Romanian Food for Easter

It has been my good fortune and blessing to have had friends and teachers form Eastern Europe and Ukraine. If not for them, I would never have discovered the legacy of the Ukrainian Easter Egg and all of its iterations in Slavic countries. These Easter Eggs of pysanky/krashanky are delicately different in design and patterns in each nation, from the most intricate in Poland and Romania, to a wide variety in Ukraine, to the beet-died solid red eggs in Russia.

My most fascinating experience along these lines was a trip to Chicago, where most people want to see the famous button store. Having never heard of it, I wanted to visit the Ukrainian Museum. I never expected to see articles of clothing several hundred years old - or Ukrainian Easter eggs even older. Drawers and drawers fll of them, all different, I had no idea.

All of the displays have been moved to a larger facility, which I one day plan to visit. I wil never forget the news broadcasts prepeated over the car radio in a different language every 15 minutes. I could not understand much of the Ukrainian broadcast, but could recognize Polish as the language being broadcast, and could follow the Russian broadcast most of the way to its ending. The Romance languages were interesting to hear as well, though mostly meaningless to me.

This was all part of collecting recipes from around the world.

A friend of Romanian descent visited cousins in the old country in the 1970s. French was spoken, and the visiting party managed pretty well. Suprises awaited at the cousins' house, however.

One of the cousins worled for the Communist government in some capacity, so she absented herself from the visit after exchanging greetings, so that shoue would not need to report the vistors' every activity while in the home. Anotehr suprise was that homes were taxed by the number of rooms in them, signified by each door attached to hinges. Since closets had doors, they were considered additional rooms, so all the closet doors were removed. One other surprise was the lack of refrigeration -- meats, largely sausages, were pushed down into a barrel of lard outside the back door so that they would be preserved. Aside from these surprises, the visit was interesting and the food good.   

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 lb Provolone cheese
• 2 Eggs beaten into 2 Tbsp water
• 1.5 Cups seasoned bread crumbs
• 1-2 Cup vegetable oil
• Romaine or any leafy lettuce leaves for serving
• Variety of hot sauces and sour cream

INSTRUCTIONS

• Slice cheese into 1.5-inch squares, about half an inch thick
• Dip pieces into beaten egg, then into seasoned bread crumbs, then repeat (4 “dips”).
• Heat oil in a frying pan until it just hints at steam.
• Fry breaded cheese until golden brown on both sides.
• Serve fried cheese on large lettuce leaf or smaller leaves & individual plates.
• Serve with hot sauces and sour cream.

This dish is made only at Easter and serves 12 people.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lamb's head and neck [if you prefer not to use this, use a leg of lamb]
• 3 QT water
• 1 Tbsp. salt
• 3 Carrots
• 1 Bunch parsley, chopped
• 5 Scallions
• 2 Garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 pound spinach
• 1 pound dark green leafy lettuce (like kale)
• 1 pound dock (another green)
• 1/2 pound red pig weed
• ½ pound sour dock (another green)
• 2 Tbsp chopped parsley
• 2 Tbsp Lovage
• 1 Egg yolk (use the white for some other dish)
• 2 Tbsp Sour cream
• Additional sour cream for use at the table

INSTRUCTIONS

• In a large pot, boil the lamb in salted water for 30 minutes, discard water, fill the pot again and boil another 30 minutes.
• Chop all the vegetables and greens coarsely, but save out 3 scallions and slice them on the diagonal and save about ¼ of each of the chopped greens and set aside together with sliced scallions.
• Add carrots and parsley to the boiling lamb and boil another 30 minutes.
• Stir in all the greens (except those set aside with the scallions) and stir and boil 10 minutes.
  Mix the egg yolk into the sour cream, then remove soup from heat and stir in the sour cream.
• Add the raw greens and scallion remaining, stir, cover, and set aside for 15 minutes.
• Serve soup with lamb meat and extra sour cream.

INGREDIENTS

Sweet bread dough

• 2 Cups flour
• 3 Whole Eggs, beaten
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 Cup milk
• 1 packet yeast dissolved in a bit of the milk above.
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp rum or rum flavoring
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp grated zest
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Combine flour and sugar and cut butter and oil into flour and add the rest of the ingredients together to form a dough.

Filling

• 1 Pound cottage cheese
• 4 Whole eggs, beaten
• 5 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• ½ Cup raisins
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Whole egg, beaten for egg wash for dough

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Take 2/3 of the dough and roll it out to 1” thick.
• Place dough into a round cake pan (round, to remember the shape of baby Jesus's diaper).
• Twist the remaining dough into a rope (or make two strands and twist it together) and stick it around the edge of the cake dough in the pan. This is known as “the rope of life” in the local customs (perhaps the umbilical cord). You might save a small portion of dough and fashion a cross on top of the filling before placing cake in the oven.
• Set the cake aside in a warm place to rise for 60 minutes.
• Mix all of the filling ingredients together to form a paste.
• After dough rises, pour filling into the center and, add the dough cross, if you like.
• Brush the top of cake and filling with beaten egg and place cake into the oven. Let it bake for 45-55 minutes, then turn off oven and prop oven door open until cake is cool (have patience).
  The cross pasca is taken to church on Easter Morning to be blessed and then served at home.

Recipe from Transylvania

A traditional national Easter dish that uses the organs of the lamb is served on Easter Sunday.

INGREDIENTS

• Lamb organs: liver, heart, spleen, kidneys; whatever you have.
• 6 Scallions, chopped
• 4 springs of garlic chives, chopped
• 4 Whole eggs, beaten well
• 1 Cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 Cup fresh dill, chopped
• Caul fat if you can acquire it (fatty membrane around organs; it will melt into the loaf to make it moist)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Loaf Pan
• Bread crumbs
• 3 hard boiled eggs

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Wash organs and cut into bite-sized cubes.
• Place cubes in 3 Cups & 1 Cup white vinegar to remove gamey tastes and smells.
• Put cubes cold water in a pot and boil over medium high heat 25 minutes. Remove foam as it is produced with a ladle.
• Remove from heat, discard water, let meat cool for 15 minutes.
• Grind the meat with all remaining ingredients, except eggs; season.
• Beat eggs, add to meat and stir into a thick paste.
• If too dry, add some sour cream or another beaten egg.
• Grease a loaf pan and dust it with bread crumbs.
• If you have it, place caul fat on bottom of pan and put meat mix on top.
• Work the 3 hard bolied eggs into the meat loaf and cover meat with additional caul fat or brush with a little oil.
• Bake 45-50 minutes until golden brown.
• Remove from oven, cool, remove from pan and refrigerate wrapped in plastic wrap.
• To serve, slice the loaf.

GRAVY NOTE: A traditional sauce is made fomr the crushed cloves of an entire head of garlic, combine with a little pil, salt, and sour cream to the desired consistency.