but you'll add it as needed) 

For the topping: 

1 litre of milk 

1 cup of 'gris' (this is semolina flour) 

Sugar to taste 

1/2 a teaspoon of salt 

6 egg whites 

4 egg yolks 

100g of butter 

350g of heavy cream 

2 small packets of vanilla (or equivalent in essence if preferred) 

Method: 

1. First of all, you should prepare the dough. Firstly, prepare a yeast starter by mixing together the yeast, one tablespoon of the sugar, one tablespoon of the flour and about 100ml of the warm milk (make sure it's not too hot or it'll kill the yeast). Mix these together well and leave in a warm place. In about 10-15 minutes, you should see it start to froth and smell 'yeasty', this means it's activated and ready to use. 

2. Once it's ready, put the rest of the flour in a large bowl (or on a surface if so inclined) and make a well in the middle. Into the well add the prepared yeast starter and the two egg yolks and the salt. Start to combined them (eggs, starter, salt) and then add the rest of the warm milk, the rest of the sugar, the zest. Start to draw in the flour and bring it all together to make a dough, adding the oil little by little once a dough it formed. Keep keep kneading the dough until it becomes more 'elastic' and stops sticking to your hands. 

3. When you feel the dough is ready (this is something bread or pasta makers amongst you will 'feel', otherwise, just kneed it until well combined and no longer 'sticky'), rub a little oil on the ball of dough, put it in a large bowl, cover, and leave in a warm place to rise to about double its original size. 

4. Meanwhile, make a thick semolina by boiling the semolina flour in the milk. Add sugar according to taste (I've had lichiu that's very sweet and other times almost savoury, but it is a dessert and I think it tastes better on the sweeter side). Leave the mixture too cool. 

5. Beat the egg whites until they start to make peaks, then fold it in gradually into the semolina, which should be luke warm. 

6. Separately, blend the four egg yolks with the butter, add the vanilla flavouring, and then gradually mix in the heavy cream. 

7. Finally, once the dough has risen, roll it out to about 3-4mm. You can use a shallow baking tray here, or maybe even a pie dish, whatever you have to hand. Traditionally they trays are greased but unlined, but feel free to use baking paper if you prefer. Lay the rolled-out dough in the tray and adjust it to go right to the edges. Pour the semolina mixture onto the dough base, then spread the cream mixture on top of that, making sure to spread it out evenly. 

8. Bake the lichiu for about 40-45 minutes (keep an eye on it) until it is gold brown on top. If using a conventional oven, pre-heat it to about 180 Celsius. 

 Pofta buna and let me know how yours turned out!

Gogosi

"Traditional Romanian doughnuts"

These little puffy balls of delight are a typical home-cooked treat. The kind of thing mothers make to feed the family, and the neighbour's family, and visitors, and anyone who happens to be in the area. While they take some time to make, the are wonderful fresh and warm and can be eaten as they are, or stuffed with jam or chocolate spread.

You sometimes see them in the markets, although they might have different names or shapes, such as their bigger, flatter cousin, the "langosi" (which are often sold with sour cream or even savoury cheese). You sometimes see shops selling them as 'gogosi infuriate', which translates as 'infuriated gogosi', I suppose because they are cooked in boiled oil.

Time:3 hours

Servings: about 60 gogosi

Ingredients:

1kg of plain white flour
1 teaspoon of salt
400ml of milk
1 egg
2 small packets of vanilla-flavoured sugar (8g each)*
1 teaspoon of grated lemon rind
200g sugar
100ml of oil (sunflower) or melted butter
Fresh yeast ('a chuck the size of a large walnut' - probably about 35g)
More oil for deep frying
Icing sugar for dusting

*This is a common ingredient in Romanian shops, but if you can't find it where you are, just add a couple more teaspoons of sugar and perhaps a few drops of vanilla essence.

