Meat dishes from Moldavian cuisine. Moldavian cuisine: recipes with photos

National Moldavian cuisine is called a treasure trove of unique recipes. And this is not surprising. After all, Moldova itself is fabulously rich in all kinds of products and methods of preparing them. This has been the case since ancient times, as she was in the right place at the right time. Simply put, the country was on the busy route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, which Byzantine and Greek merchants used to transport overseas goods. Needless to say, they subsequently “shared” with the Moldovans not only these, but also small culinary tricks that local housewives immediately used in everyday life.

Story

As mentioned earlier, true Moldavian cuisine has its origins in ancient times. True, it was influenced not only by territorial features, but also by individual stages of the development of other peoples.

Judge for yourself: in the X – XIII centuries. Moldova was part of the Old Russian state from 1359 to 1538. - remained independent, then was under Turkish rule for almost 300 years, and in the 18th century. became part Russian Empire and remained so for almost a hundred years until the unification with Wallachia and the formation of “Romania”.

All this involuntarily affected the culinary traditions of the Moldovans, although they themselves did not lose touch with Hellenic, Byzantine culture and Greek customs. The best confirmation of this is the Greek dishes that have taken root in Moldavian cuisine, for example, placintas and vertutas. And, of course, culinary customs and techniques that are characteristic of Southern European and Mediterranean cuisines.

First of all, there is a special affection for butter, puff pastry and stretch pastry. This also includes the frequent use of vegetable oils, olive and sunflower, the use of dry grape wine in the process of preparing meat and vegetable dishes, or the creation of spicy and piquant sauces for them.

The Turkish influence is evidenced by the combined processing of products, the frequent use of lamb and, of course, dishes common to both peoples (givech, chorba). By the way, the Slavs also left their mark on Moldovan cuisine by sharing recipes for pickling and fermenting vegetables, as well as cooking cabbage pies and Easter cakes.

They say that thanks to all this, Moldovan cuisine subsequently became integral, unique and even international. The way she is known and loved throughout the world today.

Character traits

Features of Moldavian cuisine are:

widespread use of vegetables. Here they are stewed, pickled, salted, fermented and simply eaten raw. In high esteem long years What remains are sweet peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, different types beans;
richness of meat dishes - it so happened historically that Moldovans equally love pork, lamb, beef, and poultry. Moreover, most often they are cooked over an open fire using a grater - an iron grate placed over hot coals, or in portioned pots. They are served respectively with hot or cold sauces based on dry wine or tomato juice with vegetables;
active use of spices and herbs - most often garlic, tarragon, pepper, thyme and cloves;
the originality of the soups - they all have a characteristic sour taste and a huge amount of vegetables and herbs. The most popular soups remain chorba and zama;
a variety of salads - they are prepared here from vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, and, of course, herbs and are served cold immediately after dressing. Moldovans know plenty of recipes for such dishes, as they make them in a new way every time, simply modifying the set of ingredients;
abundance of fish – they love it very much in Moldova fish dishes. Here they are baked, boiled, fried, including deep-fried, and served with a lot of vegetables;
sincere love for corn - porridges, soups and main courses are prepared from it, including the famous mamalyga. It is also called local bread, as it is a dish made from thickly brewed corn flour, which is then cut into portions. Many people mistakenly believe that it has been here since ancient times. In fact, corn was introduced to this region in the 17th century. At first it was considered exclusively the food of the poor, and only later it was “made” into a national dish;
abundance of dairy products, however, Moldovans love feta cheese most of all.

But the most interesting thing is not so much the dishes themselves as their presentation.

In this country they know a lot about design and use it skillfully.

Basic cooking methods:

In Moldova you can and should try absolutely everything! But due attention must be paid to its pride - national dishes. And there are plenty of them here!

The same hominy. It is said that its ancestor is Italian polenta. Vertuta and placinta - pies made from stretched dough with(cottage cheese, vegetables, fruits, eggs and even nuts).

Their main difference is their shape. Vertuta is a roll, while placinta is a flat pie.

Chorba is a favorite first course, which is a soup with vegetables and herbs on bread kvass.

Mititei – grilled sausages.

Malai is a corn pie.

Syrbushka is a vegetable soup made with curd whey and corn flour.

Zama is another version of soup made with bread kvass. It differs from chorba in the large number of vegetables.

Makareshti – dried peppers. How should you prepare Moldovan vertuta? Recipe for this unusual dish

with various fillings will be presented a little lower.

general information

What is vertuta moldaviana? Almost every Moldovan knows the recipe for this dish. According to experts, a vertuta is a roll made from, which is very common in the world. To prepare this product, the same base is used as for the placinda. However, eggs and a large number of

sunflower oil.

