For Romania, I made two of their national dishes: mamaliga and zacusca. Mamaliga is really just their version of polenta, and zacusca is a vegetable spread/dip.
The zacusca starts with some nice plump tomatoes. The recipe I used called for canned tomato puree, but I feel like I can always notice the metallic taste when using canned tomato puree or sauce, so I decided to just cook some down myself.
And also includes roasted red peppers. Sometimes I prefer to roast my own peppers, but sometimes I rely on the kind in the jar because it's just so much easier and I don't have to worry about peeling the skins off. I opted for convenience this time.
The tomatoes are diced and thrown in to a pot with some onion to saute and soften.
While the tomatoes were breaking down in the pot, I roasted some eggplant. The flesh gets soft enough to scoop out of the skin, but not as soft as if you were making baba ganoush.
Then, the eggplant is strained for a while to get out as much of the liquid as possible.
Once the tomatoes break down, it starts to look more like a sauce.
And then it's time to add the drained eggplant and the roasted red peppers.
I let that stew for a while with some bay leaves to get nice and flavorful and allow the eggplant and red peppers to soften up even more.
Meanwhile, I started to prepare the mamaliga. Now, the few times I've tried polenta I haven't liked it. I love grits and cornbread, so one would think I would like polenta. But every time I've had it, it's been bland and dry, somewhere between wet cornbread and dry grits. I think the main difference in the kind I've made for Romania and since, is that this is more of a porridge, instead of a solid chunk that's been cooked a second time. I like a little bit of solidification (I think grits are best when left to cool and congeal in a pot) but cooking it again just sucks all the moisture and flavor out of it.
Luckily, this recipe doesn't call for a second cook. It's literally made with just corn meal, water, and salt. The cornmeal is vigorously whisked into a pot of almost boiling water. You have to keep whisking to make sure you get all the lumps out.
This recipe called for then covering the pot, but leaving it open a crack, and whisking every few minutes. I'm not sure what the point of this step is. Maybe the steaming helps it set better. I've made similar corn meal dishes (like pap for African countries) where no covering is necessary, just thorough stirring, and it's always turned out great. Slightly different consistency, but the same flavor.
Mamaliga can either be served with a loose consistency, to be eaten with a spoon in a bowl, or you can use less water to create a "sturdier" consistency. I went somewhere in the middle, but leaning more towards sturdy. I spread it on a plate and let it stiffen up somewhat. I was hard enough to slice and serve as a pie, but loose enough to be eaten with a spoon alongside the zacusca.
Speaking of which, once all the vegetables have cooked for about an hour, a bit of honey is added for sweetness (I guess to balance out the acid of the tomatoes) and the whole thing is roughly pureed. It turns into a spread consistency with a few chunks of vegetables here and there. Zacusca is traditionally eaten on bread as an appetizer but I decided to just eat it in larger portions with the mamaliga.
The recipe made a huge pot of it, so I ended up eating it for lunch a few days in a row. Not complaining though! I love all the vegetables involved, and for something so simple it has a lot of flavor.
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