Romanian Apple cake
Prajitura cu mere
This is an apple cake I had in Romania. I loved that you can basically take it in your hand
without a mess and eat as you go. Also, it is not super sweet, juice even though you squeeze
out most of the juice. Something small for in between.
This is what you need:
- 500 gr. Flour (around 4 cups)
- 250 gr soften Butter (around 2 sticks)
- 3 Eggs
- 5 TBSP Sugar
- pinch of salt
- 14 gr Vanilla sugar (or 1 TBSP Vanilla extract)
- 1 pack (14 gr) Baking powder (around 1/2 TSP)
- 6-7 big apples
- sugar and cinnamon
This is how you do it:
Put in a big bowl together the Flour, eggs, butter, sugar, salt, Vanilla and baking powder and kneed
with your hands (I used disposable gloves so it doesn't stick to the fingers) till you have a smooth dough. Let it rest in the fridge.
Peel the apples and remove the seeds. Then shredder them over a cheese cloth and a big bowl.
Wring them out good in the cheese cloth. (The apple juice you can drink and its very delicious).
Add some sugar and cinnamon to the shredded and dry apple and mix it good.
On a baking sheet place some non stick cover. Take half of the dough and a cling wrap to roll it
thin the size of the baking sheet. Then apply the apples over the whole dough.
Take the 2nd piece of dough, place it on the same size baking sheet and lay it on a piece of cling wrap. Then take another piece of cling wrap to roll the dough thinly the size of the sheet again.
You will see that it's nearly impossible to roll the dough without the cling wrap and how easy it is
with it.
Now just lay the layer of dough over the apples as a top. Sprinkle some sugar over it and bake it
in a preheated 305 degrees oven for around 40 min till its golden brown.
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Pofta buna
Schmandtorte
Oma's specialty Cake
This is the cake my Oma use to make all the time for us. We all loved it, still do. But my Oma has
passed already. When I make this cake, I am redirected into my Omas house were we sit on the
Dining table together, having coffee and cake. Even though I am a lot influenced by my Omas
cooking, I dedicate this recipe to her. May she rest in peace.
This is what you need:
for the bottom
- 125 gr soften unsalted Butter
- 250 gr Flour
- 70 gr sugar
- 3 Egg yolks (keep the whites for the topping)
for the filling
- Vanilla pudding, made like instructed
- 500 gr. full greek yogurt
- splash of Lemon juice
for topping
- 3 Egg white
- 125 gr sugar
This is how you do it:
If you have, like me, german vanilla pudding, you need to cook the pudding like instructed. Give it time to cool with stirring in between so you don't get a skin. If you use american pudding, prepare as instructed but because it doesn't need to cool off, you can proceed with the rest of the cake.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Add all the ingredients for the bottom cake in a bowl and knead them well with your hands. Transfer it to a round cake form you have buttered before. Push the dough with your hands in form with making a little ring around the flat bottom.
Add to the vanilla pudding the greek yogurt and lemon juice and mix well. Transfer to the cake form and bake the cake for 40 min..
Beat the egg whites with the sugar till stiff peaks. Put it on top of the cake and proceed baking for another 20 min..
Let cool completely
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German Pork Roast
Schweinebraten
German Pork Roast is another of our typical sunday Lunch dishes. In germany we celebrate the
sundays. Everything is closed, usually you go to church and when you are coming home, you have
a nice big lunch. Traditionally we have tea time then around 4 pm where we have coffee and
cake. Dinner isn't to important on sundays lol.
Here in the states I found the pork butt roast to work best for the Schweinebraten. I usually buy
one when I see them on sale and keep them in my freezer till I decide to make it. Also, I found it's
easier to cut in the fat into diamonds when its still a bit frozen.
This is what you need:
- Pork butt roast
- 2 carrots, cut in 2 inch pieces
- 2 stacks celery, cut in 2 inch pieces
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- 2-3 whole gloves of garlic (optional)
- handful of Allspice (optional)
- handful of Juniper Berry (optional)
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 1 bottle of beer
- Mustard
- salt, pepper, marjoram, paprika, ground caraway seeds
- 750 ml of a mix of Vegetable and Beef Broth
- couple of slices old bread
This is how you do it:
Cut diamonds in your fat part of the roast. Mix the salt, pepper, paprika, marjoram and ground caraway seed in a bowl together and sprinkle it all over the roast so its completely covered. In a
oven dish, place the carrots, Celery, garlic and onions. Also the Allspice, Bay leaves and Juniper Berries. Pan fry the Roast from all sides nice and brown. Transfer it over to the baking pan.
Roast it for 30 min on 400 Degrees until the roast gets a nice crunchy outside and the onions turn a bit brown. Now turn the heat down to 350 Fahrenheit and add the broth. Make sure the bread is covered with Liquid.
Now leave the roast in the oven for 3 3 1/2 hrs or til the roasts internal temperature is around 160 degrees.
Remove the Roast and cut into slices. Remove the Carrots and the Celery and strain the Allspice, Bay Leaves, Garlic and Juniper Berries out. Blend it with a blender. Thanks to the bread it should be nice and creamy already.
