What is the name of a traditional Moldovan dish. Moldavian cuisine

Moldavian cuisine or the national cuisine of Moldova has a rather long history of existence. Its formation was influenced by Greek and Byzantine culture. So, for example, Moldovan culinary has been enriched with a recipe for such a dish as vertuti. In addition, the influence also affected the emergence of specific technologies and techniques in cooking. Also widespread in traditional Moldovan cuisine is the use of puff, butter and drawn dough, the use of vegetable oils in cooking, as well as the use of wines for the preparation of vegetable and meat dishes. You can also find in national cuisine Moldova and some Russian notes, since this country in the period from the 8th to the 13th century was part of the ancient Russian state. Slavic influence largely influenced the tradition of making preparations for the winter. In addition, thanks to the Russian Moldovans, they fell in love with cabbage pies! It is also worth noting that thanks to almost three hundred years of submission to Turkey, the Moldovan cuisine has also been enriched with oriental notes... So, for example, Moldovans from meat products namely lamb, as well as during cooking, the products lend themselves to combined processing, which is typical for Turkish cuisine.

As for the list of types of dishes of the national Moldovan cuisine, among them you will find first and second courses, snacks, variety flour products, desserts. Traditional soups stand out with a hint of sourness in their taste and the constant addition of a whole bouquet of various greens: parsley, dill, celery, tarragon, thyme, mint, lovage. They are prepared on the basis of vegetable, meat and fish broths. First courses are acidified using bread kvass called Borsh or citric acid... Flour with beaten egg is used as a dressing. In general, two types of soup are best known in Moldovan cuisine: chorba or thick soup and zama or chicken broth.

Second courses in Moldovan cuisine can be very diverse, but the addition of vegetables or fruits to them, which grow in abundance in sunny Moldova, is invariably! Greens of all kinds are also an invariable component in the preparation of such dishes. Thus, the taste of the dishes is rich and spicy. As for the cooking methods, one of the most popular is baking in clay pots. In the restaurants of Moldovan cuisine, fish and meat are often cooked over charcoal, which gives such dishes an incredible aroma!

Moldovan cuisine recipes are very diverse. This most directly applies to flour products. They are represented by pies, pies, Easter cakes, and also rolls. The filling can also be very varied, but the most common filling is made from feta cheese, as well as from nuts and pumpkin. In addition, Moldovans bake all kinds of cakes, pastries and cookies. The filling of these desserts usually consists of local fruits and berries.

Speaking about the national cuisine of Moldova, one cannot fail to mention the wines of this country. They are truly diverse! The nature of the Moldovan region allows you to grow different varieties grapes, which actually led to the development of winemaking.

You can get acquainted in more detail with the national Moldovan cuisine, or rather, with the recipes for its dishes, on our website. All of them not only have detailed description, but also provided with photos of all stages of preparation.

National Moldovan cuisine is called a treasury of unique recipes. And this is not surprising. After all, Moldova itself is fabulously rich in all kinds of products and methods of their preparation. It has been this way since antiquity, since it was at the right time in the right place. Simply put, the country was on the busy route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", which Byzantine and Greek merchants used to transport overseas goods. Needless to say, they later "shared" with the Moldovans not only them, but also small culinary tricks that local housewives immediately used in everyday life.

History

As mentioned earlier, the true Moldovan cuisine has its origins in ancient times. True, it was influenced not only by territorial features, but also by individual stages in the development of other peoples.

Judge for yourself: in the X - XIII centuries. Moldavia was part of the ancient Russian state, from 1359 to 1538. - remained independent, then for almost 300 years was under the rule of Turkey, and in the XVIII century. became part of the Russian Empire and remained it for almost a hundred years until the union with Wallachia and the formation of "Romania".

All this involuntarily affected the culinary traditions of the Moldovans, although they themselves did not lose touch with the Hellenic, Byzantine culture and Greek customs. Best of that confirmation - Greek dishes that have taken root in Moldovan cuisine, for example, placinta and vertuta. And, of course, culinary customs and techniques that are typical for southern European and Mediterranean cuisines.

First of all, it is a special attachment to butter, puff and stretch dough. Also, this is the frequent use of vegetable oils, olive and sunflower, the use of dry grape wine in the preparation of meat and vegetable dishes or the creation of spicy-piquant sauces for them.

