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.

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.