Traditionally you serve the roast with potato dumplings. As side you can use Broccoli or Sauerkraut or blue cabbage. We also serve Spaetzle or Egg noodles with it and peas as the side. Whatever you want.
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Spaetzle
Spaetzle is also called tear noodle or tear pasta because of its form. Because it basically tastes
like Pasta, you can eat them to all kind of dishes. From stews over Roasts.......
This is what you need:
- Spaetzle maker
- 500 gr. Flour (around 4 Cups)
- 5 Eggs
- pinch of salt
- around 200 ml water
This is how you do it:
Bring a big pot water with salt to a boil. Have a colander available and maybe some spray oil
or oil so they don't stick.
Mix the flour, the eggs, salt and just enough water together that you have a heavy dough. When
you get a spoon full of dough and let it drop, it should just start to run down in a stream. If its
going down in portions drop by drop, add more water. When it runs down like water, its to
liquid and you might add some more flour.
Once your dough is done and your water is cooking, take the spaetzle maker and fill it up with dough.
Place it over the water and move slowly back and forth and let the dough drop in the hot water till
its empty. Stir the Spaetzle in the Pot and in about 1 min their done cooking. Take them out of the water and put them in the colander. Add a bit oil so they don't stick to each other. Now fill the
Spaetzle maker again with the next batch of dough and repeat till your dough is gone. It usually is
going pretty quick.
Your Spaetzle are done. Now you can do with them whatever you like. We like to layer them with cheese, little bit of butter flakes, salt and french onions. Then I put the Spaetzle Lasagne in the
microwave for 5 min and you have what we call Kaese Spaetzle. (Cheese Spaetzle) and is a whole
meal for itself.
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Griessnockerlsuppe
Semolina dumpling soup
This soup is a traditional soup at a german Restaurant and it's preferred for weddings. My
daughter loves, loves, loves this soup. It takes a moment to prepare it but once its in its cooking
process, you have your hands available for other things.
This is what you need:
- 83,4 gr Semolina Flour (also referred as Pasta Flour)
- 30-35 gr of soft unsalted Butter
- 1 Egg
- pinch of salt and a hint of Lemon Extract
This is how you do it:
Weight your ingredients and combine them thoroughly with a fork. In the meantime you can start
to cook your broth. There it really doesn't matter what broth you like most. Chicken, Beef, Vegetable..... its up to you.
Once the soup is boiling, reduce the heat to simmer and use the smallest spoon you can find. The
dumplings expend when cooking. Put the spoon in the hot soup to heat it up and start cutting small
oval portions. Let them fall in the soup. Don't stir to much with your hot spoon in the mixture though
so the butter doesn't melt.
Once all the dumplings are in the soup, let it simmer for around 20 min.. When you serve it, you can garnish it with some fresh parsley.
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Ciorba de Varza
romanian sour green cabbage soup
This soup is more like a stew. It takes time to cook it but its worth it. Also it tastes better the more
you have to rewarm it. This dish is a "farmers dish". This is not a recipe you would find in a
Restaurant. Neither in Romania nor elsewhere in the World. This is a dish only Mom or Grandma
is cooking for you. When I was with my ex-husband and I was in Romania with his family, they
cooked it quiet often. I really, really liked this soup. My former mother in law (may she rest in peace)
wrote me the recipe down so I can cook it myself. Fortunately I understand enough romanian to
read her recipe ;-).
Ciorba basically means soup and de Varza means with Cabbage. When you want to cook this
soup, make sure you have everything home and you have time on your hand. You don't want to
rush it. First of all, find Tarragon. Its a herb you can find in good grocery stores pre-packed.
Usually in the vegetable aisle. When you are home, remove the leaves and put them in a glass
with Vinegar. Tarragon is also called Pepper Kraut because of its pepperish taste. This glass can
last forever in your fridge and when you need it, just take it out. It also goes good in regular stews.
This is what you need:
- 1 small head of green cabbage, shredded
- 2 Carrots, chopped
- 1 Bell Pepper, chopped
- 1/4 Celery Root (Celeriac), chopped
- 2 Parsnip, chopped
- 3-4 Oxtail
- 1/2 can Tomato Paste
- vegetable bullion (optional)
- Salt, Vinegar, to taste
- Tarragon
This is how you do it:
Get the biggest Pot you have in the house. Fill it with water and put in the Oxtail. Let it simmer for
at least 1 hrs.. Remove the brown foam every once in a while. In the meantime you can chop your
vegetables.
After the first hrs add the Carrots, Parsnip, Celery Root and the Bell Pepper. Let it simmer for another 1 hrs. at least.
After at least 2 hrs add the Tomato Paste, Salt and Vinegar. The soup should get a nice sour taste. But be warned, when you add the green cabbage you might need to add more salt and vinegar. They soak up a lot. Try your soup. Is it strong enough? If not, you can add a bit vegetable bullion.
Now you can add your green cabbage. The cabbage doesn't need to long to cook. Taste it again. You might have to adjust your salt and vinegar here. At the very last take like a handful of Tarragon,
chop it roughly and ad it to the soup. Therefor you don't need pepper.
Traditionally the soup is served with a splash of sour cream (what gets mixed in) and bread.
Be warned again: it will smell so good that you can't wait till its done and you can have your first
plate.
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Pofta buna