Turkish influence is evidenced by the combined food processing, the frequent use of lamb and, of course, dishes common for both peoples (givech, chorba). By the way, the Slavs also left their mark in Moldovan cuisine, sharing recipes for pickling and pickling vegetables, as well as cooking cabbage pies and Easter cakes.

They say that thanks to all this, Moldovan cuisine subsequently became whole, unique and even international. The kind that she is known and loved all over the world today.

Character traits

The features of Moldovan cuisine are:

• widespread use of vegetables. Here they are stewed, pickled, salted, fermented and simply eaten raw. For many years, sweet peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, different types beans;
• wealth meat dishes- it so happened historically that Moldovans are equally fond of pork, lamb, beef, meat poultry... Moreover, most often they are cooked over an open fire using gratara - an iron grate laid over hot coals, or in portioned pots. They are served respectively with hot or cold sauces based on dry wine or tomato juice with vegetables;
• active use of spices and herbs - most often these are garlic, tarragon, pepper, thyme and cloves;
• originality of soups - they all have a characteristic sour taste and huge amount vegetables and herbs. The most popular soups are chorba and zama;
• a variety of salads - they are prepared here from vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, and, of course, greens and served cold immediately after dressing. Moldovans know a lot of recipes for such dishes, as they make them in a new way every time, simply by modifying the set of ingredients;
• an abundance of fish - people in Moldova are very fond of fish dishes... They are baked here, boiled, fried, including deep-fried, and served with a lot of vegetables;
• sincere love for corn - porridges, soups and main dishes are made from it, including the famous hominy. It is also called the local bread, as it is a dish of thickly brewed corn flour which is then cut into portions. Many people mistakenly believe that it has been here since antiquity. In fact, corn was brought to this region in the 17th century. At first it was considered exclusively the food of the poor, and only later it was "made" of it a national dish;
• the abundance of dairy products, however, most of all Moldovans love feta cheese.

But the most interesting thing is not so much the dishes themselves as their presentation. In this country they know a lot about design and skillfully use it.

Basic cooking methods:

In Moldova, you can and should try absolutely everything! But due attention must be paid to her pride - national dishes. And there are plenty of them here!

The same hominy. Its ancestor is said to be the Italian polenta.

Vertuta and placinta - drawn dough pies with different fillings(cottage cheese, vegetables, fruits, eggs and even nuts). Their main difference is their shape. Vertuta is a roll, while placinta is a flat cake.

Chorba is a favorite first dish, which is a soup with vegetables and herbs on bread kvass.

Mititei - grilled sausages.

Malay is a corn pie.

Syrbushka - vegetable soup on curd whey with corn flour.

Zama is another version of bread kvass soup. It differs from chorba in a large number of vegetables.

Macareshts are dried peppers.

Moldova is the land of grapes, fruits and various vegetable crops, as well as poultry and sheep breeding. Therefore, she uses all her wealth, offering guests aromatic, unique and satisfying dishes for every taste. Today, Moldovan national cuisine is increasingly attracting the attention of many chefs, as it is rich in interesting dishes. Recipes for vegetable dishes and snacks are quite varied. So, mititei (elongated cutlets), hominy served with meat and cracklings, are considered to be a traditional dish. From soups, the deputy and chorba gained great popularity, and flour products became famous due to the vertuta. And what are Moldavian placinas worth? Of course, any treat becomes even tastier when served with a glass of the famous Moldovan wine.

A bit of history

Today we will consider some of the world's most popular dishes from Moldova. Before doing this, let's take a short excursion into history.

So, the Moldovan cuisine was formed gradually. It is quite natural that it was influenced by neighboring countries with different cultures, because Moldova is located on one of the most ancient and bustling trade routes.

In the period from the tenth to the twelfth century, a large number of Greek dishes... In addition, Moldovans have mastered the technologies for preparing oil, exhaust and puff pastry, which at that time were practiced by southern European and Mediterranean culinary specialists. There was also an experience of using olive oil, dry wine and spices for cooking vegetable and meat dishes, sauces.

From Turkey, Moldova took a penchant for the use of lamb meat in cooking, from the Slavic peoples - a love for pickles and pickles.

