Savor the Flavor
This whole organic food concept cracks me up sometimes. There is a multi-billion industry built on it. The modern American culture became so “fat hydrogenated” that produced a whole anti-movement (rightly so) to bring back the original food production standards of natural cooking.
One of the recipes I recall from early childhood in Romania was one that my Grandmother, Mom and virtually everyone would make on a warm summer afternoon – as an enchanting snack, the eggplant dip. A remarkable eggplant recipe, this simple eggplant dip can be …
If you can boil water, you can whip up a superb Mamaliga (or polenta as probably known more widely). There isn’t much science that goes into it. The creative input comes when you decide what to garnish it with (or use it as a garnish to a main dish).
Each region or use has its own culinary twist to it. For instance, in Moldova it is used often as a bread substitute so the consistency can be so thick that you can cut slices using a string of some sort. Of course the Sarmale (stuffed cabbage or grape leaves) is a signature dish that goes excellent with it.
Here I am making a simple Mamaliga cu Branza (polenta with feta cheese), with a somewhat thinner consistency, longer boil time, garnished with Bulgarian feta cheese I found in our local ethnic grocery store we absolutely love, and just to ad an extra touch of creaminess, I added cottage cheese.
The following feeds roughly two-three hungry adults, or four children but can multiply the serving to feed an army.
For the Mamaliga:
1 cup corn meal (I use an Indian brand called SWAD)
4 cups water
1/2 Tsp salt
For the feta cheese garnish:
1 1/2 cup feta cheese (preferably imported from a country in the Balkans)
1 cup cottage cheese
1 Tbs chopped parsley
Bring the water to a boil in a large pot, and add the corn meal in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking – this will prevent lumps. Add the salt and reduce to low heat, whisking the mamaliga frequently. Continue this for about 30-40 minutes, until the mamaliga starts pulling away from the pot’s sides. Add the feta and cottage cheese, sprinkle the chopped parsley on top and presto! You are done!
The Mamaliga can be used as a base, side dish or garnish to numerous recipes. I will have a couple of those on the list to post so stay tuned for more!
Since 1991, there’s an annual festival in Chicago called Taste of Romania, on the vacant plot found at the intersection of California and Addison avenues (proximity of Lincoln Park), organized by a restaurant called “Little Bucharest“, with a Balkan cuisine (more than Romanian). This year’s …
Please, do not take cooking lightly (pun intended). If kitchen business was enough to oust Thailand‘s Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, over accusations of violating the constitution, because he appeared on a cooking show he used to host 7 months ago before becoming a PM, how …
Stuffed cabbage, also known as “Sarmale” in Romanian. is a social event. Grandmas, aunts, gather in the kitchen and all they do for that morning is talk and stuff cabbage leafs!
Beside the fact that Sarmale is one of the dishes you MUST try, there is a whole social aspect that comes with it. Try making friends with a Romanian family nearby. Sooner or later they will invite you over for dinner. Then they will teach you how to make stuffed cabbage! That’s a priceless experience!
It is like apprenticeship over at Gordon-Bleu!
This is how the true mamaliga is made! Really all you need is a fire, a pot, tripod and… romanian folk music to make delicious mamaliga! Enjoy! Duration : 0:0:52
The Mamaliga blog is dedicated to my latest passion – cooking – Romanian cuisine with tangential subjects like culture, Romanian diaspora, music, cooking videos, recipes and such. Hope you’ll find it interesting!