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25-506: Penteleu or Cașcaval de Penteleu is the name of a Romanian cheese made with sheep milk , originally from the Buzău Mountains region. It is made using the same process as caşcaval , and can be consumed as a table cheese or it can be used to complement traditional Romanian dishes such as mămăligă . This cheese -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Romanian cuisine -related article

50-500: A mezze dish, or hot. The Egyptian version of moussaka is made from layers of fried eggplant immersed in tomato sauce and then baked. A layer of seasoned cooked ground beef is usually added between the eggplant before baking. The dish can be served hot but is usually chilled for a day or so to improve the taste. Turkish musakka is not layered. Instead, thinly sliced eggplant is fried and served in tomato-based meat sauce seasoned with green peppers , garlic and onions . It

75-512: A few types of dishes. After the borș, Greek dishes would follow, boiled with herbs floating in butter, and finally cosmopolitan steaks". Cheese has been a part of Romanian cuisine since the beginning of its history. Brânză is the generic term for cheese in Romanian. Maize and potatoes became staples of Romanian cuisine after their introduction to Europe . Maize, in particular, contributed to health and nutrition improvements of Romanians in

100-399: A generic term; for example, the category ciorbă includes a wide range of soups with a characteristic sour taste. Variations include meat and vegetable soup, tripe ( ciorbă de burtă ) and calf foot soup, or fish soup, all of which are soured by lemon juice , sauerkraut juice ( zeamă de varză ), vinegar , or borș (traditionally made from bran). The category țuică (plum brandy)

125-479: A pan and baked until the top is browned. Typically, the Romanian version is made with potatoes or eggplant or cabbage. The layers start with the vegetable, then the layer of meat (usually pork), then vegetables, until the pot is full. Sometimes bread crumbs are used as a topping, sometimes slices of tomatoes and crushed cheese. The pot is then filled with tomato sauce. There is also a pasta variant, with pasta being used instead of vegetables. The "fasting" variant, which

150-465: A variation of kofta ). The various kinds of ciorbă and meat-and-vegetable stews, such as iahnie de fasole (beans), ardei umpluți (stuffed peppers), and sarmale (stuffed cabbage) are influenced by Turkish cuisine . Romanian recipes bear the same influences as the rest of Romanian culture. The Turks brought meatballs ( perișoare in a meatball soup), from the Greeks there is musaca , from

175-422: A wide selection of domestic varieties ( Fetească , Grasă , Tămâioasă , Busuioacă , and Băbească ), as well as varieties from across the world ( Italian Riesling , Merlot , Sauvignon blanc , Cabernet Sauvignon , Chardonnay , and Muscat Ottonel ). Beer is also highly regarded, generally blonde pilsener beer , made with German influences. There are also Romanian breweries with a long tradition. According to

200-473: Is brânză , and it is considered to be of Dacian origin. Most of the cheeses are made from cow's or sheep's milk. Goat's milk is rarely used. Sheep cheese is considered "the real cheese", although in modern times, some people refrain from consuming it due to its higher fat content and specific smell. Moussaka Moussaka ( / m uː ˈ s ɑː k ə / , UK also / ˌ m uː s ə ˈ k ɑː / , US also / ˌ m uː s ɑː ˈ k ɑː / )

225-663: Is vegan , replaces meat with mushrooms or a mix of sautéed onions and rice. In the rest of the Balkans , the top layer is often a custard : this is the version introduced in the UK by Elizabeth David 's Mediterranean Cookery and where it remains the usual presentation. Grated cheese or bread crumbs are often sprinkled on top. In the Levant , moussaka is a cooked dish made up primarily of tomatoes and eggplant, similar to Sicilian caponata , and may also include chickpeas . It may be served cold as

250-489: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Romanian cuisine Romanian cuisine includes numerous holiday dishes arranged according to the mentioned season and holiday since the country has its religious roots in Eastern Orthodoxy. Romanian dishes consist of vegetables, cereals, fruits, honey, milk, dairy products, meat and game. Various kinds of dishes are available, which are sometimes included under

275-692: Is a name for a strong alcoholic spirit in Romania . With the cuisine of Romania being shared by another country, namely Moldova , there are similarities between the cuisines of the two Romanian-speaking countries. In the history of Romanian culinary literature, Costache Negruzzi and Mihail Kogălniceanu were the compilers of a cookbook "200 rețete cercate de bucate, prăjituri și alte trebi gospodărești" (200 tried recipes for dishes, pastries and other household things) printed in 1841. Also, Negruzzi writes in "Alexandru Lăpușneanu", "In Moldavia , at this time, fine food wasn't fashioned. The greatest feast only offered

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300-453: Is an eggplant (aubergine)- or potato-based dish, often including ground meat , which is common in the Balkans and the Middle East , with many local and regional variations. The modern Greek variant was created in the 1920s by Nikolaos Tselementes . Many versions have a top layer made of milk-based sauce thickened with egg ( custard ) or flour ( béchamel sauce ). In Greece , the dish