Method:

1. Prepare the yeast starter by mixing 3 tablespoons of milk, the yeast, a teaspoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of flour in a bowl (better if the milk isn't too cold) and leaving it in a warm place. You should quickly see a froth forming on the top, which lets you know the yeast is good and activated.
2. In the meantime, gently warm up the rest of the milk, add the rest of the sugar, the teaspoon of salt, the two packets of vanilla-flavoured sugar, the lemon rind, and mix until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Into a large mixing bowl, put the rest of the flour, break an egg into a well in the middle of the flour, add the yeast mixture from step 1 and the milk mixture from step 2 and incorporate the flour into the liquid slowly until a dough starts to form.
4. Knead the resulting dough until it starts to become more consistent in texture and de-sticks more easily from your hands and the bowl.
5. Step by step mix in the oil or butter and knead into the dough mixture. It should be less sticky now and easier to work.
6. Sprinkle a little flour on the dough ball and put, covered, in a warm spot and leave it to prove for a couple of hours, until it has doubled in size.
7. Put about 4cm of cooking oil in a pan and bring to a high temperature.
8. While it heats up, take a handful of the mixture, and on a floured board with a rolling pin (maybe also sprinkled with flour to prevent sticking) roll it out until it's about 3-4mm thick. Take a drinking glass, dip it in flour, and use it to cut out some rounds of the rolled out dough. Collect up the remaining parts, form into a ball, roll out again, and so on until all the dough is used up. The rest of the dough should remain in the bowl, covered, until you have fried the first batch.
9. In batches of two or three (depending on the size of the pan), fry the dough rounds for a couple of minutes, turning once if necessary or making sure the oil covers them well, until they've puffed up and turned golden. Remove them with a slotted spoon, shake off the excess oil, and drop them into large bowl in which you have put the icing sugar and shake them around to coat them well. Remove them and put them on a large serving tray.
10. Repeat step 8 and 9 with the rest of the dough, a handful at a time, leaving the rest covered in the bowl, until you've used up all the dough.
11. Eat and enjoy!

Mucenici moldovenesti

“Walnut-coated pastries”

Every year on the 9^th of March, Romanians celebrate a tradition that evolved from the story of the forty martyrs of Sebaste, which is now in present-day Turkey. The forty were Roman soldiers in the year 320 who were openly Christian and they were left out in the cold to freeze to death or recant their Christianity. The celebration of the forty martyrs commonly kick-starts the agricultural year and is a day when traditional Romanian smallholders clean up with households and courtyards and burn all the rubbish.

These sweet pastries, typically in the form of a figure eight (said to represent the human body), are made and eaten around the country on the 9^th of March, although their form differs from region to region. Moldavian ‘mucenici’ are larger and coated in nuts and honey, whilst their Dobrogean counterparts are smaller and boiled in water, sugar, walnuts and cinnamon.

I had only eaten them once before, and those were ones from a shop and a bit bready and dry, but I was very pleased with how these ones turned out – soft and fluffy inside, with a slight crispiness to the exterior, and of course the crunch of the nuts and sticky goodness of the syrup.

Time: 4 hours including proving periods
Servings: 20 pastries (normally you would make 40, one for each martyr, but depends on how many of you there are, or how greedy you are!)

Ingredients:

For the dough:
550g of plain white flour
125ml of warm water
125ml of warm milk
150g caster sugar
1 egg
90g of butter, softened and cubed
20g of fresh yeast, or one instant yeast packet
1 level teaspoon of salt

For finishing:
100g of shelled walnuts
150g caster sugar
300ml water
1 packet of vanilla sugar or a few drops of vanilla essence (optional)
2ml of rum essence (optional)
The zest of one lemon (optional)
One egg yolk
50ml of milk

Method:

1. Make a yeast starter by dissolving the yeast in the warm water with a teaspoon of the sugar. Mix well and leave for about 10 minutes still it starts to froth up. This basically kick starts the proving process and also lets you know the yeast isn't a dud.
2. In a large mixing bowl, weigh out the flour, sugar and salt and stir to combine. Make a well in the middle and add the egg, warm milk, butter, and the yeast starter. Beat the liquid ingredients to combine and start drawing in the flour. Once it gets less gooey, use your hands to mix it into a dough ball. Knead this dough for a few more minutes and if it feels very sticky, add a little more flour. Sometimes at the beginning it will seem dry until the ingredients are well combined, so avoid the temptation to add more liquid until you've been mixing it for a good five minutes. Mine went from dry to very sticky over the first couple of minutes, so I added another handful of flour to get it to a nice silky, slightly tacky consistency after about 10 minutes of kneading. You can, of course, do all this in a bread mixture if you have one of those.
3. Once it has been well kneaded, is smooth and silky, and doesn't leave your hands sticky any more  cover the bowl and leave in a warm place for about an hour to prove. In the meantime, you can get on with the next three steps.
4. Crush the walnuts with a pestle and mortar until you get a course breadcrumby mixture. You can use a blender for this, but make sure you don’t over-blitz it and end up with a powder.
5. In a saucepan, bring 300ml of water to the boil, add 150g sugar and the essences and boil until you get a syrupy consistency (not too stiff, but something like olive oil). Once you've got a syrup, leave to cool a bit and add the lemon zest if using. I read some older recipes and they use neither the essences nor the lemon zest, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide what you want to add. I added the essences, but not the lemon, but only because what I thought was a lemon when I briefly glanced in the fridge before going shopping actually turned out to be a very yellow and lemon-shaped quince!
6. Finally mix together one egg yolk and 50ml of milk and set to one side. You’ll use this for brushing the buns before baking them.
7. Once the dough has had its hour of proving, knock it back into a ball and divide it into 20 equally-sized balls. Take a ball, roll it into a snake about 50cm long, fold it in half and plait it. Then form this plaited length of dough into a figure-eight shape by joining the ends and twisting. Then place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Repeat for the other 19 balls. You might need to bake them in two batches depending on the size of your oven. Anyway, leave a little space between them as you arrange them on the tray.
8. Leave the tray of uncooked mucenici in a warm place for an hour to rise.
9. Brush the mucenici with the egg yolk and milk mixture and put them into a pre-heated oven (180-190C) until golden (mine took about 35 minutes).
10. Once they’re done, take them out and brush them with the syrup you prepared earlier (or you can dunk them instead of brushing them) and then sprinkle the crushed walnuts on top. Some people also drizzle or brush them with honey before sprinkling on the nuts.
11. Eat warm or cold. They keep well for a couple of days in the fridge.

Pasca (cu branza de vaci)

"Easter cake (with sweet cow’s cheese)"

This traditional sweet cheese-filled Easter cake is usually made either on Great Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) or, these days, on the Saturday before Easter Sunday so that it’s fresher on the day. The filling is made with fresh cow’s cheese, something like a dry cottage cheese, which is sweetened with sugar and spotted with raisins or sultanas. There are other versions that use cream or milk for the filling, which can also be flavoured with rum, walnuts, cinnamon or other spices. It’s usually eaten as a dessert with the Easter meal or, if people intend to have cozonac for dessert, as a snack during the day. Personally, I don’t think you can beat eating it straight out of the oven - ok, maybe give it a quarter of an hour to cool a little first! Pasca takes a long time to make so make sure you have plenty of time and patience. Nowadays you see many other recipes using more filling and a thinner, more easily-prepared base, but a traditional pasca is more like a stuffed bread than a flan.

Time: 5-6 hours (including preparation, proving, and baking)

Servings: 6-8 slices

Ingredients:

For the dough:

500g of plain flour

200ml of milk

A pinch of salt

1 packet of dry active yeast

200g of caster sugar

3 eggs

100g of butter, melted

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

For the filling:

500g of fresh cow’s cheese

30g of butter, melted

2 egg, separated

120g of caster sugar

2 tablespoons of sour cream (or thick cream)

Grated zest of one lemon

2 packets of vanilla sugar powder (or use fresh vanilla and add about 15g more sugar)

1 tablespoon of semolina flour

1 tablespoon of plain flour

80g of raisins

A pinch of salt

Method:

Preparing the yeast starter

1. Warm a little milk, about 50ml, pour it into a coffee cup or glass, and dissolve the yeast in it with a couple of pinches of sugar and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes or so. If the yeast is active it’ll start to foam up on top*.

2. Bring the rest of the milk (150ml) to the simmer in a pan and just before it starts to boil stir in 3 tablespoons on the plain flour and keep stirring until the flour has dissolved.

3. Pour the milk/flour mixture into a bowl and leave the milk to cool, and once it has cooled, mix in the hopefully now frothing yeast and milk mixture. Cover the pan with a damp cloth or a loose piece of foil and leave in a warm place until it starts to rise to double its original size, probably about 45 minutes.

*If nothing happens then it might be a dud batch of yeast – just redo this step with a new packet.

Preparing the dough

4. Separate the egg whites and yolks into two bowls. Beat the yolks with a pinch of salt and step by step mix in the 200g of sugar until you get a smooth pale yellow creamy mixture. Beat the egg whites until fluffy.

5. Pour the rest of the flour into a large mixing bowl, make a well in the centre, and add the yeast starter, the yolk mixture, the egg whites, and mix well. Following this, add the oil and the melted butter and mix.