Moldavian vertuta, the recipe for which will be discussed below, is made from dough that is rolled out and then stretched by hand to the thickness of ordinary paper. Next, it is covered with a small layer of filling, after which it is tightly twisted into a tight roll, which is subsequently rolled into a spiral.

Moldavian vertuta: homemade baking recipes

To prepare the dish in question, you must use the following components:
wheat flour - about 3 cups;
drinking water - approximately 1 glass;
fresh chicken eggs - 2 pcs.;
butter - no more than 50 g;

vegetable oil - about 0.5 cups.

All of the ingredients listed are necessary for kneading the dough. As for the filling, to prepare it you should use:
village cottage cheese - approximately 500 g;
table salt - 5 g;
fresh small eggs - 2 pcs.;
fresh green onions - a small bunch;
aromatic dill - a small bunch;
not very thick sour cream - 10 g;

egg yolks - 2 pcs. (for lubrication).

Knead the dough

How should you make Moldovan vertuts? The recipe for such products requires careful kneading of the dough. To do this, sift wheat flour into a bowl, then add eggs to it and stir with a wooden spoon. Also, separately pour vegetable oil into a glass of warm water and add salt. The resulting mixture is added to the flour, after which the products are intensively mixed until an elastic dough is formed. Cover the base with a napkin and leave it to rest for 30 minutes.

The prepared layer is rolled into a tight roll and carefully twisted into a rope. After rolling the sausage into a snail shape, place it in the middle of the dish.

Exactly the same semi-finished products are made from the remaining layers of dough, which are also placed in the mold. At the very end, the previously prepared egg yolks are mixed with 2 large spoons of water, after which the Vertutas are generously greased with them.

Baking in the oven

How are Moldovan vertuta baked? The recipe requires an oven preheated to 197 degrees. All products are sent into it and baked for 40 minutes (until lightly browned).

We present it to the table

The dish in question should be presented to the table immediately after heat treatment. Although some housewives prefer to eat vertuta cold. Sweet hot tea should also be served with Moldavian pastries.

Moldavian fruit vertuta: step-by-step recipe

Few people know, but the products of Moldovan cuisine in question can not only be fried in a frying pan. We will describe below exactly how such a process should be carried out.

So, to prepare vertuta you need to purchase:

large egg - 1 pc.;
wheat flour - 1.5 cups;
vegetable oil - approximately 150 ml (20 ml for dough, and the rest for frying);
drinking water - 0.5 cups;
9% apple cider vinegar - a few drops;
fresh sweet and sour apples - 4 pcs.;
light sugar - 40 g;
table salt - a pinch;
fresh butter - 30 g.

Making the dough

The recipe in question for the Moldovan vertuta pie requires compliance with all the described requirements. To prepare such a product, you should mix regular drinking water with natural vinegar, table salt and vegetable oil. Next, you need to sift the flour into a separate bowl, break the chicken egg and pour in the previously prepared mixture.

Mix the ingredients with your hands to obtain an elastic dough. Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Preparing the filling

To make the filling for vertuta, sweet and sour apples are peeled and grated on a large grater. To prevent them from turning black, sprinkle them with a small amount of lemon juice.

Formation process

Once the dough has rested, it is divided into 5 parts and rolled out very thinly using a regular rolling pin. Next, the surface of each layer is lubricated with soft butter. After that, they are covered with apple filling and sprinkled with sugar.

Having rolled the rolls as described in the previous recipe, the edges of the product are tightly sealed. After this, each roll is rolled up like a snail and lightly passed over it with a rolling pin. In this case, take into account the size of the frying pan on which the vertuts will subsequently be fried.

Frying Moldovan products on the stove

Frying vertuta in a frying pan is quite simple. To do this, heat the dishes over high heat and add vegetable oil. Having laid out the formed product, it is fried for two minutes at a time (over high heat).

After the vertuta turns golden brown, cover the pan with a lid. At the same time, the fire is reduced to a minimum. In this form, the products are cooked for about 5 minutes on each side.

Proper serving at the dinner table

You can eat Moldavian vertuta both as a snack and as a dessert. In both cases, such products should be served hot. This should be done with tea or other drinks.

In this article, we presented you with two of the simplest and most accessible ways to quickly and easily make Moldavian vertuts. However, it should be noted that there are other options for preparing this dish. For example, some housewives make it using cheese, including feta cheese, fried onions and even meat (minced meat). By the way, with this filling, vertuta turns out no less tasty and satisfying than with cottage cheese and apples.

When I first started thinking about traveling to Moldova and told my family about it, they immediately began talking with admiration about Moldavian cuisine. For some reason I thought that it was similar to Ukrainian or Russian, but it turned out that Moldovan cuisine is distinguished by its uniqueness. As it turned out, the national cuisine of Moldova was formed under the influence of Turkish, Greek and Western European cuisines. Of course, the influence of Ukrainian and Russian cuisines also did not pass by.

