Moldavian dish made from corn flour. Moldavian cuisine! Photos of traditional dishes from Moldova! Basic cooking methods

Greetings, dear guests of the site! for its traditional dishes, it is considered one of the healthiest cuisines in the world. And this is not an exaggeration at all - the climate of Moldova is ideal for growing fruits, vegetables and cereals. The variety of plant foods practically leaves no room for meat on the table of Moldovans, Gagauz and Bulgarians living in the territory of modern Moldova.

About what Moldovan cuisine is rich in, what dishes are business card of this country, what is chorba, deputy and vertuta, and much more, no less interesting. By the way, I haven't written anything on the site for a very long time - so maybe you can guess why this particular article came out?

There is an opinion that the cuisine of Moldova does not exist at all. This is certainly not the case. It may not be so bright to shine in restaurants, but nevertheless it is there, and it has its own characteristics that are simply impossible not to notice (I will talk about them later).

Of course, it was not done without borrowing from Turkish, Greek, Russian, Balkan and Romanian cuisines. It is quite normal for neighboring cultures to influence each other, this is always the case. It is worth noting, however, that none of the recipes were copied completely unchanged. In every dish, Moldovan chefs and culinary specialists put their own zest, this is a creativity in which all parts of the world are combined on one dining table.

What dish is the hallmark of Moldova?

Let's start with the most important dish of this country - hominy! It is prepared from corn, more precisely from corn flour... By the way, corn itself appeared in the Moldavian principality relatively recently - about 300 years ago, and the dish from it has already acquired a national character. Mamalyga is a very ancient dish, and it was originally prepared from millet. It is believed that the Italian polenta is the ancestor of mamalyga.

It is simple and yet very healthy dish have always been attributed to the food of the poor, and once in poor Moldovan families, hominy was a substitute for bread. It can be served as independent dish, but usually something is added for taste: it can be sour cream, grated feta cheese, butter, milk, garlic, cheese, cracklings or mushrooms. The most interesting thing is that it is not customary to cut mamalyga with a knife, it is divided with a thread or broken by hands (I don’t know why with a thread: would it be easier to use a sharp knife? - but it just so happened, we will not betray ancient traditions). Then a piece of hominy is crushed in hands and dipped in sour cream or grated feta cheese.

Of course, classic version cooking hominy. I was once treated to a lazy hominy, i.e. pieces of hominy fried in butter mixed with feta cheese, and sour cream as a sauce - I really liked it. Other tasty modifications are also prepared from it: Sarmale - cabbage rolls or cabbage rolls with hominy; Urs - bryndza is baked in hominy balls.

I must say that White bread takes pride of place with them: all my attempts to find clean Rye bread were not crowned with success (see the article where I talk about the healthiest flour, guess which one?). Therefore, they know a lot of recipes for pies there, the most famous of which are: vertuta and placinte (placinda) (we visited a restaurant that is named after one of them: "La Placinte", located in Chisinau).

Both placinda and vertuta - both are prepared from stretch dough with various fillings: with cottage cheese, feta cheese, nuts, fruits, potatoes, onions and eggs. Their main difference lies in the shape: a vertuta is a roll, rolled in a spiral, and a placinda is a flat cake. We tried cherry twirls - I was amazed at how much toppings they contain! It is immediately evident that there is a surplus in the country.

They also bake there the well-known rolls, cakes and Apple pie... Very often they use puff and butter dough for baking sweets, gingerbread with honey from cornmeal, cookies with a layer of marmalade called semilune, shortbread you giggle. By the way, our famous cabbage pies got the name there - versere.

What sweets are typical for this cuisine?

The peculiarity of sweets lies in the use of mainly nuts, fruits and berries, which is very similar to typical oriental sweets... For example, quince and apple marshmallow, fruit and berry juice jelly, nut nougat, fruit marshmallow, soufflé, marshmallow, marmalade. Another characteristic feature of Moldovan sweets is the use of thick grape juice, a by-product of wine production - must. Fruits and vegetables are cooked in it.