6. Knead the dough for about 20-30 minutes (this is where a spare pair of hands or a mixer comes in handy) and when you have a well-combined dough, which should be more on the soft side, put it into a bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and leave in a warm place for an hour to rise. You really need to knead it quite aggressively, apparently, beating it more than massaging it, and stretching it out and throwing it back down on the table. This seems to be the trick for getting a nice fluffy end result rather than one that’s rather stodgy in consistency.

Preparing the cake

7. Once the dough has risen to double its original size (about an hour or so) then you can prepare the pasca by buttering a round deepish cake tin; of about 4-5cm depth and of a diameter of around 20-25cm.

8. Break off about half of the dough and roll it out to the size of the cake tin and about 1cm in thickness. Lay this in the baking tray.

9. Break the remaining dough into three* equal parts and roll each one into a snake about 80cm long. These can then be braided together and arranged around the inside edge of the cake tin, on top of the previously positioned layer of dough.

10. Leave the prepared cake tin and dough covered in a warm place to rise again, for an hour or so.

*You might also break it into four parts, keeping the fourth for decorating the top of the cake (after adding the filling) with other traditional motifs, such as a cross.

Preparing the filling

11. Prepare the filling by first squeezing any excess liquid out of the cow’s cheese. If it’s not completely dry, you might end up with a soggy filling which won’t stick to the bread casing. Then, mix the cow’s cheese together with the egg yolks, melted butter, cream, icing sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest and a pinch of salt.

12. Once these are well combined, beat the egg whites until fluffy and add them, along with the two types of flour. Stir in the raisins but keep a few to one side for sprinkling on top.

13. Put the filling into the centre of the dough-lined cake tin (after it has finished proving) and spread it out to the side in an even layer. Sprinkle the rest of the raisins on top.

Cooking the cake

14. You can beat another egg together and brush the pasty with this, pouring the remaining egg over the top of the cheese mixture to give it some colour.

15. Put the assembled cake into a preheated over (moderate heat – 180-190C/350-360F) and cook until the dough has puffed up nicely and turned a golden brown colour, approximately 50-60 minutes, depending on the oven. Check it regularly so as not to let it burn.

16. Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes and then remove it from the cake tin and serve warm or keep well wrapped up for the next day.

My first attempt turned out pretty well. It was a lot of hard work, but the bread mixture (I was told) was very authentic, light, and fluffy, but maybe could have done with an extra five minutes in the oven. Perhaps the braiding was a little too large and the base a little thin, next time I might try using about two-thirds of the dough for the base and making the braiding more delicate as by the time it had proved and puffed up in the oven it had virtually covered the filling. The filling was tasty and light, but because I had forgotten to squeeze the cheese thoroughly before making the filling, there was a little too much moisture in there with meant it didn't bond to the bread casing completely. It tasted good though!

Mancare dulce de morcovi – din 1841

“A sweet carrot dish – from 1841”

Whilst translating an article on the history of Romanian food for this blog, I came across the mention of one of the first books on Romanian cooking: 200 Retete Cercate de Bucate, Prajituri si Alte Gospodaresti (200 Tried and Test Recipes for Dish, Pastries, and Other Household Things). I’ve always been interested in food history and how it reflects the changing fortunes and attitudes of a culture, and so I immediately resolved to start trying some of the recipes. The book itself was written in 1841 by Mihai Kogalniceanu (a politician from Iasi who would later on become one of Romania’s first prime ministers) and Constantin Negruzzi (another politician and writer). So far, so good; but from here on it became a little trickier.

I managed to find a facsimile of the second edition of their cookbook on the internet, but it was printed using the Cyrillic alphabet, although it was actually in Romanian. Fortunately, it has been a popular book and there have been many editions since it first appeared a century and a half ago, so I didn’t have much problem finding the recipes written in the modern Romanian alphabet. One of the first recipes to catch my eye was the sweet carrot dish. I do enjoy carrots and I’ve always thought they benefit from a little sweetness or glazing when cooking (rather than the boiled-to-death carrots that used to be such common fare in the UK in the past – anyone remember school dinners?). One of my favourite ways of cooking then is to boil them down, covered in a pan, with a good knob of butter and a little sugar or honey. I thought this recipe looked something along those line, so I decided to give it a go. Here’s the recipe as it appears in ‘200 Retete’:

Sa iai una litra si jumatate de morcovi taiati lungareti si subtiri. Sa li se deie mai intai un clocot si sa se scurga bine de apa,apoi sa se puie intr-o alta tingire curata, cu o litra de zahar sfarmat si sa se toarne deasupra apa clocotita pana ie va acoperi peste tot. Dupa ce va scade apa pe jumatate, sa se puie coaja de alamaie cat se va socoti de trebuinta si, dupa ce va mai scade, incat sa ramaie ca patru linguri de apa numai, sa se stoarca zama de la doua alamai. Asa, fiind gata, sa se aseze pe farfurii si sa se deie fierbinte la masa.

