Lent starts next week for Orthodox
\nbelievers who, for the following seven weeks are not allowed to eat meat, with
\nthe exception of several days when they may have fish. The beginning of Lent is
\nmarked through a family dinner on Shrove Tuesday. According to tradition, on
\nthis day the young ones are paying visits to their parents or other older
\nrelatives while godparents are getting ready to receive their godsons and goddaughters.
\nThere are many customs observed during this period and also superstitions related
\nto it. Alms-giving and handouts, for instance, are common these days in most of
\nrural Romania and in some cities. A special dish that can be part of the Shrove
\nTuesday dinner or offered as alms, is fried chicken with apple sauce.<\/p>\n
\n
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In order to prepare this dish cut
\nthe chicken into slices and fry them in oil or butter. Pour a little bit of water
\nand leave the mixture to simmer for a while adding pepper and salt to taste.
\nThe next step is to prepare the apple sauce for which you’ll have to peel and
\nslice about a kilo of apples. Saut\u00e9 the apple slices in a small quantity of oil
\nadding a little sugar and tomato sauce until it turns into a paste. Pour this
\npaste over the fried chicken and serve it hot with a glass of white wine. Enjoy!
\n<\/p>\n
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On March 9th, Orthodox
\nChristians observe a major holiday, the feast of the forty martyrs of Sebasta,
\nan ancient Armenian city. On the same day, Roman Catholics observe the feast of
\nthe 40 martyr soldiers of Cappadocia. In Romania, this day is traditionally
\ncelebrated with a special dessert, which is specifically meant to physically
\nsymbolize the martyrs. However, there are regional differences in terms of
\nwhich form this dessert takes in various parts of Romania. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Moldavia, the
\neastern province in Romania, the locals make forty figure eights from dough
\nbaked in the oven, doused in honey and minced walnut, while in the southern
\nprovince of Wallachia they are tine figure eights made from raw pasta dough and
\nboiled in sugar water. Today’s recipe is for the baked variety. Here is how you
\nmake them: Take one kilo of flour, 200 grams of sugar, a cup of milk, 100 grams
\nof butter, 6 eggs, yeast, some rum essence if you want, some grated lemon rind,
\nas well as walnuts and honey for the coating. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mix the yeast in the warm milk,
\nthen pour it over the flour in a large kneading vessel. Add in the separated
\negg yolks which you previously mixed with melted butter. Knead the mixture for
\nabout 20 minutes, then leave in a warm place to rise. Tear off pieces of the
\ndough, and roll them into thumb thick strands, which you then twist in the
\nshape of an eight. Lay them on an oiled tray, then put into the preheated oven.
\nWhen they are golden brown, take them out and right away smear them with honey
\nand sprinkle minced walnut on top. Enjoy!<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lent starts next week for Orthodox believers who, for the following seven weeks are not allowed to eat meat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45767],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-174444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-cooking-show"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n