Romanian · Dessert
Shepherd's Pie
Mămăligă's decadent alpine cousin: cornmeal cooked directly in cream and butter with sheep's cheese folded through — the richest dish in the Carpathians
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- Coarse cornmeal — 300 g
- Double cream — 500 ml
- Whole milk — 500 ml
- Butter — 100 g
- Sour cream — 150 g
- Urda or fresh ricotta — 150 g
- Telemea or salted feta — 150 g
- Salt — 8 g
- Chives or spring onion — 10 g
Method
- Bring cream, milk and 60 g butter to a simmer with salt in a heavy pot.
- Rain in cornmeal, whisking constantly; drop to the lowest heat.
- Stir with a wooden spoon 30–35 minutes — balmoș is stirred far more than mămăligă; it should ripple like thick custard and pull from the sides.
- Fold in urda and half the telemea; cook 3 minutes more.
- Beat in remaining butter and the sour cream off the heat — glossy, trembling, barely holding shape.
- Adjust salt (the cheeses carry plenty).