The result of the evolution of Moldovan cuisine is the "Hat Guguta" cake. This cake has the shape of a pyramid, made from rolls with cherry filling, decorated with cream and meringue.

As I said, the climate of this sunny country allows you to grow a whole variety of vegetables: eggplants, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, beets and others. They are fried, steamed, stewed, baked whole, chopped - they make adjika, stuffed. You can see vegetables and legumes on the tables of Moldovans all year round in the form of salads, pickles, side dishes, with first and second courses. In the summer, people are engaged in harvesting pickles for the winter, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and more. Look how much you can find in their basement of the house - as I was told, this is still not enough.

The most popular vegetables are here: Bell pepper, sweet pepper with a spicy taste, which has its own name - gogoshar, and, of course, tomatoes, onions, pumpkin, zucchini and eggplant. By the way, many of you probably like boiled corn. She has her own name there - popushy. As a rule, poop is served with salt, sometimes butter or spicy sauce is added to it. Legumes are also very popular here - they are used to prepare various mashed potatoes: with onions, garlic and vegetable oil. The most common: beans - white and green beans, chickpeas, lentils.

What is the secret of the taste of Moldovan vegetable dishes?

A special place on the table of these peoples is occupied by feta cheese - brine cheese made from sheep's milk and sour cream. These dairy products are added to meat, fish, vegetable and flour dishes to add salty and other flavors, i.e. they act as if in the role of spices and at the same time make the dish more satisfying and nutritious.

In the same way, various hot sauces... For example, Moldavian scordola - sauce made from walnuts with garlic, and muzhdy - a sauce of garlic, salt and meat or vegetable broth... From spices in Moldova, they use in abundance: red, black and allspice, thyme, tarragon, leeks, garlic, celery, parsley, dill, tarragon, coriander, cloves, bay leaves, nutmeg, cinnamon.

How are the first courses prepared?

The soups they prepare represent a mixture of Russian, Caucasian and Mediterranean traditions. The most famous and beloved national soups: zama - soup made from potatoes, onions, raw egg and poultry meat; chorba - a soup cooked with fresh, not fried vegetables on meat broth and flavored with fresh herbs and a sour drink, which I will talk about below, chorba with sour cream is served. There are also simple soups - for example, syrbushka - a soup with vegetables and cornmeal.

The national Moldovan drink, which is added to soups and other liquid dishes to add a sour taste, is sour bran kvass. This drink is very popular among the people.

What about meat?

There are no bans on any kind of meat here. In the villages and villages, many keep geese, ducks and chickens, since it is easier to manage such a farm than to keep livestock. However, sheep, goats, lambs and even cattle are also present. The meat of lambs, calves and young chickens, geese and ducks is especially appreciated.

The main ingredient of meat is mainly in traditional ancient dishes of this region, and in modern cuisine it is more often used as an additional optional component of dishes. One of the ancient meat dishes there are, for example, bones - pork marinated in wine, baked over the fire; kifteluce - fried beef meatballs; resol - cock jelly; fly - smoked pork leg; whole chicken and geese. Very often, meat is fried over an open fire: on a spit or on a wire rack.

A meat dish in which meat acts as a minor component is givech - this is something like vegetable stew, can be prepared with or without meat. Vegetables are stewed and baked in giveche: eggplants, peppers, onions, garlic, phlegm with the addition of tomato juice or tomato paste with pieces of lamb. Moldavian moussaka - vegetable dish, in which less than half of the volume may be minced lamb, or it may be completely absent.

A characteristic feature of the preparation of fatty meat and fish is the use of an acidic component: lemon juice, tomato juice, fruits and wine. The sour taste stimulates the liver and pancreas, which in turn facilitates the digestion and absorption of heavy foods.

Various delicacies are prepared from meat offal in Moldova. For example, a shot is a mutton liver baked in an oil seal. Mititei and kirnecei - fried pork and beef sausages. Mititei - small fried beef sausages without a shell, somewhat reminiscent of cutlets, but different in taste from them. And kirnecei - pork sausages in a shell.

