Bassen Guesthouse sour soup
Ingredients: 2-3 onions, 2-3 carrots, 2-3 parsley, 1 slice of celery, ½ cole rape, 1 potato, 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, 2-3 garlic cloves, (one may add a cube of Knorr and ¼ pack of borsch), 2 eggs, sour cream, 1 chicken breast.
Preparation: chop the onions and fry in a bit of oil. Scrape the carrots and braze a bit. Scrape the celery and the parsley and add to meat (previously chopped) then braze (for maximum 1 min.). Add the pepper (green and red) then let it boil until the meat and the carrots are almost done. Chop the potato and the cole rape and add them on close to the end, then boil a little longer. Separate the egg whites and yokes then whisk the whites and pour the whites gradually into the soup. Turn off the stove then mix the yokes with 2-3 spoons of sour cream and slowly pour into the soup. Add green parsley.
Saxon pork chop with cabbage and beans
Place in a pot a smoked pork chop. Cut 2-3 onions into slices, add spices (salt, pepper, laurel, basil, rosemary, etc – as the guests prefer it) then drown the pork chop in beer and wine. Leave it for at least 6 hours then simmer it for 3-4 hours until is tender. After it is boiled take it out of the pot and put it in an oven tray then let it roast for 5 – 10 minutes. Serve it with slow roasted cabbage stew or stewed beans.
Transylvanian polenta with cheese and scrambled eggs
300 g corn flour, 1 l water, salt, 150-200 g kneaded cheese, 50 g butter, 50 -100 g hard cheese, 50- 100 g sour cream
Boil the water and make a medium polenta (not very hard). Take a clay pot or other heat resistant pot and coat with butter then place a layer of polenta, a layer of cheese, then finish up with another layer of polenta. As you add cheese keep adding a bit of sour cream. Scrape hard cheese on top and add a whiskered egg. Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes until it becomes crisp. Serve it hot and add sour cream.
Roasted Saxon cauliflower
Cooking time: 50 min.
Complexity: low
Ingredients: 500 g cauliflower, 2 onions, 1 garlic clove, 1 spoon of oil, 500 g smoked ham, salt, pepper, 200 g sour cream, 2 eggs, 100 g hard cheese. Preparation: Peel and wash the cauliflower then boil it for 8 minutes and add salt. Strain and let it rest in the strainer for a while then put it in a heat resistant pot. Peel the onion and the garlic then chop and braze. Add sliced ham, leave it for a while to drain the excess fat then add to the cauliflower in the pot. Add salt and pepper. Mix the sour cream and the eggs and hard cheese then add to the vegetables. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes until it turn brownish.
Bassen Guesthouse eggplant and tomato stew (Zacuscă)
Ingredients: 20 kg eggplants (fresh), 7 kg peppers, 7 kg bell peppers, 4 l of oil (but not poured all at one, we start with 3 l then add some more if needed), 6 kg onions (brazed), 5 kg tomato sauce, salt, pepper, laurel, 2 cans of mushrooms (or fresh mushrooms). Preparation: broil the eggplants, the peppers, the bell peppers, braze the onions then mince. Boil with oil (3 kg for starters). Add spices (salt, pepper, laurel), some sugar. Boil until the oil rises to the top. Sterilize the jars the dry. Put the stew in the jars then boil in bain-marie about 20-25 minutes (from the moments it starts to boil). Place a rag under the jars and another one to cover the jars.
Apple pie
Ingredients:
-1 egg, 7 spoons of sugar, 5 spoons of milk, 1 baking powder, about 400 g flour, about 1kg scraped apples and brazed with sugar and cinnamon, a bit of farina
Mix the egg, the sugar, the milk, the baking powder and the flour to get dough for 2 layered sheets. Divide the dough in two parts and spread the first half by using a rolling pin to fit the baking tray (tray has to be buttered or coated with baking paper) then add a handful of farina and spread the scraped apples.
Place the second sheet of dough on top then spread it to fit the tray. Sting the dough with the fork (to let it breathe). Put it in the pre-heated oven then let it bake. When ready spread a bit of powdered sugar and cut it to serve.
Rhubarb pie
Ingredients: 5 eggs, 350 g sugar, 250 g margarine, baking powder, 300 g flour, scraped lemon peel, 500-600 g rhubarb.
Preparation: the dough for this cake is similar to the sponge cake dough. To prepare it mix the yokes with 100 g of sugar, margarine, baking powder and flour so that the mix is not lumpy. Clean and chop the rhubarb then mix with sugar and let it cool for a while. After that whisk the egg whites with 250 g of sugar to turn them into hard foam. Put the dough in the oven and let it bake for 30 minutes. When ready add the rhubarb and cover with whites foam. Let it bake some more. Let it cool for a while before serving.