I always learn more about a country through its cuisine, as in the famous saying “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Moldavian cuisine was no exception. Looking ahead, I’ll say that in the national cuisine of Moldova my top 3 dishes are hominy, pancakes with cherries and placinda with feta cheese. Nevertheless, we tried most of the Moldovan dishes and I can confidently say that I liked everything! You know, Moldova for me has become one of those countries where I would return specifically on a gastronomic tour.

In this article I will talk about the dishes that we tried over 3 days in Moldova, and also share delicious cafes and restaurants. We have breakfast included in the hotel, so we only thought about food twice a day) By the way, when traveling I prefer hotels with breakfast, I don’t have to think in the morning about where to go and where exactly what I like for breakfast will be. Moreover, I'm not a fan of overeating for breakfast.

I'll start, perhaps, with the placinda. In general, all the names of Moldovan dishes sound very unusual and sometimes funny Placinda- delicious flatbreads various shapes with cheese, cottage cheese, cabbage, potatoes, meat or fruit (cherries or apples). At our hotel for breakfast we had placindas with almost all flavors, but for me the most delicious was the one with feta cheese.

Analogue of placinda, but only from puff pastry — twirls. They are shaped like tubes, and the fillings are almost the same as Moldavian flatbreads. The truth from the unusual can be found with sauerkraut or fried onions.

In Vietnam I love Pho soup with beef, in Thailand - Tom Kha na coconut milk with seafood, and in Moldova - Zama. Easy chicken soup with homemade noodles and greens. At home, I sometimes cook something similar with the addition of frozen vegetables, now removing them from the soup, I get Moldavian zama soup. The second most popular soup is Chorba. I didn’t have time to try it, but its composition is more unusual. It is prepared using giblet broth with the addition of kvass or brine, which gives the dish a sour taste. Vegetables include peppers, beans, cabbage or rice (instead of potatoes), and giblets can be replaced with beef.

It is interesting that the name “Chorba” comes from the Turkish “Shurpa”, which is how soups were called in the Ottoman Empire.

Among the Hutsuls Banush or Banosh, and among Moldovans - Hominy. This is finely ground corn grits. I like best the form in which it was served in the cafe, like medallions.

Previously, mamaliga replaced bread for Moldovans, but this was caused more by necessity than by tradition, and now this dish is popular even in elite restaurants. Basic dish served with cracklings, feta cheese, egg, sour cream and sauce Husbands (garlic Sause based on broth with the addition vegetable oil and dill).

If you replace the cracklings in mamaliga with pork, you get a dish Tokana. Pork is fried in pieces with onions and sometimes wine and sauce are added. Almost every dish is added crushed garlic, which adds a rich aroma. Garlic occupies a special place in Moldovan cuisine; not only the taste preferences of Moldovans are associated with it, but also superstitions (for example, vampires).

To funny names national dishes Moldova include Mititei- grilled beef sausages with the addition of lamb and spices.

What do you like more: dolma or cabbage rolls? I’m doing dolma, and the Moldovans have their own name for these dishes - Sarmale. Instead of regular cabbage, pickled cabbage or grape leaves are often used. According to tradition, it is stewed in a cauldron. Of the baked dishes, the meat pancake captivated me. Having seen the photo on the menu, I did not expect that in reality the dish would be large and filling.

I would especially like to highlight the Moldovan pickles. Either I haven’t eaten them for a long time, or they were really so different from ours. For 3 days in Moldova, we completely ate all the pickles that were brought to our dishes, and on the last evening we went to the Moldovanesc restaurant of Moldavian cuisine and ordered a plate of pickles there separately.

Cake became the king of desserts for me Gugutse hat. It combines my favorite pancakes and cherries. The cake is soaked in sweetish cream and sprinkled with chocolate on top. It's just something with something! I usually don’t eat sweets for breakfast, but in Moldova I made an exception. Just looking at the photo makes my mouth water.

Let me remind you that for sweets there are also placintas and vertutas with fruit.

Cafes and restaurants in Chisinau

It’s good that I didn’t devote this article to a cafe in Chisinau. To be honest, we were regular visitors to the network Cafe La Placinte. It was just a few minutes from our hotel, the Bristol Central Park Hotel. The cuisine here is amazing, and the prices are very affordable, even cheaper than in Kyiv.

Several menu pages with prices at La Placinte.

We also went to the Indian cafe Himalayan Kitchen and Bar for dinner, good rating on TripAdvisor, but I wasn't very impressed with the cuisine.

The second place we visited to get to know Moldovan cuisine better is a new Moldovanesc restaurant. It just opened in mall Sun City in the city center. It is expected that every evening there will be Moldovan dances and performances. When we arrived, there were very few people, or rather we were the only ones that evening, so we didn’t see any dancing.