Recently, a meat dish has become popular: Tiraspol cucumbers. They are fried meat rolls with lard, garlic and spices. Sometimes they add cucumbers and feta cheese.

What is the most popular drink in Moldova?

You yourself can guess. The most favorite national drink is, of course, red wine! Scientists claim that Moldovan winemaking traditions are among the oldest in the world. This low-alcohol drink was known here 5000 years ago. Many villages have managed to preserve the rarest grape varieties that are not found anywhere else on the planet. A large selection of wines allows you to choose your own drink for each dish. So, for example, white and red dry wines for meat and poultry, blending - for hominy, Cahors - for sweet pastries and pies, rosé wines - for vegetables.

In confirmation of the wine glory of Moldova, I will cite the following fact: wine galleries in the Moldovan village of Malye Milesti in 2005 were included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in the world! More than 1.5 million bottles of wine are stored in their cellars, which are more than 200 km long.

What other drinks do Moldovans drink?

The variety of fruits and berries made such drinks as compotes, jelly, juices - much more popular than hot teas and coffee. In the summer, many different compotes are harvested: apricot, peach, strawberry, apple, pear and others. In my opinion, this is the best alternative to the juices that are sold in stores.

Have you already guessed why this article was born?

In the article, I have already let slip a couple of times about my walks in Moldova. This summer, during my vacation, I went there to visit my relatives. This was my first visit to sunny Moldova. I was in Gagauzia - the region of Moldova where the Gagauz live - the nationality closest to the Turkic language group. By the way, Moldavian and Gagauz languages ​​are completely different. And in general, these are two different nationalities. As an example, a flat cake, which is called placinda by the Moldovans, is called kyirma by the Gagauz people. There are other language differences for the same things, but this is a topic for a completely different article.

In conclusion, I want to show you a picture of the land in the field: the climate of this country is quite dry.

That's all for me. Thank you all for your attention!

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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." Moldavian cuisine was 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, you don't need to think about where to go in the morning 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 of 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 is 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 the 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 finely ground corn grits. 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).

To funny names national dishes Moldavia 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 completely ate 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 has become 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.

How to cook Moldovan twists? The recipe for this unusual dish with various fillings will be presented below.

general information

What is Moldavian vertuta? Almost every Moldovan knows the recipe for the mentioned dish.

According to experts, a roll is called a twirl, which is very common in. For the preparation of this product, the same basis is used as for placinda. However, eggs and a large amount of sunflower oil are additionally added to it.

Moldavian vertuta, the recipe of which will be discussed below, is made from dough, which is rolled out and then stretched by hand to the thickness of ordinary paper. Further, it is covered with a small layer of filling, after which it is tightly rolled into a tight roll, which is subsequently rolled up in a spiral.

Moldavian vertuta: homemade baking recipes

To prepare the dish in question, you must use the following components:

• wheat flour - about 3 glasses;
• drinking water - about 1 glass;
• fresh chicken eggs - 2 pcs.;
• butter - no more than 50 g;
• vegetable oil - about 0.5 cups.

All of the listed ingredients are required for kneading the dough. As for the filling, for its preparation you should use:

• rustic cottage cheese - about 500 g;
• table salt - 5 g;
• fresh small eggs - 2 pcs.;
• fresh green onions - a small bunch;
• aromatic dill - a small bunch;
• sour cream is not very thick - 10 g;
• egg yolks - 2 pcs. (for lubrication).

Knead the dough

How should you make Moldovan twists? The recipe for such products requires careful kneading of the dough. To do this, sift wheat flour into a bowl, and then add eggs to it and stir with a wooden spoon. Also separately in a glass warm water pour in vegetable oil and add salt. The resulting mixture is added to the flour, after which the products are intensively mixed until elastic dough... Covering the base with a napkin, it is left to rest for 30 minutes.

Preparing the filling

The prepared layer is rolled up into a tight roll and carefully twisted into a bundle. Having rolled the sausage into a snail, it is laid out in the middle of the dish.