Thus, Moldovan cuisine has formed into a holistic structure with pronounced characteristics, organically combining different, sometimes contradictory influences, managed to find the most successful combinations of products in order to create a vivid colorful picture of natural ingredients, which is so loved all over the world.

Let's take a closer look at what Moldovan cuisine is. The recipes with the photos suggested below will help us with this.

Chorba with pork

Ingredients: five hundred grams of pork and veal ribs, one stalk of leeks, one carrot, one small head of cabbage, large parsley root, one spoonful of tomato paste, one onion, two bell peppers, one glass of green beans, two spoons lard or lard, five potatoes, as well as two stalks of green onions, two glasses of Moldavian kvass, two tablespoons of parsley, dill to taste, salt, pepper, bay leaf.

Preparation

Moldovan dishes like this turn out to be very satisfying and tasty, since they include nutritional components containing a large amount of vitamins and minerals.

So, the breast is washed, dried and cut into two pieces with a rib for one serving. Then they are fried on lard until golden brown adding pre-chopped leeks at the end. All this is put into a saucepan, poured over with hot water and brought to a boil. Then remove the foam, salt, add herbs, pepper and continue to cook until the meat is cooked. Then the brisket is removed, and the broth is filtered.

Onion, carrot, parsley root, one Bell pepper chopped into strips, sautéed on lard or lard, added at the end tomato paste and fry for about a minute. Put two whole sweet peppers in the broth, bring it to a boil, add bean pods, diced potatoes, prepared vegetables and cook until tender.

Meanwhile, chopped cabbage is fried in vegetable oil until golden brown. It is sent to the soup two minutes before it is ready. Moldavian kvass is heated separately, filtered, added to the broth along with salt, bay leaf, parsley and dill and boiled for two minutes.

Such Moldovan dishes as chorba are served in portioned plates, where two pieces of meat are placed in advance, sprinkled with herbs and fresh green onions on top. The food is obtained with some sourness.

Moldavian placinths

Ingredients: five hundred grams of milk, forty grams of fresh yeast (one pack of dry), one spoonful of salt, one spoonful of sugar, five eggs, fifty grams of margarine (two tablespoons vegetable oil), one kilogram of flour, half a cabbage, four onions, as well as ground pepper, vegetable oil, five potatoes.

Preparation

Moldovan cuisine offers very interesting dishes. Placinths are a direct confirmation of this. Local chefs recommend making these pastries as follows. First, prepare the dough. To do this, crumble yeast in a container, sprinkle it with sugar, add two spoons warm water and leave until they are completely dissolved. Meanwhile, beat eggs with salt, add warm milk, and then prepared yeast, mix everything well and begin to pour flour. In the process of kneading the dough, add soft margarine and a few tablespoons of vegetable oil. At the same time, the dough should turn out to be soft, cover it with a towel and leave it to come up.

Preparation of the filling

How to make further Moldavian placinas? You need to prepare the filling. To do this, chop the cabbage, cut the onion into cubes, mix everything, salt and put it in a preheated pan to stew in vegetable oil. Boil the eggs, add to the finished cabbage, pre-cut into strips, mix and leave for ten minutes. Peel the potatoes, grate them with onions, add salt and spices, add cracklings.

Formation of "envelopes"

The dough is divided into small pieces, each rolled out with a rolling pin to make a circle. The filling (cabbage or potatoes) is laid out in the center of each, spreading it all over the cake. Then one edge is carefully pulled out and applied to the filling towards the center. Then they take the edge on the other side and do the same. Similar manipulations are done with the rest of the edges. The result should be an envelope.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, put the placinde upside down and fry, then turn it over and continue to fry until golden brown.

Hominy

Ingredients: two glasses of cornmeal, three glasses of water, salt to taste.

The finished dish is served with feta cheese, cracklings, sour cream or ghee. It all depends on personal and taste preferences. When serving, hominy is spread on a dish with a spoon, which is moistened cold water, poured with butter or sour cream, sprinkled with goat cheese or cracklings.

How is hominy prepared? Moldavian cuisine knows two recipes. Let's consider each separately.