Each of us, coming to some country, wants to try the local, national cuisine and find out its specialties. In Ukraine it’s borscht with lard and dumplings, in Holland it’s fresh lightly salted herring, in France it’s various soups or frog legs with sauce….

What is delicious in Moldova that might surprise us? Moldovan dishes?

I've been accompanying for several years nowtours to Moldova from Kyiv . Therefore, I decided to make the top 10 according to my taste, the most delicious dishes of this country.

Perhaps it will be useful to a curious traveler who is interested in tours from Kyiv to Moldova...

So, let's taste it!

1. Placindas

Moldavian placintas are delicious flatbreads that Moldovans prepare from stretched, yeast or puff pastry. The flatbread itself is round, flat, with filling inside. The filling can be cheese, feta cheese, cottage cheese with herbs, cabbage, potatoes, meat or for sweet filling fruits are used - cherries, apples. As a rule, placintas are served hot, and they are a truly delicious treat!

2.

Moldavian vertuts are also fried flatbreads, like placintas, but they are usually made of puff pastry and have a different shape. Vertuta - looks like a tube of dough filled with potatoes, cottage cheese, fried onions, apple or even raisins with poppy seeds. Vertuta, like placinda, will always be appropriate - as a snack with another dish, as a dessert, or as a snack on the road.

When we go on a tour to Moldova and Transnistria, the whole group is happy to stock up on them for a snack on the road! On a full stomach , as a rule, become even more interesting)....

3. Mamalyga

Mamalyga is one of the most famous Moldavian dishes. This is a kind of analogue of the Transcarpathian banosh.

Prepared from corn grits finely ground, and unlike banosh, mamaliga is boiled in water. It turns out to be so thick that you can easily cut it into pieces. It is usually served with sour cream, tokana (more on that below), feta cheese or “Muzhdey” sauce (garlic sauce in broth with seasonings).

Moldavian sour vegetable soup with the addition of bran kvass. Chorba is prepared with an abundance of different spices and vegetables. Depending on the recipe options, beans, sweet peppers, cabbage or rice (instead of potatoes) can be added to chorba. The recipe for chorba with offal is popular; in another case, beef is added.

Sour cream and hot pepper must be served with chorba.

It is interesting that the origin of the name “Chorba” comes from the Turkish word “shurpa”, which is how soups were called in the Ottoman Empire. Apparently, the influence of Moldova’s long stay in the status of a vassal of the Ottoman Empire had an impact.

Zama. Zama is one of the most popular Moldovan soups. Brewed from domestic chicken with homemade noodles, carrots, parsley, add bran kvass, sometimes thyme and even tomatoes. It is usually served with herbs and sour cream.

These are small, juicy, meat sausages, without casing, traditionally fried on a “grater,” a kind of grill analogue. They are usually prepared from beef with the addition of lamb and spices. Served hot, optionally with herbs and “Muzhdei” sauce.

7. Tokana

Another Moldovan meat dish popular in Moldova. As a rule, it is fried pork, which is fried with spices, sometimes with the addition of wine and sauce, and onions. At the end of cooking, crushed garlic is added, this gives the dish an appetizing aroma. Served with mamaliga, feta cheese and greens.

There is also “Vegetable Tokana”. It's actually fried - stewed in sour cream sauce vegetables. What vegetables? Yes, everything that grows in a Moldovan garden!

Sarmale is a dish similar to cabbage rolls and dolma. Prepared from different meats, sometimes from several types. IN chopped meat add rice and various spices and herbs. Instead of regular cabbage, pickled cabbage or grape leaves are often used for the wrap. According to tradition, it is stewed in a cauldron.A popular dish at Moldovan weddings. And again - let's remember the Ottoman Empire, since the name comes from the Turkish word "sarmak". And this is translated - to wrap.

9. Givech

Moldavian Givech is most often a vegetarian dish; in other countries, its analogues are mainly with meat, although as many housewives as there are so many recipes...

All the vegetables that Moldovans love - bell pepper, eggplants, tomatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes. This is all stewed with seasonings and aromatic herbs. So vegetarians in Moldova will not go hungry!

10. Gugutse hat

In Moldova, in addition to delicious vegetable and meat dishes, in Moldova there are also delicious desserts. In addition to placintas and vertuts, with sweet fillings, often fruits, we can also highlight this delicious cake- Gugutse's hat.

Its name comes from the name children's story about the adventures of a little restless boy who had a huge funny hat...

It consists of tubes baked using a certain technology with cherries inside. The composition may also include nuts, and the cake is sure to be soaked delicious cream, so those with a sweet tooth should definitely try it!

I hope this article was interesting and useful to you.

And if you want to try all this deliciousness in Moldova -

see our tours to Moldova andJoin the Drive Club's journey to this wonderful little country!