Paște = Easter

I spent my Easter holiday in Vienna, but I also made it back to Tarnaveni in time to celebrate Easter with the Romanian Orthodox crowd. The Orthodox church uses the Julian calendar, and therefore their Easter is celebrated a week after the Catholic and Protestant holiday for the same event. Saturday night before Easter Sunday, everyone goes to church and there is a procession through town with candles. It's a beautiful sight! Another custom that is similar to a tradition in the States is coloring eggs; however eggs in Romania are elaborately decorated and people even take lessons to learn intricate designs.

I thought I'd include a couple traditional recipes here in Transylvania --the drob sounds gross, but it's actually not too bad!

Cross Pasca, the Easter Cake

INGREDIENTS

Sweet bread dough

• 2 Cups flour
• 3 Whole Eggs, beaten
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 Cup milk
• 1 packet yeast dissolved in a bit of the milk above.
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp rum or rum flavoring
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp grated zest
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Combine flour and sugar and cut butter and oil into flour and add the rest of the ingredients together to form a dough.

Filling

• 1 Pound cottage cheese
• 4 Whole eggs, beaten
• 5 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• ½ Cup raisins
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Whole egg, beaten for egg wash for dough

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Take 2/3 of the dough and roll it out to 1” thick.
• Place dough into a round cake pan (round, to remember the shape of baby Jesus's diaper).
• Twist the remaining dough into a rope (or make two strands and twist it together) and stick it around the edge of the cake dough in the pan. This is known as “the rope of life” in the local customs (perhaps the umbilical cord). You might save a small portion of dough and fashion a cross on top of the filling before placing cake in the oven.
• Set the cake aside in a warm place to rise for 60 minutes.
• Mix all of the filling ingredients together to form a paste.
• After dough rises, pour filling into the center and, add the dough cross, if you like.
• Brush the top of cake and filling with beaten egg and place cake into the oven. Let it bake for 45-55 minutes, then turn off oven and prop oven door open until cake is cool (have patience).
  The cross pasca is taken to church on Easter Morning to be blessed and then served at home.

Drob

A traditional national Easter dish that uses the organs of the lamb is served on Easter Sunday.

INGREDIENTS

• Lamb organs: liver, heart, spleen, kidneys; whatever you have.
• 6 Scallions, chopped
• 4 springs of garlic chives, chopped
• 4 Whole eggs, beaten well
• 1 Cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 Cup fresh dill, chopped
• Caul fat if you can acquire it (fatty membrane around organs; it will melt into the loaf to make it moist)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Loaf Pan
• Bread crumbs
• 3 hard boiled eggs

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Wash organs and cut into bite-sized cubes.
• Place cubes in 3 Cups & 1 Cup white vinegar to remove gamey tastes and smells.
• Put cubes cold water in a pot and boil over medium high heat 25 minutes. Remove foam as it is produced with a ladle.
• Remove from heat, discard water, let meat cool for 15 minutes.
• Grind the meat with all remaining ingredients, except eggs; season.
• Beat eggs, add to meat and stir into a thick paste.
• If too dry, add some sour cream or another beaten egg.
• Grease a loaf pan and dust it with bread crumbs.
• If you have it, place caul fat on bottom of pan and put meat mix on top.
• Work the 3 hard bolied eggs into the meat loaf and cover meat with additional caul fat or brush with a little oil.
• Bake 45-50 minutes until golden brown.
• Remove from oven, cool, remove from pan and refrigerate wrapped in plastic wrap.
• To serve, slice the loaf.