The first way

The cornmeal is dried in the oven for a few minutes so that it becomes dry and free-flowing, but not toasted. They cook hominy in a cauldron. Put salt and some of the flour in boiling water and mix thoroughly so that no lumps form, cook for five minutes. Then they pour the rest of the flour with a slide, circle it around the walls of the cauldron with a wooden spoon so that it does not touch them. From above, it is divided into four parts and cooked like this for twenty minutes under a closed lid. After the specified time has elapsed, the lid is removed, the contents of the cauldron are quickly kneaded, leveled and soared over low heat for three minutes. After that, the hominy is removed and left to infuse for fifteen minutes.

Moldovan cuisine invites everyone to try its national dish. But before that, it must be laid out on a wooden board and covered with a linen towel for five minutes. Then the lump needs to be cut into pieces with a harsh thread.

Mamalyga is often served with chorba instead of bread. They use it by dipping it in butter with cracklings or sour cream with feta cheese.

Second way

Add salt and four tablespoons of flour to a cauldron with boiling water, stir well, bring to a boil, add the rest of the flour, stir thoroughly and cook over low heat. Then the finished dish is collected with a spoon from the walls of the container in the middle, the surface is leveled, poured with oil and left to cook for another fifteen minutes. In this case, the dish turns out to be somewhat thinner.

Mititei

Moldovan cuisine, the recipes of which we are considering today, is rich vegetable dishes, but meat dishes are not uncommon in it. Mititei are cooked from beef on a grill (wire rack).

Ingredients: eight hundred grams of beef, thirty grams of bacon, one hundred grams of fatty pork, five cloves of garlic, half a spoonful of soda, five tablespoons of water, salt, herbs, red and black pepper to taste.

Preparation

Moldovan cuisine is very original, and you can see for yourself by preparing this delicious treat... So how to cook mititei? For this dish, you need to take two thirds of the first grade beef and one third with connective tissue, then it will turn out more magnificent. If the meat is lean, it is recommended to add lard.

So, the beef is washed, freed from tendons and films, cut into small pieces, salted, mixed and put in a bowl for three hours to marinate. After that, it should be removed for one day in the refrigerator, after having covered the container with a lid.

Fry on a wire rack

Over time, the beef is passed through a meat grinder along with the pork, a mixture of peppers, soda, water is added, kneaded and beaten on the table. After all that has been done, the minced meat is left for four hours in the refrigerator. Then sausages are formed from the resulting mass (using a meat grinder or manually). Put mititei on a greased baking sheet, grease them, put a second layer on top, and put everything in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, grease the hot grate with lard, put blanks on top and fry on both sides until golden crust... It goes well with the finished dish green pea, fresh tomatoes, onions or green onions, various pickles. The sauce is served separately.

It should be noted that if there is no grater, then the sausages can be fried in a pan or baked in the oven. On the wire rack, the dish turns out to be a little dry, on the frying pan - juicy.

Finally

The dishes of Moldovan cuisine (the recipes presented in the article are just a small fraction of the entire culinary variety of this sunny country) are distinguished by their excellent taste. In the past, they were considered simple, and therefore not worthy of attention. And completely in vain. Simple does not mean dull and trite. Today, Moldovan cuisine is popular, its dishes are appreciated not so much because of the wide variety of recipes (this can hardly surprise anyone), but because of successful combinations various products and flavors.

When I just thought about my trip to Moldova and told my family about it, they immediately started talking with admiration about Moldovan cuisine. For some reason I thought that it was similar to Ukrainian or Russian, but it turned out that Moldovan cuisine is distinguished by its uniqueness. As it turned out, the national cuisine of Moldova was formed under the influence of Turkish, Greek and Western European cuisines. Of course, the influence of Ukrainian and Russian cuisines also did not pass by.

I always learn more about the country through its cuisine, as in the famous saying "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Moldovan cuisine is no exception. Looking ahead, I will say that in the national cuisine of Moldova, my top 3 dishes are hominy, pancakes with cherries and placinda with feta cheese. Nevertheless, we tried most of the Moldovan dishes and I can confidently say that I liked everything! You know, Moldova has become one of those countries for me, where I would return for a gastronomic tour.

