A celebratory soup from Câmpulung la Tisa: dried porcini mushrooms, simmered with rice and carrots, delicately soured with sour cream and a sweet paprika roux. For two generations, it has been a staple on Maramureș tables on New Year’s Eve.
🥣 Ingredients
- 200 g dried mushrooms (usually porcini)
- 1 cup rice
- 3 carrots
- 200 g sour cream
- 100 g oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- sweet paprika (for the roux)
👩🍳 How to prepare
Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water. Peel the carrots, wash them thoroughly and slice them. In a pot of the right size, heat the oil (100 g), add the carrot slices and temper them a little. Remove from the heat and add the washed rice. Add water and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, drain the mushrooms, let them drain well and cut them into pieces. When the carrots and rice are almost ready, add the mushrooms and simmer over low heat until the flavors combine. Before the soup is ready, make a thin roux with sweet paprika and add the sour cream at the end. Let it boil for a few more minutes and serve hot.
📖 The story of the recipe
Recipe from Butuza Enikö-Lili, 47 years old, from Câmpulung la Tisa, a village at the foot of the Maramureș Mountains, close to the border with Ukraine. „Gombaleves” is the Hungarian name for dried mushroom soup, a dish that local housewives have kept from generation to generation. The dried porcini mushrooms, gathered from the forest in autumn, find their place in the soup that ushers in the new year.
🔍 What’s next
Find more traditional Maramureș recipes collected by the Maramureș Museum in Sighetu Marmației in the Gastro section of our newspaper. Also try the mushrooms with garlic from Ruscova, another wild mushroom dish.
Recipe source: Maramureș Museum Sighetu Marmației – Maramureș GastroEtnoArt. Photo source: Prăjiturici și altele (prajituricisialtele.ro).
