Zacusca – reteta bunicii/Zacusca – grandma’s recipe
Uitandu-ma zilele trecute printre retete am constat ca nu am pus pana acum reteta clasica de zacusca. Adica cea pe care o fac si mama si bunica.
Stiu mai multe retete dar in general nu-mi place mancarea facuta cu mult ulei si prajeala. Asa ca m-am gandit ca poate va este si voua de ajutor o reteta fara prea mult ulei, cu putina sare si…putin afumata.
Looking back through the recipes the other day I noticed that I don’t have yet classic vegetable stew recipe-zacusca. I mean the one my mother and grandmother usually cook for winter.
I know many recipes but in general I do not like food cooked with a lot of oil and fried onion. So I thought it might be helpful to write the recipe without much oil, salt and … a little bit smoked.
Eu am folosit atat legume proaspete cat si coapte. Am copt vinetele si o parte din gogosari si ardei kapia. Am sa scriu cantitatile si care dintre legume au fost coapte si care au fost crude.
Ingrediente:
-2 kg gogosari (copti)
-2 kg ardei kapia (copti)
-2 kg ardei kapia si gogosari (cruzi)
-3 kg rosii (crude)
-2 kg ceapa(cruda)
-4 kg vinete (coapte)
-4 linguri sare grunjoasa
-foi de dafin
-piper
-1 litru de ulei
I used both fresh and roasted vegetables. I roasted the eggplants and some peppers and kapia peppers. I write quantities and which vegetables were roasted and which were fresh.
Ingredients:
-2 kg peppers (roasted)
-2 kg kapia peppers (roasted)
-2 kg kapia peppers and peppers (fresh)
-3 kg tomatoes (fresh)
-2 kg onions (fresh)
-4 kg eggplants (roasted)
-4 tablespoons coarse salt
-bay leaves
-pepper
-1 liter of sunflower oil
Curatam ceapa si o tocam marunt la robot sau masina de tocat. Sunt mult prea comoda si nu am facut niciodata reteta cu legume taiate manual, cu un cutit. Dar voi puteti incerca. Se spune ca e mai buna…
Peel the onion and finely ground it with a food processor or a manual grinder. I am too lazy and I’ve never done manually the vegetables for this recipe, with a knife. But you can try. They say it’s better …
Tocati si rosiile. Eu nu le curat de coaja sau samburi. Mi se pare ca nu mai au nici un farmec 🙂
La fel am procedat si cu gogosarii si ardeii kapia cruzi.
Process the tomatoes also. I don’t peel them or take out their seeds. I think they don’t have any taste without them 🙂
I procedeed in the same way with the fresh peppers and kapia peppers.
In final am tocat si vinetele si ardeii, toate coapte si curatate de mama (pfiuuu…am scapat de partea cea mai grea!).
Finally I processed the eggplants and peppers that were roasted and peeled by my mum (pfiuu…the difficult and ugly part!)
Am pus ceapa si uleiul in tuciul cel mare al mamei. Acum urmeaza partea in care chiar incepe sa ne placa sa facem zacusca! Oarecum…
I put the onions and sunflower oil in my mum’s black pot for cooking outside. Now it begins the funniest part when we love to cook zacusca! Somehow… Am facut focul si ne-am apucat sa calim ceapa si sa ne afumam cu randul :))
We started the fire, we begun tempering the onions in sunflower oil and to smoke ourselves :))
Cand ceapa a devenit galbuie am adaugat ardeii cruzi tocati.
When the tempered onion turned out yellow I added the fresh ground peppers.
Incepe sa se formeze zeama si sa fiarba frumos.
The juice is formed and zacusca begins to boil.
Dupa vreo 15-20 de minute am adaugat rosiile si ardeii copti dar si sarea si piperul.
After 15-20 minutes I added the tomatoes and roasted peppers but also the salt and black pepper.
Dupa inca 30 de minute am pus si vinetele si frunzele de dafin. Am lasat zacusca sa fiarba linistit amestecand din cand in cand pentru a nu se prinde fundul tuciului.
After other 30 minutes I put also the eggplants and bay leaves. I left zacusca to boil slowly and I stirred from time to time in order to prevent the sticking.
Cand zacusca arata cam asa, zeama a cam disparut, inseamna ca trebuie sa o luati cu grija si sa o puneti in borcane curate si uscate. Apoi le streilizati la cuptor intr-o tava tapetata cu hartie (nu mai am teze de doctorat asa ca am folosit cataloagele de cosmetice ale mamei) in care am adaugat apa, timp de 30 de minute.
When zacusca looks like this, and little juice left, means you have to take it carefully and put it in clean and dry jars. Sterilize then in a pan covered with parchment paper (I don’t have PhD thesis now so I used my mother’s cosmetics catalogs) in which we added water, for 30 minutes.
Savurati cateva felii de paine cu zacusca dupa care aranjati frumos borcanele pana la iarna.
Eat some loafs of bread with zacusca and then start arranging your pantries for winter.
Bon appétit!