Romania

I was count..ing on a special guest to join us for dinner.   But he had a Bloody Mary and does not like to drink and fly.  I know sad but I could not resist.   Romania has a distinct cuisine with influences from its surrounding neighbours.   I have had Romanian cuisine before and found it pretty straight forward without the complexities of other cuisines.   The recipes I found online I was not too impressed with to be honest as they looked pretty authentic.  I crossed referenced them across a few sites and the basic theme with small variations in quantity or type of ingredient were the same.

The Menu

Ciorba De Perisoare (meatball soup)

 This soup turned out delicious and I would say was a great appetizer.  This tangy soup or more well known as sour soups was finished with lemon and some fresh creme fraise I had made a few days earlier.  It is well known that a soup appetizer in some ways cleanses the pallet for the main meal.   Just before serving I squeezed some fresh lemon juice on this and wow the flavours burst out and I think just a bowl of this soup on a cool day is wonderful with fresh bread.   However there is a caveat to all this is that the recipe if followed exactly would have produced an inferior product.   These are the little tricks of cooking that makes all the difference.  Instead of just adding tomato paste I caramelized with the vegetable base.  

Salata De Boeuf

This is a cold beef salad that is very traditional to Romania.  Its a rich salad usually made on festive occasions.   The first step was to use boiled beef which sounds rather bland so I decided to sear the beef and then boil it till tender.  I used the same liquid to boil the potatoes and the carrots.  Once cooled I diced up the beef, carrots, potatoes, pickles and added the peas.   Mayo and mustard with white and black pepper was all that was needed to complete the salad.  It was a nice salad but really just a potato salad.  But the real star was the broth I had inadvertently made with the boiled beef, potatoes and carrots which was used for part of the soup base above.

Mittei

Since the salad was supposed to be festive I found that Mittei was a sheesh kabob that was street food.  I thought it might contrast the Salata De Boeuf quite well so decided to give it a try.  I looked at dozens of recipes and they all were very similar on how to make this.  However while making this I knew I would regret it in a big way.   As I added the ingredients I commented to Victoria who always watches me cook while reading her books on this is not going to work.  I don't like it or the way these ingredients go together.  However I have been surprised before when following recipes and a few times I remember recipes that I thought would be complete failures turn out to be wows.  I had low expectations on this recipe and I was right it was my least favourite dish of the night to border line I don't like this.  However it did taste similar to the Romanian Mittei we had before at Carrassauga.   So the recipe was not off or the cooing style it simply was not to my liking.

Pandispan cu fructe

A berry cake that had a different preparation then normal cakes.   Whipped egg whites folded into the batter that made for an airy yet dense cake.   This cake was not overly sweet and reminded me more of a coffee cake then a dessert cake.  However I had run out of whipped cream and I believe that if I had this cake topped with whipped cream it would have elevated the cake quite a bit.  I did dust it with some cinnamon sugar to add a bit of sweetness.   However the impressive part of the evening was when Victoria mentioned to me that this would be good with devon cream.   She is learning and I think I am creating a mini foodie.

My sweetie looks tired here a mid meal snooze.