325-596: Is first attested in English in 1862, written mùzàkkà . Most versions are based primarily on sautéed aubergine (eggplant) and tomato , usually with minced meat, mostly lamb. The Greek version includes layers of meat and eggplant topped with a béchamel ("white") sauce and baked. The modern Greek version was created by the French-trained Greek chef Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1920s. His recipe has three layers that are separately cooked before being combined for

350-462: Is layered and typically served hot. Tselementes also proposed a vegan variant for orthodox fast days . Romania also has a vegan version that replaces meat with mushrooms or a mix of sautéed onions and rice. The versions in Egypt , Turkey and the rest of the Middle East are quite different. In Egypt, messa'aa can be made vegan or vegetarian as well as with meat; in all cases, the main ingredient

375-439: Is served: the main dishes are borș de miel (lamb sour soup), roast lamb, and drob de miel – a Romanian dish similar to haggis made from minced offal (heart, liver, lungs), lamb meat and spring onions with spices, wrapped in a caul and roasted. The traditional Easter cake is pască , a pie made from yeast dough with a sweet cottage cheese filling at the center. Romanian pancakes, called clătite , are thin (like

400-579: Is the fried eggplant. In Turkey, mussaka consists of thinly sliced and fried eggplant served in a tomato-based meat sauce, warm or at room temperature. In Saudi Arabia , muṣagga‘a is eaten hot, but in other Arab countries , it is often eaten cold, but occasionally hot as well. The English name for moussaka was borrowed from Greek mousakás ( μουσακάς ) and from other Balkan languages , all borrowed from Ottoman Turkish , which in turn borrοwed it from Arabic muṣaqqa‘a ( مصقعة , lit.   ' pounded ' or ' cold ' ). The word

425-537: Is the main meat used in Romanian cuisine, but beef is also consumed, along with mutton and fish. Before Christmas , on December 20 (Ignat's Day or Ignatul in Romanian ), a pig is traditionally slaughtered by every rural family. A variety of foods for Christmas are prepared from the slaughtered pig, such as: The Christmas meal is sweetened with the traditional cozonac , a sweet bread made with nuts, poppy seeds, or rahat (Turkish delight). At Easter , lamb

450-426: The former Yugoslavia , and Romania , potatoes are used instead of eggplant, pork or beef mince, and the top layer is usually milk or yogurt mixed with raw eggs, sometimes with a small amount of flour added. There is also a three-layer version: the bottom layer consists of ground pork and beef, the middle layer of potato slices, and the top layer is typically a custard . Each layer is cooked on its own and layered in

475-515: The 16th and 17th centuries, resulting in a population boom. For about three centuries, Wallachia and Moldavia, two of the three medieval Romanian principalities, were mildly influenced by their various neighbors, like the Ottoman Empire . Ottoman cuisine changed the Romanian table with appetizers made from various vegetables , such as eggplant and bell peppers , as well as various meat preparations, such as chiftele (deep-fried meatballs,

500-528: The 2009 data of FAOSTAT , Romania is the world's second largest plum producer (after the United States ), and as much as 75% of Romania's plum production is processed into the famous țuică , a plum brandy obtained through one or more distillation steps. Followers of the Romanian Orthodox Church fast during several periods throughout the ecclesiastical calendar amounting to a majority of

525-679: The Austrians there is the șnițel , and the list continues. The Romanians share many foods with the Balkan area and former Austria-Hungary. Some others are original or can be traced to the Romans, as well as other ancient civilizations. The lack of written sources in Eastern Europe makes it impossible to determine today the exact origin for most of them. One of the most common meals is the mămăligă ( polenta ), served on its own or as an accompaniment. Pork

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550-454: The French crêpe ) and can be prepared with savory or sweet fillings: ground meat , cheese , or jam . Different recipes are prepared depending on the season or the occasion. Wine is the preferred drink, and Romanian wine has a tradition of over three millennia. Romania is currently the world's ninth largest wine producer, and recently the export market has started to grow. Romania produces

575-644: The eggplant slices, sautéed zucchini (courgette) slices, part-fried potato slices, or sautéed mushrooms . There is a fast-day ( vegan ) version in Tselementes' cookbook, which includes neither meat nor dairy products, just vegetables (ground eggplant is used instead of ground meat), tomato sauce, and bread crumbs. Another variant is (melitzanes) papoutsakia (μελιτζάνες) παπουτσάκια ( lit.   ' eggplant, little shoe style ' ) which consists of whole small eggplants stuffed with ground meat and topped with béchamel and baked. In Albania , Bulgaria ,

600-435: The final baking: a bottom layer of sliced eggplant sautéed in olive oil; a middle layer of ground lamb lightly cooked with chopped or puréed tomatoes, onion, garlic , and spices ( cinnamon , allspice and black pepper ); and a top layer of béchamel sauce or savoury custard . There are variations on this basic recipe, sometimes with no top sauce, sometimes with other vegetables. Such variants may include, in addition to

625-507: The year. In the Romanian Orthodox tradition, devotees keep to a diet without any animal products during these times. As a result, vegan foods are abundant in stores and restaurants; however, Romanians may not be familiar with a vegan or vegetarian diet as a full-time lifestyle choice. Many recipes below have vegan versions, and the vegetables section below contains many common fasting foods. The generic name for cheese in Romania

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