As any Romanians reading this will notice, the language used is a little archaic. I read Romanian pretty well but I still had to reach for the dictionary (or rather my bookmark for DEX) a number of times in order to translate it, and I’m still not convinced I’ve got it completely right. Feel free to jump in and offer up any corrections. Here’s what I came up with:

Take 480g of carrots, chopped long and thin. First of all boil them and drain, then put them in a clean pot, with 320g of granulated sugar and then cover them with boiling water. After the water has reduced by half, add some lemon zest, as much as is needed, and, after it has reduced some more, such that there remains only four tablespoons of water, squeeze in the juice of two lemons. So, being ready, put them onto plates and serve them hot on the table.

One noticeable point is the measurements. The original calls for a ‘litra si jumatate’ of carrots. According to the DEX, a ‘litra’ is an old measurement which is about 320g in modern reckoning. So the first thing that surprised me was the quantity of sugar. 320g seemed rather a lot. That’s a lot more than just a glaze. Had I mistaken the purpose of this recipe? It’s starting to read more like some kind of carrot jam now!

A few other things also needed clarifying, namely the quantity of lemon zest. How exactly do you decide what is ‘as much as is needed’ when you don’t know what the dish is or what it should eventually taste like? In the end I plumped for the zest of the two lemons that I would go on to squeeze for the juice, as that seemed more practical.

So, in the end, I came up with the follow modern recipe, being as faithful as possible to the original:

Servings: 3-4

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

480g of carrots

320g of sugar

The zest of two lemons

The juice of two lemons

Boiling water

Method:

1. Peel, top and tail the carrots and cut them into long thin pieces. I'm not sure exactly how long and thin the recipe wants them, whether they should be julienned like matchsticks or be a little chunkier. I went with a little chunkier, about 5mm square and 4-5cm long.

2. Put them in a pan, cover with water, and bring them to the boil before draining them well. Get some more boiling water going in the kettle/pot ready for step 3.

3. Put them back into a clean pan (or the same pan as it shouldn't particularly be dirty), add the sugar, and then pour over enough boiling water to cover them. Stir a little until the sugar dissolves.

4. Keep it on the boil until the water has reduced by half (be careful not to let the carrots on the bottom burn, give it a stir from time to time) at which point you add the lemon zest - 'as much as you need'.

5. Continue to reduce the liquid until there are about four tablespoons of it left. At this point, take it off the heat, add the lemon juice*, stir, and serve hot. The total reduction process took me about 30 minutes.

*I found that the juice of two lemons totally swamped the carrots and left a lot of juice in the bottom of the pan. I’m not sure how you’re supposed to serve this dish, but I lifted out the carrots with a slotted spoon onto a serving plate, and then spooned on 4-5 tablespoons of the juice that had been left in the pan.

So, you’re probably asking if you’ve bothered to read this far, what did it actually taste like? Well, to be honest, I still don’t know exactly what to make of it. Actually, I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth, and I didn’t find it too sweet, despite the quantity of sugar. I think that’s why such a large amount of lemon juice is needed – to balance out the sweetness. The carrots were lightly caramelised, sticky, with a touch of acidity from the juice, and the zest coming through in places with a more lemony note.

I have to be honest, after trying the dish I still don’t quite know what to make of it. I liked it, I can say that, but I’m not sure whether to let it cool down and spread it on my toast in the morning or serve it with some lamb. It was suggested that this was a kind of 'fake' marmalade for when Seville oranges aren't available, which presumably they weren't in Romania, but if that's the case, why would it suggest serving it hot and on plates, more like a vegetable accompaniment? If anyone out there knows how this dish was originally served, please let me know!

Placinta cu mere

"Apple pie"

Not quite a pie (as we'd understand it in the UK), not quite a strudel, not really a pastry, but georgeous all the same.  This dish can be made in advance and keeps well for a day or two. It can also be gently reheated to be served as a dessert with ice cream or custard, but more often it is eaten as a snack between meals or bought from the patiserie to eat on the way to work or on a break. This pie is also suitable for 'post', the period of fasting common in orthodoxy when it is forbidden to eat dairy and meat products.