From the rest of the layers of dough, exactly the same semi-finished products are made, which are also placed in a mold. At the very end, previously prepared egg yolks mixed with 2 large tablespoons of water, after which they generously grease the Vertuta.

Baking in the oven

How are Moldovan twirls baked? The recipe requires the use of an oven preheated to 197 degrees. All products are sent to it and baked for 40 minutes (until a state of light ruddy).

We bring to the table

The dish in question should be brought to the table immediately after heat treatment... Although some housewives prefer to use twirls cold. Also to Moldovan pastries sweet hot tea must be served.

Moldavian fruit vertuta: a step by step recipe

Few people know, but the considered products of Moldovan cuisine can not only be fried in a pan. How exactly such a process should be carried out, we will describe below.

So, for cooking vertices, you need to purchase:

• large egg - 1 pc .;
• wheat flour - 1.5 cups;
• vegetable oil - about 150 ml (20 ml in the dough, and the rest is for frying);
• drinking water - 0.5 cups;
• 9% apple cider vinegar - a few drops;
• fresh sweet and sour apples - 4 pcs.;
• light sugar - 40 g;
• table salt - a pinch;
• fresh butter - 30 g.

Making the dough

Recipe in question Moldovan pie vertuta requires compliance with all the requirements described. To prepare such a product, you should mix ordinary drinking water with natural vinegar, table salt and vegetable oil. Next, in a separate bowl, you need to sift the flour, break egg and pour in the previously prepared mixture.

By mixing the ingredients with your hands, you get elastic dough... It is covered with a towel and allowed to rest for 20 minutes.

Preparation of the filling

To make the filling for vertuta, sweet and sour apples are peeled and grated on a large grater. To prevent them from turning black, they are sprinkled with a small amount of lemon juice.

Formation process

As soon as the dough has rested, it is divided into 5 parts and rolled out very thinly with a regular rolling pin. Next, the surface of each layer is lubricated with a soft butter... After that, they are covered with apple filling and sprinkled with sugar.

Having rolled the rolls as described in the previous recipe, the edges of the product are tightly pinned. After that, each roll is rolled up with a snail and lightly passed over it with a rolling pin. In this case, the size of the frying pan is taken into account, in which the twirls will be fried in the future.

Frying Moldovan products on the stove

Frying twirls in a pan is quite simple. To do this, the dishes are strongly heated over a fire and vegetable oil is added. Having laid out the formed product, it is fried for two to one minute (over high heat).

After the vertuta turns ruddy, cover the pan with a lid. In this case, the fire is reduced to a minimum. In this form, the products are cooked for about 5 minutes more on each side.

Correct presentation to the dining table

You can use Moldovan twirls both as an appetizer and as a dessert. In both cases, such products should be served hot. This should be done with tea or other drinks.

In this article, we have presented you two of the simplest and available ways how you can quickly and easily make Moldovan twists. However, it should be noted that there are other cooking options for this dish. For example, some housewives make it using cheese, including feta cheese, fried onions and even meat (minced meat). By the way, with such a filling, vertuties turn out to be no less tasty and satisfying than with cottage cheese and apples.

Each of us, coming to some country, wants to try a local, national cuisine and discover her specialties. In Ukraine, this is borscht with bacon and dumplings, in Holland - fresh salted herring, in France - various soups or frog legs with sauce….

And what is delicious in Moldova, how can they surprise us? Moldovan dishes?

I have been accompanying for several years in a rowtours to Moldova from Kiev ... Therefore, I decided to make the top 10, as for my taste, the most delicious dishes of this country.

Perhaps it will come in handy for a curious traveler who is interested in tours from Kiev to Moldova ...

So, let's taste it!

1. Placindes

Moldavian placindes - delicious cakes, which Moldovans prepare from stretched, yeast or puff pastry. The cake itself is round, flat in shape, with a filling inside. As a filling, it happens - cheese, feta cheese, cottage cheese with herbs, cabbage, potatoes, meat, or for sweet filling fruits are used - cherries, apples. As a rule, placintas are served hot, and this is just the same delicious delicacy!

