To understand the basics of gypsy cuisine, you should first study the history of a people whose representatives themselves call themselves “Roma”. It is known that this ethnos is non-territorial, that is, it does not have its own country. However, in the world, according to various sources, there are from five to eleven million Roma. These people had a great influence on European music. As for the national cuisine of the Roma, then the opposite process is observed.
Gypsies borrowed the recipes of the peoples where they had lived for a long time. From the cookbook of the Roma, you can learn about the difficult migration routes of this people - from the Hindustan Peninsula to Portugal itself. That is why gypsy cuisine is so heterogeneous.
As in the Jewish one, due to the settlement of this people around the world, northern and southern directions are distinguished in it. The first often uses potatoes, beets, sauerkraut, and the second - chickpeas and corn. At the same time, it is not necessary to talk about the kitchens of "Aliyev" and "Sephardim" in a gypsy version. Roma retained their general cooking skills, due primarily to the nomadic way of life.
In their kitchen there are many dishes of baked meat on an open fire and thick soups cooked in a cauldron. The difficult history of this people, which experienced a lot of persecution and hunger, was reflected in the products that the Roma consumed. So, the Baltic and Polish Roma eat hedgehogs - stewed or fried. This is due to forced life in the thickets during the time of persecution.
In this article, we will not touch on the hedgehog, but consider other delicious gypsy dishes. Recipes with photos you will find below.
Spicy soup
Pork (250 g) is cut into thin strips. Half a kilo of tomatoes scalded with boiling water, remove the skin and cut into cubes. From three bell peppers of different colors, we take out the grains, chop the flesh with straws. Grind five cloves of garlic. Two bulbs shred straw. Cut 125 g of fat into small cubes.
Dishes of gypsy cuisine, the recipes of which you are familiar with, are often cooked over an open fire. They can be borrowed for making sabantui in nature - on a camping trip or in the country. We take a cauldron, put a spoonful of lard there, and fry the meat on this fat. Gradually add lard, onion and pepper. Then garlic, salt and spices. Pour a glass of red dry wine full to the brim and cut into small pieces two dry chili peppers. We strain the jar of canned red beans. Finely chopped parsley, basil, thyme and thyme (several stalks). Add tomatoes, beans, a teaspoon of sugar and greens to the cauldron.
Pour 500-700 milliliters of water. Simmer over low heat until cooked.
Gypsy borsch
As mentioned above, the cookbook of the Roma nomads absorbed the culinary traditions of the indigenous settled peoples. As you might guess, borscht gypsy cuisine was borrowed from the Ukrainians.
We cut six hundred grams of pork into small pieces. Fry it over very high heat until fat is completely melted. When a golden crust forms on the meat, put it on a plate. We collect pork fat . We clean and cut into strips: four hundred grams of potatoes, cabbage, beets, three onions and carrots.
All vegetables are separately fried in melted pork fat. We shift them into a soup pot. Fill with a small amount of water and simmer for 25 minutes over low heat.
We put the meat in a cast-iron goose mullet and stew it with four sliced tomatoes. When it is ready, put on the fire a kettle with two liters of water.
Add meat with tomatoes to other vegetables, pour boiling water. Add salt, bay leaf, spices to taste. Tomim borsch under the lid on low heat for another half an hour.
Korzhiki
And how did the Roma bake bread? After all, nomadic life does not provide for a real stove. But in the gypsy cuisine there are unusually tasty buns of dough called pugaccio. And also - a variety of cakes that are baked directly on the hot stones in the fire.
But sedentary gypsies living in the vastness of Eastern and Central Europe have recipes for cookies and pies that need to be cooked in the oven. They can be either sweet or not.
We bring to your attention a recipe for shortbread with cracklings and caraway seeds. First, cut the fat into small pieces. We make greaves out of it. Grind them even more with a rolling pin. Add two or three egg yolks, a teaspoon of salt and soda.
Sift into this mass two cups of wheat flour. Knead the dough. It should be very cool. Roll out the dough into a layer with a half centimeter thick. Inverted glass cut out circles of it.
Paste their upper surface with a fork, grease with a little whipped protein and sprinkle with caraway seeds. We put the products on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. We’ll send it for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes to the oven, which is not very hot.
Gipsy cuisine, recipes with photos: main dishes
From the meat of the Roma in honor, chicken and other poultry, pork, beef, as well as lamb. The latter is considered an expensive holiday dish. Now we will learn how to make lamb shulum. Like many other national rum dishes, it is cooked at the stake.
We chop a kilogram of lamb and mix with four onion chopped rings. We wrinkle a little with our hands and leave to marinate for a quarter of an hour.
In the cauldron we put 150 grams of fat tail fat, we heat it and fry the meat with onions on it. Add four medium sliced carrots. Pour some water into the cauldron. Add half a head of cabbage, two bay leaves, ten peppercorns.
We cut a kilogram of potatoes into a cauldron. Stew under the lid until the vegetables are ready. Scalp two tomatoes with boiling water. Peel them and cut large into a cauldron. Add two pods of dried pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, eight juniper berries, salt and herbs to taste.
Continue to simmer under the lid until this gypsy dish is cooked. If necessary, add water.
Pork ribs
We need a kilogram of meat on the bone. Butcher, wash, rub with a mixture of salt and black pepper. Leave for twenty minutes. Pour a little vegetable oil into the cauldron. Fry pork ribs to a delicious crust on meat.
In the cuisine of the gypsy people, many spices are often used. And in this case, we do not regret seasonings. It can be a special mixture for pork, or spices of your choice. Black pepper and nutmeg are required.
While the meat is fried, peel a kilogram of potatoes. We cut it into a cauldron, fry it until ready. Add tomato at the end. It is better to remove the skin from it. For this, the tomato is dipped in boiling water for a second.
