Before leaving our training site and heading about to my permanent site. My gazda, Maria, wanted to arm me with recipes for a few of the dishes that I enjoyed most during my 11 weeks staying with her. Soup is very popular in Romania and Maria always had a pot or two of homemade soup that she served me as a first course at dinner. One of my favorite was supă de gălușcă, dumpling soup, which tastes very similar to matzah ball soup. Although, the dumplings are more dense. So the day before I left, we had a cooking day.
First, it seems that when you buy a chicken from the store in Romania that they are not fully plucked of feathers. So after Maria pulled all the remaining feathers she could find, she seared the outside of the bird to get them all. This also made it easier to remove some of the excess skin. She then rinsed the chicken and cut it up. She then cooked it for a few minutes, poured out that water, rinsed the chicken again and finally began cooking.
While the chicken began to cook, carrots, onions, and potatoes were cut up for the soup. Then fat was skimmed off the top of the broth.
The potatoes and carrots were then added along with a little salt and pepper to make the broth. After the broth is made the chicken was removed and the actual meat was used for two other recipes. The onion was also removed from the broth and thrown away.
Maria then made the batter for the dumplings out of eggs and a substance that would be most closely related to cornmeal. You have to add the batter to the soup quite quickly, otherwise the batter gets very tough.
The batter was then added spoonful by spoonful to the broth to make the dumplings. After about 45 minutes of being cooked with the lid on the soup is done and ready to serve with parley. Yum!
First, it seems that when you buy a chicken from the store in Romania that they are not fully plucked of feathers. So after Maria pulled all the remaining feathers she could find, she seared the outside of the bird to get them all. This also made it easier to remove some of the excess skin. She then rinsed the chicken and cut it up. She then cooked it for a few minutes, poured out that water, rinsed the chicken again and finally began cooking.
While the chicken began to cook, carrots, onions, and potatoes were cut up for the soup. Then fat was skimmed off the top of the broth.
The potatoes and carrots were then added along with a little salt and pepper to make the broth. After the broth is made the chicken was removed and the actual meat was used for two other recipes. The onion was also removed from the broth and thrown away.
Maria then made the batter for the dumplings out of eggs and a substance that would be most closely related to cornmeal. You have to add the batter to the soup quite quickly, otherwise the batter gets very tough.
The batter was then added spoonful by spoonful to the broth to make the dumplings. After about 45 minutes of being cooked with the lid on the soup is done and ready to serve with parley. Yum!
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