Vegetable ghivetch
Ingredients
4 clusters garlic3 parsley roots
4 or 5 onions
2 celery roots
1/2 cups olive oil
1 turnip
2 cups soup stock or bouillon
1 small head cabbage
1 small head cauliflower
salt and pepper
Those who have seen a vegetable ghivetch as made in Romania will never forget it. First there is the baking dish as big as a wheel and filled with the white, yellow, green, purple and orange colored vegetables in a riot of color. This is then placed in the great earthen bread oven, and as the changing aromas force themselves out into the kitchen and reach your nostrils, a wonder¬ful feeling of anticipation comes over you.
In the cities they prepare their ghivetch in the largest glazed earthenware dish that they have and send it out to the neighborhood baker to be baked in his oven.
Prepare the following vegetables: One bunch of carrots sliced crosswise, 4 large potatoes diced, one eggplant which has been washed, left unpeeled and cubed, one cup of green peas, one cup of green beans sliced lengthwise, one meaty green pepper sliced lengthwise, one cup of green lima beans, 3 parsley roots, 2 celery roots, one turnip, all of these cubed, one small head of cabbage and one small head of cauliflower both cut into thick pieces, I few chopped leeks, one summer or winter squash diced, one handful of okra, 8 to 10 tomatoes sliced thick, one bunch of mixed herbs chopped, one bunch of grapes and 4 clusters of garlic separated into cloves. Mix together all the vegetables gently and place in a large earthenware baking dish.
Fry 4 or 5 sliced onions in 1/2 cup of olive oil or butter to a nice golden brown, add 2 cups of soup stock or bouillon ami bring to a boil. Now pour over the vegetables in the casserole one cup of boiling olive oil, add about 2 teaspoonfuls of salt and some pepper to taste, and finally pour on the hot bouillon with the fried onions.
Cover and bake in a moderate oven, until the juice has been absorbed. Serve hot or cold.
Spring Chicken Stew Peasant Style
Ingredients
2 or 3 spring chickenssalt
5 or 6 onions, chopped
4 or 5 tbs. sour cream
3 tbs. lard
beef soup or water
dried tabasco
peppers
fennel, parsley and dill
Clean 2 or 3 spring chicken and cut into pieces. Fry 5 or 6 onions, chopped into small pieces, to a golden brown in a casserole with 3 tablespoonfuls of lard. Add the cut up chicken in the casserole. Add a pinch of crushed dried tabasco pepper, salt, cover the casserole and cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring from time to time. When no liquid remains, add 4 or 5 tablespoonfuls of sour cream, simmer for 5 minutes, then ad. I enough beef soup or water to just cover the chicken, one table spoonful of finely chopped fennel, one tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley and a little dill. Cover and cook for 1/2 hour, dien serve hot with butter dumplings, noodles or potatoes fried in butter.
Tripe Sour Soup
Ingredients
honeycomb tripelaurel leaf
lovage and thyme
veal knuckle
1 potato and 1 onion
1 egg yolk
2tomatoes
green hot pepper
salt and pepper
butter
1 bunch assorted herbs
4 to 6 tsp. lemon juice
Wash well a nice piece of honeycomb tripe, let stand in salt water for 1/2 hour, then wash again.
Now put it into a pot with 2 quarts of water and add one onion sliced, one laurel leaf, a bunch of assorted herbs, salt and pepper to taste, 2 sliced tomatoes, a veal knuckle, one potato and a little thyme and lovage. Cook slowly for 4 hours or until the tripe is tender.
Lift out the tripe and place it on a board. With a sharp knife cut it into thin strips. Let stand Vi hour, then remove the vege¬tables from the liquid.
Place the strips of tripe back into the pot and continue the boiling in the clear liquid a little longer. Put into a large serving soup bowl one egg yolk and one teaspoonful of lemon juice or vinegar for each person you expect to serve. Beat with a fork until light. Now pour the boiling ciorba with the tripe slowly into the egg mixture and stir constantly.
Serve very hot with a green sharp pepper. If you like a sharpei flavor in the ciorba, add to it a few pepper seeds. Dab with butter.