In this article, I will tell you about the dishes that we tried in 3 days in Moldova, as well as share delicious cafes and restaurants. At the hotel we have breakfast included, so we only thought about food twice a day) By the way, on trips I prefer hotels with breakfast, no need to think in the morning where to go and where exactly what I like for breakfast will be. Moreover, I'm not a fan of overeating for breakfast.

Perhaps I'll start with a placinda. In general, all the names of Moldovan dishes sound very unusual and sometimes funny. Placinda — delicious cakes various shapes with feta cheese, cottage cheese, cabbage, potatoes, meat or fruits (cherries or apples). In our hotel for breakfast, placinths were with almost all tastes, but for me the most delicious were with feta cheese.

An analogue of placinda, but only from puff pastry - twirls... They are similar in shape to tubes, and the fillings are almost the same as those of Moldovan flat cakes. Truth from the unusual can be found with sauerkraut or fried onions.

In Vietnam, I like Pho soup with beef, in Thailand - Tom Kha na coconut milk with seafood, and in Moldova - Zama... Easy chicken soup with homemade noodles and greens. At home, I sometimes cook a similar one with the addition of frozen vegetables, now removing them from the soup, we get the Moldavian soup zama. The second most popular soup - Chorba... I didn't have time to try it, but its composition is more unusual. It is prepared on the basis of giblet broth with the addition of kvass or brine, which gives the dish a sour taste. Peppers, beans, cabbage or rice are added from vegetables (instead of potatoes), and offal can be replaced with beef.

Interestingly, the name “Chorba” comes from the Turkish “Shurpa”, as soups were called in the Ottoman Empire.

The Hutsuls Banush or Banosh, and Moldovans - Hominy... This is corn grits finely ground. Most of all, I like in what form it was served in a cafe, like medallions.

Earlier, mamalyga replaced bread for Moldovans, but this is caused more by necessity than by tradition, and now this dish is popular even in elite restaurants. The basic dish is served with cracklings, feta cheese, egg, sour cream and sauce Muzhey (garlic Sause based on broth with the addition of vegetable oil and dill).

If you replace the cracklings with pork in hominy, then we get a dish Tokana... The pork is fried in chunks with onions and sometimes wine and sauce are added. Fortified garlic is added to almost every dish, which adds a rich aroma. Garlic occupies a special place in Moldovan cuisine; not only the taste preferences of Moldovans are associated with it, but also beliefs (for example, vampires).

The funny names of the national dishes of Moldova include Mititei- grilled beef sausages with lamb and spices.

What do you like more dolma or cabbage rolls? I’m dolma, and Moldovans have their own name for these dishes - Sarmale... Pickled cabbage or grape leaves are often used instead of regular cabbage. Traditionally, it is stewed in a cauldron. Of the baked dishes, the pancake with meat conquered me. Seeing the photo on the menu, I did not expect that in reality the dish would be large and satisfying.

Separately, I would like to highlight the Moldovan pickles... I haven't eaten them for a long time, they really were so different from ours. For 3 days in Moldova, we ate completely all the pickles that we brought to the dishes, and on the last evening we went to the Moldovanesc restaurant of Moldovan cuisine and ordered a separate plate of pickles there.

Cake became the king of desserts for me Hat Gugutse... It combines my favorite pancakes and cherries. The cake is soaked in sweet cream and sprinkled with chocolate on top. It's just something with something! Usually I don't eat sweets for breakfast, but in Moldova I made an exception. I’m already drooling from one glance at the photo.

Let me remind you that from the sweet there are also placinths and twirlies with fruits.

Cafes and restaurants of Chisinau

It's good that I didn't dedicate this article to cafes in Chisinau. To be honest, we were regular visitors to the network La Placinte cafe... It was just a few minutes from our Bristol Central Park Hotel. The cuisine here is amazing, and the prices are very affordable, even cheaper than Kiev ones.

Several menu pages with prices at La Placinte.

We are still in indian cafe Himalayan Kitchen and Bar for dinner, he has good rating on TripAdvisor, but I was not overwhelmed by the cuisine.

The second place we visited to get to know Moldovan cuisine better is new restaurant Moldovanesc... It just opened at the Sun City mall in the city center. It is assumed that every evening there will be Moldovan dances and performances. When we arrived, there were very few people, or rather, we were the only ones that evening, so we did not see the dancing.