The Slavic east and the Balkans · Volume 30, The Living Culture, the Roman Vein and the Rose Valley
Papanași
Romania
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Romania, fried cheese dumplings, sour cream and jam.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 45 minutes.
Ingredients
- 500g, well drained sweet cow's-milk cheese
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp, plus more for shaping flour
- 4 tbsp semolina or breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsp sugar
- to serve sour cream
- to serve fruit jam or preserve
Method
- Work the sweet cow's-milk cheese with egg, flour, semolina or breadcrumbs and sugar into a soft dough.
- Shape into dumplings.
- Fry or boil.
- Serve warm with a spoonful of sour cream and fruit jam or preserve, sometimes simply dusted with sugar instead.
Notes
The cheese folded through the dough, rather than left as a separate filling, is what actually distinguishes papanași from a plain doughnut.
What a modern chef changes
A chinois-strained curd, a sous vide poach and a blended fruit gel
About 1 hour
Method
- Pass the cheese mixture through a chinois before shaping, for a genuinely smooth, lump-free interior rather than the traditional slightly grainy curd.
- Poach a portion of each dumpling gently sous vide before its final fry, giving a controlled, custard-soft centre against the crisp fried exterior.
- Build the jam element as a high-power-blended fruit gel, set just firm enough to hold a quenelle shape, rather than a spoonful of jam straight from the jar.
- Finish with a light sour cream foam, whipped and lightly stabilised, in place of the traditional dollop.