Wallachian Dishes

România Internațional, 29.10.2017, 14:21

Muntenia or Wallachia, as it used to be called in the Middle Ages and in
early modernity, has over the centuries acquired an impressive gastronomic
reputation. The cuisine here has Middle Eastern and Greek influences, as well
as French and Italian. Rulers and noblemen used to throw feasts as a good
opportunity to discuss politics and matters of state, so the food had to make
it worth their while. One of the Wallachian Princes of the 16th
century, Neagoe Basarab, wrote a series of letters to his son, Teodosie, which
contained, apart from the usual advice on matters of statesmanship, a set of
recommendations as to polite table manners.

The cuisine here is famously rich in
vegetables, meat, fish, dairy products and fruit. A staple of the area is the
aspic made from chicken or pork and vegetables, a dish that used to delight
foreign guests who attended the feasts hosted by princes and noblemen. Sour
grapes and other green fruit were used as souring agents for soups. Later on,
people started using lemon or the famous fermented wheat bran called borsch
as a more convenient replacement.

Today they also use the juice from pickled
cabbage to sour the soups. Meatball soup is a particularly popular dish and one
which is quite easy to make, but you need to be very careful, because the
meatballs may easily break up and scatter in the pot. To make this soup, you
need around 750 grams of minced beef, a piece of meat on the bone, two carrots,
a parsnip and a parsley root. You also need a celery stalk, a cup of rice, an
onion, two eggs, tomato juice, one bunch of parsley and another of lovage.
Bring the beef on the bone to the boil in a 4-litre pot, skim the scum rising
to the surface, then add all the grated vegetable roots. You can also add red
peppers and tomatoes, also finely chopped.

Take out the beef after it has
boiled, cut the meat into small pieces and then put the pieces back in the
liquid they boiled in. Finely chop the onion, then mix it in a bowl with the
minced meat, the eggs, the rinsed rice and a pinch of salt. After about 20
minutes, mould little meatballs, then put them in the pot where you brought the
vegetables to a boil. Add the tomato juice and leave to simmer for another five
minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, then add the finely-chopped parsley. Add
a dollop of cream after you have filled your soup plates with the thick soup
and spray the plate with some finely-chopped lovage. This dish is ideally
served with a hot pepper.

Enjoy!