ROMANIA

First stop: Romania!!

We chose this country by alphebetizing all the countries on a Microsoft excel spreadsheet, and then used a random number generator to select the first country. The number was 143, and so Romania it was!

Romania is located in East Europe, it's neighbors being Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria. It's a little bit smaller than the state of Oregon.

There's about 21 million people living in Romania.

Romania is a Republic, the people speak Romanian, and the dominant religion is Orthodox Christianity.

Sibiu

There are still several medieval cities and towns in Romania with the Gothic feel.

In 2007, this city of Sibiu was elected the cultural capital of Europe.

Romania was the first country lit by electric street lamps in continental Europe.

Bucharest's Palace of Parliament

Romania boasts the largest administrative building in the world!!!

The country was a source of inspiration for two famous novels: "The Castle in the Carpathians" by Jules Verne, and "Dracula" by Bram Stoker.

Romania is Europe's richest country in gold resources. 

The gypsies, which form a good population in Romania, have their own representatives in Romanian Parliament. 

And finally, the best-known dish in Romania is sarmale. 

Sarmale is a stuffed cabbage roll, pronounced "sar-mal-e".

And so, Lisa and I swallowed a bit of fear, and set to work on cooking this dish. 

We combined three recipes to make our own! We used worldcupoffood.wordpress.com , romanianfood.wordpress.com , and the THM stuffed cabbage rolls recipe. 

Ingredients: 

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground pork

Not pictured: white vinegar, parsley, sauerkraut juice, lemon juice.

1 head of cabbage

4 bacon slices-- chopped 

1 medium onion-- chopped

1 small handful of dry parsley

1 Tbs. coconut oil

3 garlic cloves-- minced

2 eggs

1 tsp. Thyme

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)

3/4 cup white vinegar

3 cups water

1/3 cup sauerkraut juice

1 bay leaf

1 Tbs. lemon juice

8 oz. tomato sauce

Few fresh sprigs of dill 

Our recipe is THM adapted by substituting a couple ingredients. We used coconut oil instead of olive/vegetable oil and used the two eggs instead of rice. When you get to the "S-helper stage" in THM, you can add quinoa into the beef mixture instead of the eggs. 

So how do you turn these ingredients into a heavenly Romanian feast? Let's get started.

Steps:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. 

Bring a large pot of water to boil. 

Use a pairing knife to cut the center core out of the cabbage.

Gently peel the cabbage leaves off one at a time until you have 12-15 leaves. 

Once the water in the pot comes to a boil, drop the cabbage leaves into the water. 

Cook about five minutes or until tender.

While the leaves cook, in a large skillet, melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Add chopped bacon and cook until brown. Add chopped onion. Cook until onion turns brown/translucent. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, mix vinegar and water. Using tongs, remove cabbage leaves from boiling water and place into vinegar mixture. Cover the bowl and let sit. 

In a separate large bowl combine pork, beef, thyme, salt, pepper, garlic, crushed red pepper, parsley, and eggs. Mix by hand, then add bacon-onion mixture and mix thoroughly.

In a medium saucepan, combine tomato sauce, sauerkraut juice, lemon juice, about a tsp. of dill, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer while preparing cabbage rolls.

Remove the cabbage leaves from the vinegar mixture. Cut the center rib in a triangle shape and discard.

Divide each leaf into two by cutting down the middle, creating two separate pieces of cabbage.

Place one to two tablespoons of the meat mixture in the center of each piece of cabbage.

 Roll the cabbage: Tuck the thicker side of the cabbage up first.

Fold the right side over. 

Then fold the left side over. 

Finally, tuck the loose ends of the cabbage into the roll. 

Lay each cabbage roll into a large baking dish. (any leftover meat can be placed in between rolls)

Pour tomato sauce mixture over all of the rolls in the dish. Place dill sprigs on top. 

Cover with aluminum foil. 

Place dish in heated oven. Reduce heat to 350. 

Bake for 1 hour, removing foil for the last 15 minutes. 

Out of the oven and ready to eat

And you have Romanian sarmale!! We garnished ours with sour cream and it was de-lic-ous!

Thoughts and Comments: 

Madeline: Honestly, I was pretty scared going into this meal. I had no idea what to expect, didn't know it would take so long to cook, and was afraid that I wouldn't like it even after all of the work put into it. However, I had so much fun and the sarmale was, no joke, one of the best things I have eaten in a long time, and I just came back from the beach! While eating, we played some traditional/classic Romanian music we found on Spotify to get us in the cultural mood. Overall, I would give the sarmale a solid 10/10. Would definitely eat again. 

Lisa: I have been trying new foods/vegetables since starting THM so I wasn't as doubtful whether I would like this or not.  I mean, I have been eating BRUSSELS SPROUTS and loving them!  Being a mom, I was so excited that my daughter wanted to spend time with me this summer cooking together and writing this blog!  What a wonderful start we had with this dish.  It really was SO TASTY!  Want further proof on how amazing it was?  Catherine (my youngest daughter) took leftovers to school the next day for lunch!  I just love discovering how tasty healthy food can be, spending time with Madeline and learning the joys of cooking.  Oh - and don't let Madeline's line about how long it took to make this dish dissuade you from trying it!  We had to wait for my husband to bring home regular cabbage since Madeline bought Chinese cabbage. AND, we had to write down everything we did and take pictures along the way.  I estimate it would take about 30 - 40 minutes of prep time and 1 hour of cooking.  Sometimes, it's worth a little extra effort to prepare a tremendous, tasty meal!

Thanks so much for reading! We can't wait to continue this fun cooking trip around the world and to share it with all of you! 

Bonus: Classic Romanian music: