In Romania, mostly as a form of preservation for winter, but also in summer for the taste, various vegetables are pickled in various ways. This is a post about such things, for whomever may have an interest. I was originally going to call it Pie Pickles, but that would be confusing and also untrue, as my mom did most of the work. I will start with standard disclaimers that: one, not everyone in Romania pickles thus, and two there may not be anything uniquely Romanian about this. After all, how many ways can there be to pickle a pepper. This is how it is done in my family and I believe broadly representative of how it is done in Romania.  I assume most countries pickle things, but at least in Western Europe, it seems less prominent than in Romania, where many restaurants will have pickle medley as a side dish on the menu.

The measurements are not what some of the more thorough people would call accurate because my mom has been doing this for 50 years and does not really measure things. However, as she does this with success every year and I doubt it is ever exactly the same, I assume high accuracy is not needed. I have also attempted to translate to primitive measurements, and have ball parked 35 grams – my mom’s estimate of one heaped tablespoon of salt as she uses it – as a little more than an ounce and a liter as about a quart. I usually think of these as “pickles” but I understand that for some strange reason in Americaneze that term applies to cucumbers only. So pickled vegetables it is.

There are two main ways to go about it for the liquid, one being mostly salt-water brine, the other more vinegar based. In general, horseradish is added to most, for taste and preservation, either sliced, grated or both. Garlic as well. Celeriac is also frequent, both root and leaves. Some people like to eat the pickled root, some do not and only add it for extra flavor to the brine.

There are many things pickled, but the Big Three are Cucumbers – small ones usually; unripe tomatoes – gogonele; a cultivar of pepper called gogoșar. I would say the fourth big one would be cabbage, but this is slightly different. To this cauliflower, carrot, bell pepper, and red beet are often added, the later mostly to give everything a red color. Chilies are often pickled but that is a fairly simple process.

Cucumbers

Ingredients: 4-5 pounds cucumbers, dry dill (optional I suppose), one head of garlic, horseradish a couple of roots sliced and a couple grated, a few red chilies.

Place a few pieces of horseradish in the jar and a few cloves of garlic, and some dry dill. Add 3 rows of cucumbers, and then add more horseradish, dill and chili peppers. Repeat until the jar is full. For the brine, it is about 1.25 ounces of salt (kosher salt you might cal it, generally coarse salt no iodine) to one liquid quart of boiling water. Pour the hot brine to fill the jar. The next day, pour the brine out and press the cucumbers in the jar, as the cucumbers shrink a little. Complete the jar with more cucumbers, a few more slices of horseradish, cloves of garlic and dry dill. Make a second more salty brine, about 1.75 ounces per quart. Add grated horseradish to this brine then fill the jar until about two inches left, and finish with a little more grated horseradish and white wine vinegar.

Green tomatoes

For these the brining process is identical tot he cucumbers, just the vegetables differ. The main vegetable in unripe tomatoes, with additions of cauliflower, carrot and wedges of cabbage. Horseradish and garlic are maintained. There is no dill, the vegetables are layered and brined twice, similar to the above.

Gogoșari

Unlike the previous two, these are preserved with a lot more vinegar. Gogoșari are a cultivar of bell pepper, I am unsure they can be found in the US. They are generally round-ish, about the size of an adult hand or sometimes larger. The ingredients are the peppers, cauliflower florets, slices of carrot, white grapes, celeriac root and leaves, horseradish bay leaves and black peppercorns.

To get a sense of size, here is a gogoșar next to a slightly smaller gogoșar.

After washing the peppers, take the cores out and fill the hole with a couple of grapes, a couple of slices of carrot, a piece of cauliflower, and a celeriac leaf.

 

Place them in the jar, occasionally adding slices of horseradish and celeriac root. Boil 2 quarts of water with one quart of white wine vinegar and about 2.5 ounces of salt. After it comes to a boil take it off the stove, add bay leaves, peppercorns, and ground horseradish – probably 3 handfuls, this was not measured. Wait for 5 minutes to slightly cool then pour into the jar – this is my mom’s least favorite part as the smell and vapors of boiling vinegar are not pleasant and can cause one to choke.

The next day, take out part of the brine, press the existing vegetables and as they will have compressed, add more to fill the jar, add some grated horseradish on top and pour back the same brine – there will be some left.

There is an additional way to pickle gogoșari, not whole but sliced. For this for 5 kg of peppers you need one quart of white wine vinegar, 5 ounces of salt, a pound of white sugar, bay leaves, peppercorns, grated horseradish. The brine is not boiled, just mix everything together and leave for 24 hours stirring occasionally. Then slice the peppers, place them in a 3-quart jar, and fill with liquid. These are more sweet and sour than the rest, which are mostly sour.

For pickled chili peppers, the formula is the easiest. Put them in a jar and fill with vinegar, literally nothing else.

I do not have pics of the sliced peppers, but they can be seen in the final group photo. I am not sure if there is enough info for these to be recipes, or just an overview, but these are the main Romanian pickled vegetables.

 

 

[Editor’s Note: Pie will be sound asleep when this article is published but will check the comments when he wakes up (Wednesday morning CONUS time) and answer any questions then.]