2.

Moldavian twirls are also fried flatbreads, like placinths, but they are usually made of puff pastry and have a different shape. Vertuta - looks like a tube of dough stuffed with potatoes, cottage cheese, fried onions, apples or even raisins with poppy seeds. Vertuta, like placinda, will always be appropriate - in a bite with another dish, as a dessert or as a snack on the road.

When we go on a tour to Moldova and Transnistria, the whole group is happy to stock up on them for a snack on the road! On a full stomach tend to get even more interesting) ....

3. Hominy

Mamalyga is one of the most famous Moldovan dishes. This is a kind of analogue of the Transcarpathian banosh.

Prepared from corn grits finely ground, and unlike banosh, hominy is boiled in water. It turns out that it is so thick that you can easily cut it into pieces. It is usually served with sour cream, tokana (more on that below), feta cheese or “Muzdey” sauce (garlic sauce in broth with spices).

Moldavian sour vegetable soup with the addition of bran kvass. Chorba is prepared with an abundance of different spices and vegetables. Depending on the recipe options, beans, bell peppers, cabbage or rice (instead of potatoes) can be added to the chorba. A popular recipe for chorba with offal, in another case, add beef.

Sour cream and hot pepper are always served with the chorba.

Interestingly, the origin of the name "Chorba" comes from the Turkish word "shurpa", as soups were called in the Ottoman Empire. Apparently, the influence of the long stay of Moldova in the status of a vassal of the Ottoman Empire affected.

Zama. Zama is one of the most popular Moldovan soups. Brewed from homemade chicken with homemade noodles, carrots, parsley, add bran kvass, sometimes thyme and even tomatoes. They are usually served with herbs and sour cream.

These are small juicy meat sausages, without a shell, traditionally fried on a "grater", a sort of analogue of a grill. They are usually prepared from beef meat with the addition of lamb and the addition of spices. Served hot, can be served with herbs and Muzdey sauce.

7. Tokana

Another meat moldavian dish popular in Moldova. As a rule, this is a pork roast, which is fried with spices, sometimes with the addition of wine and sauce, with onions. At the end of cooking, the crushed garlic is added, this gives the dish an appetizing aroma. Served with hominy, feta cheese and herbs.

There is also “Vegetable Tokana”. It's actually fried - stewed in sour cream sauce vegetables. What vegetables? Yes, everything that grows in the Moldovan garden!

Sarmale is a dish similar to stuffed cabbage and dolma. Prepare from different meats, sometimes from several types. IN chopped meat add rice and various spices and herbs. Instead of ordinary cabbage, pickled cabbage or grape leaves are often used on the wrapper. Traditionally, it is stewed in a cauldron.A popular dish at Moldovan weddings. And again - let's remember the Ottoman Empire, as the name comes from the Turkish word "Sarmak". And this in translation - to wrap.

9. Givech

Moldavian Givech is most often a vegetarian dish, in other countries, its counterparts mainly with meat, although how many housewives - so many recipes ...

All vegetables that Moldovans love - bell pepper, eggplant, tomatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes. This is all stewed with seasonings and aromatic herbs. So vegetarians in Moldova will not go hungry!

10. Hat Gugutse

In Moldova, in addition to delicious vegetable and meat dishes, in Moldova there is also delicious desserts... In addition to placinas and twirls, with sweet fillings, more often with fruits, this delicious cake- Hat Gugutse.

Its name comes from the name of a children's story about the adventures of a restless little boy who had a huge funny hat ...

It consists of straws baked according to a certain technology with cherries inside. The composition may also include nuts, and necessarily, the cake is soaked delicious cream, so those with a sweet tooth should definitely try it!

I hope this article was interesting and useful to you.

And if you want to taste all this yummy in Moldova -

see our tours to Moldova andjoin the “Drive Club” journey to this wonderful little country!