Zacusca

To say A is particular is like saying it's a little on the chilly side in Siberia in winter.  Or that it's kind of damp in the ocean.  You get the picture. 

A few months ago, A's parents brought us a jar of zacusca.  It sat in the cabinet for a while, with A saying he hated zacusca.  his father stayed with us one weekend and wanted it for breakfast, so we popped open the jar ... and the 2 of them proceeded to devour the entire thing in a few minutes flat.  Apparently A does not, in fact, hate zacusca.  It's just that he only likes this *one* zacusca.  This week he even tried another at his parents' house and hated that one too.

So I had an eggplant.  And some peppers.  Carrots.  Onion.  Which means *I* should make zacusca, right?

There are abotu 5,987,492 recipes for zacusca on the internet.  Eggplant, pepper, mushroom, fish (anything that involved fish and a food processor is not happening in this house, no matter how traditional it may be), summer, winter, harvest ... you name it.  And the recipes are all contradictory - for the same amount of eggplant and peppers, the oil amounts differ from 1/4 cup to 1 litre.  So I did what I normally do ... I made it up as I went along. 

I printed out what I would use as the method.  Then I commandeered the remains of the jar of zacusca we had in the fridge and used the order of the ingredients list to determine how much of everything to put in.  This is what I came up with:

Zacusca
1 eggplant (1 lb 8 ounces)
3 red peppers (1 lb 8 ounces)
3 medium sized carrots, peeled and chopped into coins (about 10 ounces)
11 ounces of chopped onion
1 tomato (8 ounces)
3 bay leaves
salt and pepper
oil (preferably sunflower, but we were out, so I used olive, which gives it a different taste)

Roast eggplant and red peppers.  Remove skins; let eggplant drain. 
Sweat the onions in oil with the bay leaves until translucent.  Remove bay leaves.
Boil carrots for 10-15 minutes, until they are tender but not mushy. 
Put everything (including the tomato) in the food processor and whirl until chopped/combined.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 
* About the salt - I didn't think that the jarred zacusca was very salty.  Until I tried it side by side with the completely unsalted homemade version.  To get my zacusca to the same level of saltiness, I had to add way more salt than I would have liked, about 3 tablespoons.

The verdict? It's *almost* right.  It is so very, very close.  It is liked by A, but not as much as the jarred one we have in the fridge.  So I will try it again.  What will I do differently?
(1) More eggplant.  Even though the jarred version has red peppers as the first ingredient, indicating there is more red pepper than eggplant in their recipe, the eggplant flavor stands out far more than in my version.  So the amount of eggplant needs to be adjusted a bit.
(2) Roast the tomato.  The jarred version has a very tomato pasty smell which mine does not have.  It's March, and the tomatoes are not very good, which is one problem (can't wait to try this when the garden is in full swing!), and the tomato really added no taste.  It needs the richness of roasted tomatoes or of a homemade tomato paste. 
(3) Pulse the carrots, tomato and onion in the food processor first, with the salt and pepper, then add the eggplant and peppers so that there are some small chunks of both in the finished product. 

Overall, I'm happy with it.  It's delicious.  I just have to get it *right*

Zacusca, on homemade bread

Snitel

If I ever want my kids to eat Romanian food, all I have to do is make snitel.  2 weekends ago, a made it for us for the first time and I barely got any dinner - he and the kids ate it quicker than the kids could pronounce it.  Tonight was my turn; I made twice as much, just in case. 

Possibly the easiest meal I will ever make, but also one of the most time consuming.  I don't fry anything ever, so this is something I wont' make frequently (much to everyone else's dismay!), but it is definitely one i will make again.


Snitel de porc

Ingredients:
Pork cutlets
Breadcrumbs
2 eggs
salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika
oil (I use sunflower)

Directions:
Using a mallet, pound pork cutlets as thin as possible, without them falling apart. Set aside
In a bowl, beat eggs with a little water; set aside.
In a shallow bowl or tray, mix breadcrumbs with the spices (to taste).  Set aside.


Assembly line fashion, dip each pork piece in the egg/water mixture, then dredge in breadcrumb mixture.  Set aside on a plate.  I like to have all of mine dredged before frying.

Heat oil over medium heat.  Fry each piece  for 1-2 minutes per side, or until the pork is cooked through.   Drain on paper towels.

Serve with mashed potatoes. 

Chiftelute, take 2

Last night was chiftelute, take 2.  I spent about an hour online looking up different recipes and none of them looked quite right.  Thankfully, as I was just starting, A came home from work early and gave me some pointers.

This time he said I nailed it ♥

Chiftelute cu marinade

Ingredients:
~2 1/4 pounds ground meat (I used half pork and half beef)
1 egg
4T breadcrumbs (plain, unseasoned)
1T dill
1T parsley
2t salt
1t pepper
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
Oil (my personal preference is sunflower)
Flour for dredging

Directions:
Heat oil in a pan.  Saute diced onion until translucent; add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes more, until it is fragrant.

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the ground meat with the egg, breadcrumbs, spices and onion and garlic by hand.  Shape into balls and flatten into patties.  Dredge each patty in the flour, then fry in oil. Set aside to drain.

For sauce:
In the same pan, heat some more oil and saute another onion (diced) and 2-4 more cloves garlic (diced) as above.  Add to that 28 oz crushed tomatoes, 6 oz tomato paste, 10 oz water and salt and pepper to taste (I used 1t each).  Bring to a simmer and add meat.  Let simmer about half an hour.

Serve over mashed potatoes, and with picked cucumbers.

* Our pickles are homemade quick pickles - cut a cucumber in half, then quarter each half into spears.  Place in a container with equal parts water and vinegar, 1T garlic salt, 1T dill and pickling salt.  Cover and refrigerate.  I made these the night before and they were very strong the following night at dinner time.

The verdict?  Kenna loved it.  Holden ate the potatoes and said the meat was funny (although how he figured that I am not sure since he didn't taste it).  A said it was just right.  This goes into the dinner line up for sure.

Tonight? Romanian schnitzel.  A made it 2 weekends ago and the kids could not get enough of it.  Tonight, it's my turn to attempt it!