Next, in the list of Flatbreads, I landed in Romania where I selected to make Placinta. I was inspired when Priya Srinivasa had done this for her Flatbread series and decided I will take the easy route by checking out her space. I have the whole series bookmarked anyways!. I had read about this from other sources as well. Though I thought I will stick to the in-house Ph.D. and refer to her research work, than spending my own time.
I read that Romanian cuisine is influenced by Ottoman cuisine and from other neighboring countries as well. So you will find a lot of similar dishes across countries. Believe me when I say that I landed in certain dishes which were just the same, except for the name being different. I was forced to pick up something else at the last moment.
Anyway, Placinta is flatbread made with buttermilk and cooking soda. The filling can be soft cheese, apples, or potatoes. In some traditional sites, I even saw cabbage being used as the stuffing. Well, I stuck to potatoes and this did turn out to be the tastiest though the recipe is so simple and practically nothing in terms of spice for the stuffing. It truly keeps up to the fact that this is served with tea for Breakfast.
The only change I did was to add a bit of salted butter to the mashed potatoes and then cooked it in salted butter.
Romanian Placinta
Ingredients
1 Cup All purpose flour
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
1/4 Cup water
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
For the Filling
1 Large Potato
Salted Butter
Salted Butter for cooking
Method
Prepare the filling
MW the potato for 6 mins. Soak in water and peel. Mash when it is still hot with salted butter. Keep it aside.
Preparing the dough
Take flour, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk well to combine. Mix buttermilk and water together.
Now slowly add the liquid to the flour mix and start kneading. The dough will be pretty messy to start with.
Knead on the dough till it becomes pliable and easy to handle. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Flour the work surface generously, divide the dough into 5 portions. Take a portion of dough and roll it out into a circle of 5 - 6 inches.
Keep 2 tbsp of stuffing in the center of the rolled dough. Bring the edges together and close and roll it again to form a circle. Be gentle while rolling, ensuring the stuffing doesn't come out.
Heat a nonstick pan, grease with butter, place the stuffed placinta on the hot pan, and cook for a minute or until the sides are brown. Flip and cook the other side until brown.
Serve hot with cream cheese or as I did with garlic mayo.
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Recipe
Romanian Placinta | How to make Romanian Potato Stuffed Flatbread
Ingredients
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Buttermilk
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- Salted Butter for cooking
For the Filling
- 1 Large Potato
- Salted Butter
Instructions
How to make Romanian Placinta
Prepare the Filling
- Microwave the potato for 6 mins. Soak in water and peel. Mash when it is still hot with salted butter. Keep it aside.
Preparing the Dough
- Take flour, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk well to combine. Mix buttermilk and water together.
- Now, slowly add the liquid to the flour mix and start kneading. The dough will be pretty messy to start with.
- Knead on the dough till it becomes pliable and easy to handle. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
- Flour the work surface generously, divide the dough into 5 portions. Take a portion of dough and roll it out into a circle of 5 - 6 inches.
- Keep 2 tbsp of stuffing in the center of the rolled dough. Bring the edges together and close and roll it again to form a circle. Be gentle while rolling, ensuring the stuffing doesn't come out.
- Heat a nonstick pan, grease with butter, place the stuffed placinta on the hot pan, and cook for a minute or until the sides are brown. Flip and cook the other side until brown.
- Serve hot with cream cheese or as I did with garlic mayo.
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vaishali sabnani says
Yes the flatbread looks simple but delicious . The addition of soda and the preparation methods are different so the taste shall vary and l am trying to imagine these Flavors .
Gayathri Kumar says
I think the potato filling must have given a nice soft bread,. It looks awesome..
Usha says
Flat bread looks tasty with potato and butter filling.
Harini-Jaya R says
Simple and yummy.
Kalyani says
Interesting filling there valli
Priya Suresh says
Placinta looks fabulous and prefect to have with a simple side dish, flatbread looks super soft.
Suma Gandlur says
These sound like a cousin to our own paranthas albeit a non spicy version.
Srividhya Gopalakrishnan says
Mixing the batter with buttermilk is interesting.. very nice flat breads..
Ritu Tangri says
buttermilk and soda must have made it spongy, so a type of stuffed kulcha....very nicew
Pavani N says
Such a soft and yummy looking flatbread with potato.
Sowmya :) says
Flatbread with potato sounds delicious. Am a paratha fan anyway...these different varieties are lip smacking
Archana Potdar says
WOw that is super yum looking flatbread.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
How interesting to see our own paratha in different form. Love to see the unity in diversity 🙂
Priya Srinivasan says
inhouse PH.D!!!! Lol!!! Valli, thanks for that trust!!! 🙂 Placinta looks delish!!!
DB says
The photo shows crepes.
The recipe is not placinta. Placinta is "tucked-in pie". The recipe you give here is stuffed fried bread.
Srivalli says
Hi, thanks for dropping by. I had followed the recipe as shared by one of the sources. Maybe mine was a little thin. However, the recipe is exactly the same. Anyway, will check and redo if required.