Time: About an hour and a half to two hours
Servings: About 10 pieces

Ingredients:

For the dough:
450g of plain flour
260g of caster sugar
125ml of sparkling water
150ml of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of vinegar (white, not malt)
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

For the filling:
1 kg of peeled, cored apples (get about 1.3kg pre-peeling)
200g of caster sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 heaped teaspoon of cinammon

Plus:
Some icing sugar for dusting
A knob of butter or a little vegetable oil for greasing the tray

Method:
1. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and mix in the 260g of sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the vinegar and then add the vegetable oil and the sparkling water and combine.
3. Pour the liquid componants into the flour and sugar mixture and stir until starting to combine, then, using your hand, mix it until it starts to come together into a ball. If it is a little dry after a few minutes of mixing, add a splash more water - likewise, if a little sticky, add some more flour.
4. Turn the ball out onto a lightly-floured work surface and knead for about ten minutes until the dough becomes smooth and no longer crumbles at the edges. The dough will be very soft rather than elastic.
5. Form it back into a ball and cut into two equal halves.
6. Take a baking tray that is about 25cm square (or rectangular, or round, but around the same surface area) and about 4cm deep. Cut a piece of baking paper to about 1 cm larger than the tray and using this piece of paper as a guide, roll the first of the halves of dough out on top of the paper until it almost reaches the edge.
7. Grease the baking tray well with butter or oil (to keep the recipe 100% vegan/post) and then transfer the sheet of dough to it using the baking paper. As the dough is very delicate, it's much easier to move it with the paper rather than trying to do it by hand. Keep the paper for later when you roll out the second half of the dough.
8. Put the lined baking tray to one side, or even in the fridge, whilst you prepare the filling. Now's probably a good time to start preheating the oven (cc. 200C).
9. Peel and chop the apples, removing the seeds and cores. If you like the filling to be more like an apple paste, you can grate the apples, otherwise you can chop them into small cubes for a slightly 'chunky' end result.
10. Put the apples into a saucepan with the 200g of sugar and set on a medium heat until the juices start to be extracted from the fruit and the sugar starts to dissolve. At this point you can add the lemon juice and the cinammon. Stir from time to time to prevent burning on the bottom.
11. Continue to cook it over the same heat until the extracted juices evaporate (probably about 20-30 minutes) leaving the apple in a thick gloopy syrup. Remove from the heat and allow to cool down a bit.
12. When the apple is a little cooler, you can pour it into the prepared baking tray on top of the pastry lining, spreading it into one even layer.
13. Prepare the second layer of dough in the same way as the first, and again using the paper to transfer it, lay it on top of the apple, trimming the overhanging part from around the edge of the tray.
14. Put the tray into the preheated over and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes until the top is golden brown (but not burnt!). I have a gas oven which tends to burn the bottom of things before the top is done, so I usually place some thick ceramic tiles on the bottom shelf to balance out the heat.
15. Once it's cooked, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for about a quarter of an hour, dust it with icing sugar, and then cut it into squares (or whatever shape you prefer!).
16. Serve warm or cold.

Prajitura cu crema de caramel

"Caramel cream pastry"

This recipe was given to me by a friend from Transylvania. It's quite a long recipe with a lot of potential pitfalls, so you should make it long before you want to serve it. There is also quite a lot of kneading and beat and stirring involved, so it doesn't hurt the have some help (either another pair of hands or a mixer). It often tastes better the next day when the filling has softened the pastry sheets.

If you have a small oven or a small baking tray then you'll probably end up with a lot of trimmings. Don't throw these away; roll them up in a ball together, roll them out to about a 5mm thickness and cut into rounds with a cookie cutter. The resulting biscuits are a little dry, but are great for dunking in tea.

