Here’s a recipe that will surely keep Dracula and his minions at bay! Is there such a thing as too much garlic? (I’d argue a resounding no.) Mujdei De Usturoi (pronounced moo-sh-day day oose-to-roy) can be used as a dipping sauce for chips, crackers or french fries, or you can use it as an accompaniment to your favorite protein or vegetable.
… Or as a defense against the dangerous strigoi (that’s vampire)…
↓ Recipe below ↓
Romanians love dips and spreads. I’ve already featured Salata de Vinete, an eggplant salad spread, and today I’m excited to bring to you another smokey veggie goodness recipe: Zacusca (pronounced zah-coo-sk-ah). And… surprise! Even though the star of this recipe is the red pepper, there’s eggplant in this one, too!
Fall is the perfect time to make this recipe. With the Autumn harvest, there’s an abundance of fresh vegetables with robust flavors just waiting to be made into something anew. Zacusca is smokey, salty, a little sweet, a little acidic, and fits perfectly atop a slice of crusty baguette. This is also a great recipe to couple with my Coca Bread, or Romanian Flatbread. It’s quick and easy to whip up and gives you a nice carrier to get the zacusca to your mouth.
Since it does take a while to complete this recipe, I wouldn’t fault you for passing it up. Thankfully, zacusca has become more mainstream, with some specialty grocery stores stocking it on their shelves. Here are some options I found from Amazon: here
↓ Recipe below ↓
—But first, some pretty pictures—
I’m back from an unexpected hiatus, where I spent almost all of September, and a bit of October, writing and revising one of my novels. It’s set in 1989 Romania, so I’m able to feature a lot of the dishes on From Dill To Dracula within the story, which is an exciting meld of my two hobbies.
And, well, I’m back! I’m ready to kick off the fall season with fall colors, warm drinks, and these delicious plum dumplings otherwise known as Gomboti (pronounced gom-boat-ee) or Găluște cu Prune (pronounced gah-lou-sh-tay coo proon-ay). To me, everything about these scream fall, and after Milwaukee teased us with a little Summer in October, we’re back in fall temperatures and I’m ready to embrace everything that comes with it.
To be honest, we didn’t have these dumplings very often. I remember my grandma making them a couple of times, but that was enough to hook me. It has to have been at least a decade and a half since I’ve been able to savor the flavor (thanks for the writing tip, Ariana Grande).
By the way, my husband calls these Plumplings, which I don’t have a Romanian translation for, but I’m okay if you call these that, too 🙃
↓ Recipe below ↓
—But first, some pretty pictures—
