Moldavian cuisine is considered as one of the healthiest in the world. Traditional Moldova dishes were formed for centuries. We have cooked with you placinta, one of the most famous pastries thought Moldova cuisine.
Today we will cook a meat dish. Pork steak with sauce muzhdu by Denis Brovceac, Chef at La Butuc.
Muzhdu is a traditional sauce, which is served with meat, made on the basis of vegetables and garlic.
Ingredients
Method
- Pat the steaks dry with paper towels.
- Rub the steaks with the salt, pepper and 2 tbsp of oil and leave them at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- Finely chop the tomato, sweet pepper, chilli, garlic, parsley and dill.
- Mix the chopped vegetables and herbs in a bowl with the vinegar, water, 2 tbsp of oil and a pinch each of salt and pepper, and set aside.
- Heat the skillet over high heat for 5 minutes, until a drop of water skitters and disappears at once.
- Lay in two steaks, or as many as fit with space between them, and cook for 4–5 minutes without moving them, until deeply browned underneath.
- Turn the steaks and brown the second side for 4 minutes.
- Turn the heat to medium and keep cooking, turning every 2 minutes, until a thermometer in the thickest part, away from the bone, reads 71°C (160°F), about 4–8 minutes more.
- Repeat with the remaining steaks, keeping the cooked ones warm on a plate.
- Put a piece of butter on each steak and rest for 5 minutes.
- Stir the sauce and spoon it over the steaks with their resting juices.
- Serve with polenta (mămăligă) or boiled potatoes.
- Meat clean, rinse, dry.
- Marinate at salt and pepper and vegetable oil for about 15 minutes.
- While meat is marinating, prepare the sauce.
- Tomato, sweet pepper, chili pepper, garlic, parsley and dill finely chop.
- Add the oil, vinegar diluted with water, salt, black pepper. Mix.
- Roast meat on the coals.
- Ready pork steak spread on a plate, pour the sauce.
- Bon Appetit!
What we changed for home
- Coals replaced with a very hot cast-iron skillet or ridged grill pan; an outdoor grill works too A heavy pan heated for 5 minutes gives a deep crust; open a window, because it will smoke.
- Pork shoulder (neck or collar) steaks suggested, with loin chops as the alternative Neck is the classic cut for grilled pork steak in Moldova; its marbling keeps it juicy at 71°C (160°F), where lean loin dries out faster.
- Steaks cooked to 71°C (160°F) at the core The original gives no doneness test; a thermometer is the only reliable one for thick pork.
- Butter placed on the steaks while they rest The chef lists 20 g of butter per steak but never says what to do with it.
- Oil for the marinade cut from 50 g per steak to 2 tbsp for four Over coals most of the oil drips away; in a pan that much would burn and smoke.
- 6% vinegar can be wine or cider vinegar Spirit vinegar at 6% is standard in Eastern Europe; US white vinegar is 5% and sharper, while wine or cider vinegar is softer in a raw sauce.
The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.
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