The Sarmale: a food that tastes like love.

Broket's Team

5 years ago, I do not remember exactly the day, there was a Romanian event I have never heard about until that day. All my relatives and my parents were chatting about what to cook for that day, but I did not know why. In the afternoon my mother began cooking the usual Christmas food such as Russian salad, veal omelet, some desserts and a dish made of gelatin.

The second day we went to a Romanian oratory where all my relatives came with a lot of food: I didn’t know many of the dishes on those tables. When everybody was there, we began eating and tasting more or less every speciality. I started right away to sample the desserts as they are my favorite, I continued with a traditional Romanian food, then came the moment when I tasted the so-called "Sarmale". It didn’t look particularly appetizing but tasting it I fell in love! After eating a couple of sarmale I asked those who have cooked them for the recipe. Since they were very kind they gave me the recipe and I passed it to my aunt I showed it to my mother thinking that maybe she did not know that special recipe, but she said that she already knew how to cook Sarmale very well, the problem was that it took a long time to do, so I told her that if she cooked it the day after I would helped her. She accepted! The following day my mother prepared all ingredients including rice and told me to start making the rolls, which is not easy, but after a while I learned how to do it.

Following my mother’s instructions step by step, I prepared Sarmale and put them on the stove. A delicious smell was already spreading…


I tasted a couple of Sarmale as soon as they were ready and I would say that that day I ate the most delicious food of Romania!


This is the recipe for 8 people

Ingredients

-500 G pork meat minced;
-100 G rice;
-100 G tomato concentrate;
-about 40/50 vine leaves (sold in brine in Romanian shops);
-1 beautiful large onion;

-2/3 tablespoons of olive oil (maybe sunflower);
-some of thyme and bay leaf;
-dill;
-parsley;
-salt and pepper.

Method
Before proceeding with the composition, wash well and several times with hot water the vine leaves in brine because they are salty and we don’t want our sarmale to be too salty.

Add ground beef to the finely chopped onion, rice, oil, bay leaf, thyme, parsley and dill (everything must be chopped very finely). Season with salt and pepper. If the mixture is not so homogenous add half a cup of hot water. Now taste the mixture: salt and pepper should be enough otherwise Sarmale will be insipid.

Once you have made the dough you proceed to make the rolls.

They do not have to be too big: the perfect size is about 3/4 cm. We put the vine leaf on the palm of the hand and we fill it with the meat, then we roll up and turn with the opening towards us. We must close the rolls very well otherwise in cooking they will get open.

Take a pot of 5 liters and put a little oil. Then settle the remaining grape leaves in order to get a first layer. Fill the pot with hot water and put on the fire for about two hours until Sarmale get soft.In the last half hour of cooking add the tomato paste.

Sarmale are ready when also the rice is perfectly cooked.

You can serve them with polenta and sour cream (or Greek yogurt) and green chili peppers in vinegar.

It goes well with a glass of red wine.

Enjoy your meal !!!

Glossary
Sample: a small part from a larger whole, showing the quality, style, or nature of the whole
Tasted: to test the flavor or quality of by taking some into the mouth
A couple: a few; several; more than one but not many
Cook: to prepare (food) by heat
Recipe: a set of instructions for making or preparing something, esp. a food dish
Stove: an apparatus that furnishes heat for warmth or cooking
Smell: to detect the odor of (something) through the nose; inhale the odor of something
Brine: water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt
Chat: to have an informal conversation
Gelatin: a colorless water-soluble glutinous protein obtained from animal tissues such as bone and skin
Appetizing: appealing or stimulating the appetite
Step by step: doing things in an order, one after the other
Smell: to detect the odor of (something) through the nose; inhale the odor of something
Minced: chopped into very small pieces
Salty: tasting of or containing salt; saline
Ground beef: the flesh of a cow, steer, or bull raised and killed for meat
Chop: to cut or separate (something) with quick, heavy blows, using a sharp tool like an ax or a knife
Season: a period of the year when something is available/
to make more temperate, acceptable, or suitable by adding something else

Insipid:something insipid is lacking in flavor or interest
Dough: flour combined with water, milk, etc., in a thick mass for baking
Pot: a container made of baked clay, metal, etc., used for cooking, serving, and other purposes
Layer: a thickness of some material laid on or spread over a surface
Tomato paste: tomato pulp
Sour: having an acid taste resembling that of vinegar