Romanian Zacusca

A traditional vegetable spread found in Romania (probably in other neighboring countries as well). It is delicious on crust bread or even as a topping on rice for a quickie vegetarian meal. It is also excellent as a sandwich spread. This recipe is for a large batch intended for canning. You can cut it back if you want a smaller batch for immediate consumption.
Ingredients:
8 lbs fresh eggplants
6 lbs red peppers
2 lbs onions
2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups tomato paste
2 cups olive oil
Over an open flame (gas stove or grill) completely blacken the skins of the eggplants and peppers.
Peel skins off immediately. Easiest way to get the last bits off is to do it under a slow running faucet.
Puree each of the three vegetables separately in a food processor. And place each in a separate bowl when you are finished.
Place oil and onion in a large pot.
Saute onions for about 4 minutes over medium-low heat.
Add eggplant, onion, salt and pepper.
Cook until a thin layer of oil remains on top and when a spoonful of zacusca is removed, only the oil should run off the spoon, not the zacusca.
Taste and adjust salt and pepper to meet your tastes.
Spoon mixture into sterilized jars of your choosing. It is easiest if they are all the same size.
Wipe rims clean and place clean lids and rings on jars.
Place into a single layer in large pot (water bath canner if you have one).
Fill pot with water up to the necks of the jars. Bring to a boil and boil for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to cool in water bath.
When cool remove from water and you are ready to go. If oil separates just mix it back in when ready to serve.
NOTE: My original Romanian recipe calls for a full Liter of oil but results in a much heavier and oilier zacusca. I cut mine back substantially from the original.

Romanian Coliva

Coliva is the Romanian translation of the Greek κόλλυβα (kólliva) and it describes a sweet pudding made of boiled wheat.

Ingredients: 1 kg wheat kernel, 250 g sugar, 150 g honey, water to cover the kernels, 240 g crushed walnuts, crunched graham crackers as needed, powdered sugar as needed, vanilla, fine zest from 1 lemon, fine zest from 1 orange, colored candy, 100 g milk chocolate grinded fine or cocoa powder.
Since coliva is a ritual dish, its preparation follows a ritual too. The day before the liturgy prepare the wheat as follows:
Wash the wheat kernel with nine waters (one for each of the 9 angel squads in heaven) then boil in a Teflon pot for 2-3 hours at medium heat. Stir thoughtfully with a wooden spoon to prevent the wheat from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When boiled, put content into an enameled pot and covered with a wet towel, so that the composition won’t form a “crust.”

Sweeten the composition with 250 g sugar and 150 g honey. Flavor with zest from one lemon and one orange and with 1 TBS vanilla.Add 200 g of the crushed walnuts and stir till all these extra ingredients incorporate in the wheat composition evenly. Your coliva is now almost ready – all it needs is the décor that will make it fit for the liturgy.

Place the composition on a large platter and form the coliva with your hands, respecting its shape – make sure you even the coliva to look like a cake. Coliva can take any form: rectangular, oval or round, and sometimes even “cross.” With the rest of the crushed walnuts and crushed graham crackers cover the coliva on the top and the sides. Add powder sugar and then make your ornaments out of chocolate and candy. You can even use half walnuts to form a cross or to ornate the sides of the coliva.

Varza (cabbage) à la Cluj

Varza à la Cluj is a special type of food specific to Transylvania, almost as popular as the "sarmale" that's made up of minced meat and rice in a pan and then baked in the oven.
Ingredients
1 piece of sauerkraut
1 onion
750 g of pork meat
4 tablespoons of grease
a tea cup full of sour cream
½ tea cup full of rice
salt
black pepper
some dill - optionally
How to cook it
Mince the meat and fry it in a saucepan together with the grease and some onion; smother it down from by adding a spoon of water from time to time
The chopped sauerkraut has to be smothered a little bit ( for about 20 min.) – use the oven and a pan
Boil the rice in salty water for a little bit and then put it in a sieve to take the water out and leave the rice dry and unsticky
Spread a little bit of grease on a saucepan walls and then stretch one layer of sauerkraut, 1 layer of meat and 1 of sour cream. Spread the rice and some salt and black pepper between the cabbage and the meat layers. Repeat this until all the ingredients are over and make sure you put a last layer of sour cream on top of everything.
Put everything in the oven (190 ° C ) for about 30 – 35 min.