Ingredients
For the dough:
500g of plain flour
60g of butter
3 tablespoons of honey
150g of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons of milk
Zest of half a lemon
2 fresh eggs

For the cream filling:
One cup of caster sugar
80ml of black coffee
1/2 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of flour
250g of butter
100g of icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Method
For the sheets:
1. Preheat the oven to about 180C. Line a large deep baking tray with baking parchment.
2. Put the honey, butter, and sugar into a pan and very gently heat, stirring frequently, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Take it off the heat.
3. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the two tablespoons of milk.
4. Sieve the 500g of plain flour into a large mixing bowl (or do it on the work surface if you prefer) and add the butter/sugar/honey mixture, the milk/bicarb solution, and the two eggs. Sprinkle on the lemon zest and mix until it all comes together into a ball.
5. Turn the ball out onto a floured work surface and knead for a good few minutes until the dough becomes smooth and a little shiny and slightly elastic (it'll probably require about 5-6 minutes of kneading).
6. Divide the dough into four equal pieces and roll them out until they are about 1mm thick
7. Lay the first sheet in the baking tray and trim off any overhanging pieces.
8. Put the tray in the oven and bake until the pastry sheet is golden brown (probably around 10 minutes but keep an eye on them as they can burn quickly).
9. While the first sheet is baking, roll out the second sheet.
10. Remove the first sheet and put to one side to cool. Then put the second sheet in the oven.
11. Repeat stages 7-10 until all four sheets are baked.

For the filling:
1. Put the sugar into a pan and heat on a medium heat until it liquefies and starts to caramelize, being careful not to burn it or it will taste bitter.
2. Once it has liquefied, pour in the coffee slowly, stirring constantly, until well mixed and take it off the heat.
3. Separately, mix the milk and the flour in a cup and slowly add, stirring constantly, to the sugar mixture and keep stirring until it is well combined and thickened somewhat.
4. In another bowl, beat the butter and the icing sugar together, and then add the vanilla essence.
5. Bit by bit, add the caramel mixture to the butter mixture, stirring vigorously until it has all been combined.

Assembly:
Layer the cake with three layers of the caramel cream between the sheets of pastry and allow to rest for at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight. It can then be topped with a layer of whipped creams flecked with grated chocolate or walnut, or a dusting of cocoa - whatever you prefer. The cake is usually cut into small rectangles, each about 15mm x 40mm.

Galuste cu prune

"Plum dumplings"

I discovered these for the first time this year after a friend of mine mentioned having a yearning for them. Traditionally they would be eaten at the end of summer when the plums are havests (mostly for making plum brandy). They can be made at any time of year, supposing you can find the plums, but nothing beats making them with fresh juicy plums straight off your (or your neighbour's) plum tree, or some lovely local plums from the nearest market selling produce brought in by peasants from around Bucharest. Look for middle-sized but juicy plums - give them a squeeze and see if they give a little. If they are too hard they won't 'melt' during cooking and flavour the coat with their flavorsome juice.

I found several recipes for these, some of which contained a lot of butter and sugar, but the recipe I'm listing here is the 'healthy' version. It's not as sweet as the butter- and sugar-filled ones, but none the worse for it. You can sweeten them up with a big dollop of jam by the side, and a drizzle of cream wouldn't go amiss either.

Ingredients
400g of potatoes, peeled and chopped for boiling
100g of plain flour
1 teaspoon of oil
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of caster sugar
As many fresh plums as you need, halved with stones removed
Breadcrumbs (pesmet)
1 tablespoon of butter
Icing sugar (or fine regular sugar will do)

Method
1. Boiled the potatoes and mash them up, adding the flour, oil, caster sugar, and salt. Leave it to cool.
2. Knead it for a while to obtain a good smooth dough. This dough won't be like bread dough, it'll be softer.
3. Take a golf ball-sized lump of the dough, flatten it in your hand until it's about 1cm thick, place the stoned plum in the middle (the two halves back together again), and wrap the dough around it, shaping it into a ball with an approximately even covering of dough all around by gently rolling it between your palms.
4. Repeat this until you are either out of plums, or out of dough.
5. Drop your balls into a pan of hot salty water (ouch!). The water should be just on the point of boiling, but if the water is too hot it might break them apart, and you don't want that.
6. Cook them in the now simmering water for about 3-5 minutes. They should be floating; if there aren't, let them cook some more and give them a minute or two extra after they float to the top. It's better to cook them in batches if your pan is quite small.
7. Remove them, drain them.
8. While they are cooking, very gentle brown the breadcrumbs in a dry pan until it just changes colour. Be careful not to but them or they'll taste bitter. Once they are a nice golder colour (only takes a minute) stir in the rest of the sugar.
9. Roll the still hot and a little moist dumplings in the breadcrumb mixture until they are well coated.
10. Can be eaten cold, but best served immiately with a generous splot of your favourite jam and a little cream.