Category: Romanian cuisine

Lemon Cookies with Walnuts !

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

James Boswell
Lemon cookies with walnuts

Dough ingredients (for 18 cookies):
– 200g all-purpose flour
– 125g butter
– 90g sour cream
– 1 egg yolk
– lemon zest from half a lemon
– 5g vanilla sugar
– pinch of salt

Filling ingredients:
– 100g grated walnuts
– 1 egg white
– 75g cane sugar

Serving ingredients:
– some sugar powder for serving

Method:
1 Dough: combine all dough ingredients, mix until smooth and knead a dough
2 Filling: whisk egg white with sugar for 3-4 minutes, mix in grated walnuts
3 Cookies
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Roll out the dough to 3mm width
3.3 Cut 10cm diameter rounds with a cookie cutter
3.4 Put 3/4 tsp filling in each round
3.5 Enclose each round with fingers into the half-moon
3.6 Put the half-moons on the baking paper and bake for 20-25 minutes at 180C
3.7 Serve the cookies sprinkles with sugar powder and with a cup of strong black tea ! Enjoy !

Vareniki with Plums or Colțunași !

Iar când te văd zâmbind copilăreşte,
Se stinge-atunci o viaţă de durere,
Privirea-mi arde, sufletul îmi creşte.

Mihai Eminescu
Vareniki with Plums or Colțunași

Dough ingredients (all ingredients for 4 servings = ~30 Vareniki):
– 260g wheat flour
– 130ml water
– 30ml olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 15 middle plums
– 2 tbsp sugar

Serving ingredients:
– 200ml sour cream

Method:
1 Prepare dough:
1.1 Add olive oil in the middle of flour heap and mix oil with flour
1.2 Stir in boiled water into the oily flour and knead the dough
1.3 Let the dough rest for 15 minutes
1.4 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts with a knife. Form ~1.5cm diameter “sausage” out of each part with your hands
1.5 Cut each “sausage” into 1cm width pieces and roll out each piece into a ~5cm diameter round
2 Prepare the filling:
2.1 Wash and de-seed the plums. Separate the plums into halves.
2.2 Cut each plum half into ~6 thin slices
2.3 Combine plum slices with 2 tbsp sugar and mix well
3 Make Vareniki:
3.1 Put 3-5 plum slices into each round, fold the round into a half-moon and pinch all the edges together strongly with fingers. Be careful: these plum slices are very naughty…
3.2 Put Vareniki into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes at medium heat
3.3 Serve warm with sour cream and enjoy !

P.S. inspired by Romanian friends! 🙂

Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Beef and Pearl Barley !

Numai daca vremea ar sta locului am putea vedea lamurit ce este etern

Mihai Eminescu
Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Beef and Pearl Barley

Ingredients (for 4 stuffed peppers):
– 4 red bell peppers
– 450g minced beef
– 90g pearl barley
– 7 small tomatoes 🍅
– 1/3 bunch dill
– 1 small onion (to adda flavour to the broth!)
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
– 100g sour cream for serving

Directions:
1 Pre-cook pearl barley: boil for 12 minutes, then drain extra water
2 Mix minced beef with chopped dill & pre-cooked pearl barley & salt and black pepper
3 Wash red bell peppers, carefully remove the top part and de-seed
4 Stuff well red bell peppers with the meat mixture 🙂
5 Wash and cut tomatoes into 1cm cubes, peel small onion: put cut tomatoes and an onion into a large pot
6 Carefully put the stuffed peppers to the same large pot with the tops from bell peppers One can put them either horizontally or vertically, the main point is to be able to cover them with the water afterwards.
7 Add to the pot water to cover all the peppers: cook at medium heat for 40 minutes, but evacuate the onion from the pot after 10 minutes of cooking 🙂
8 Serve with sour cream and half a soup ladle of broth !

P.S. inspired by Romanian friends 🙂

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