Serve the pork ribs with a potato and tomato garnish to the table, sprinkling the dish with fresh herbs.
Festive roast
Gypsy cuisine, recipes with a photo of which are presented here, knows really luxurious dishes. They are prepared for special moments, such as a wedding, and in large quantities.
We dilute half a liter of water with a glass of grape vinegar, bring this solution to a boil. Add two finely chopped onions, two tablespoons of sugar and spices for the roast. Cool the marinade and put the chopped beef (kilogram) there. Leave for two days in a cool place.
Dry the meat with a paper towel, rub it with pepper and salt. Put two tablespoons of melted butter in a cauldron. Fry the meat on it.
In a separate bowl, mix 125 milliliters of marinade and meat broth. We crush there 50 g of sweet gingerbread. Pour this liquid into the cauldron. Simmer for at least an hour under the lid.
Two hundred and fifty grams of dried fruits (raisins, dried apricots, prunes, figs) are soaked in warm water until softened. We filter it, transfer it to 125 ml of apple juice. Boil it. Add a little juice from the roast. Boil a little.
This sauce can be served separately or sprinkled with roast when served.
Pork at the stake
We have already mentioned that due to the nomadic life of Roma, many recipes for gypsy cuisine involve cooking on an open fire. And in this case, you need to skillfully regulate the power of the flame. Needless to say, the quality of wood for a bonfire directly affects the taste of the dish?
One kilogram of pork tenderloin is washed, dried and cut across the fibers into pieces 1.5-2 centimeters wide. Lightly beat off with a hammer. Sprinkle black pepper and salt on both sides. When the bonfire flares up strongly, put the meat on a clean sheet of tin or a dry cast-iron pan. Fry for half a minute on each side.
When a golden crust appears on the chops, remove them from the fire and put them in a metal dish with a lid. We put them there in layers, shifting each with a generous handful of green parsley, dill and cilantro. Cover with a lid.
We put the dishes near the fire, and when it burns out, on the coals. After a quarter of an hour, the meat is ready. Gypsy cuisine is not very fond of fish. But if the Roma manage to catch her, they cook her in a similar way.
Gypsy cutlets
It would be more correct to say “brizoli”. After all, a camp of Roma rarely carries a meat grinder with it. Stuffing for cutlets in gypsy national cuisine is prepared by simply cutting the pulp into small pieces. We can follow the example of the Roma and thus cut half a kilogram of chicken. But also we can simply buy this amount of ready-made stuffing.
By the way, such meatballs can be prepared from turkey and pork. Add two eggs to the minced meat, squeeze a clove of second garlic, sprinkle with salt and spices. Finely chop several dill branches. Chop the onion and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.
In the mince we will add three tablespoons of potato starch and twice as much mayonnaise. At the stake, we heat a dry cast-iron frying pan or a clean plate. We make cutlets from minced meat and put them out to fry. We serve them with some side dish.
Goose in wine
Gypsy cuisine (photo of the dishes prove it) is very simple, but nonetheless tasty. Basically, it is dominated by various types of meat, baked, fried or stewed with lots of spices. This recipe is used by Romanian and Hungarian Roma, often leading a sedentary lifestyle.
The goose carcass should be cut into pieces. From two glasses of dry white wine, 2 onions chopped in half rings, 2 bay leaves, a clove of garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, a teaspoon of thyme, salt and six peas of allspice to cook marinade. Hold the goose in it for at least an hour (it is best to spend the night in a cool place). After that, do not pour the marinade.
We get the goose and transfer it to a deep pan, overlaying slices of bacon on all sides. Bake in the oven over high heat. You often need to turn the goose and water it with the allocated juice. After half an hour, when the meat gets a golden hue, add the marinade and two glasses of chicken broth.
Reduce the heat, cover the dishes and simmer for another hour until the goose’s meat is soft.
Side dishes
Since the Roma did not engage in gardening, vegetables appeared on their table from time to time. At the same time, northern gypsy cuisine, the recipes of which you already read the photo, preferred to deal with potatoes. Southern Roma used a wider variety of vegetables. In their cookbook we find dishes from eggplant, zucchini, corn.
Try the Fusui Balkan rum dish. Translated, this word simply means "beans." The main ingredient must be red. Beans are soaked in the evening, boiled in the morning. But you can equally use the canned product. You need a jar of net weight of 850 grams.
But first, you should peel three to four large onions and cut them into strips. Pour three tablespoons of vegetable oil into the pan. We pass the onions until they get a golden color.
We strain the beans and put in a pan. Add the finished gypsy sauce. If it is not, you can use tomato paste, adding black and red peppers and caraway seeds to it. Bring to a boil.
Add to taste and season with spices. This dish is good in hot form as a side dish for meat. But cold, it is also delicious. It can be served as a snack.
Gipsy cuisine, recipes: pastries
Despite the fact that Roma cook food at the stake, several recipes from the dough are stored in their cookbook. What is the traditional Bocmoreau bread worth? It is prepared from flour, yeast, water, sugar, salt, eggs with the addition of garlic, olive oil, black pepper and honey. The proportions of each mistress are different. Eating such bread brings good luck.
And here’s another baking recipe - this time sweet. The recipe for “Gypsy Mazurkas” was taken from Roma living in Poland. Grind five yolks with 200 grams of sugar. Beat the whites in a lush foam. Combine both sides of the eggs, add one hundred grams of sifted flour. Measure out 100 g of raisins, nucleoli, nuts, figs, dates; 50 g candied orange peel.
Soak dried fruits. Calcify the nuts in a dry pan. Rub the zest. Grind dried fruits, candied fruits and nuts. Put all this mass on the finished wafer cake layer in an even layer. Place in a moderately heated oven and bake for half an hour.