Since my grandpa was born in Romania, we sometimes cook with a bit of Romanian style. Specifically, my mom, Nadia, makes amazing mititei. Affectionately known as “Safta” [grandma in Hebrew] to my kids, she taught me her recipe, and now I’m sharing the version of it I like to make, with notes as to how hers and mine differ and what you can do to make it your own.
Mititei is a type of spiced and garlicy caseless sausage. I know it looks a little funny at first glance to the uninitiated, but just… trust me. It’s worth it.
Many Romanian recipes, including mititei (also called mici) will call for pork. Not ours, because we grew up kosher! So, we mix beef and lamb. However, I once got ground bison instead of beef and I have to say, wow. Highly recommend. But kosher (and non-kosher) bison is a little harder to get, and obviously not native to Romania, so beef is delicious too.
The secret to really making this dish amazing is in the fat and the spices. The spice blend is a unique flavor to those unaccustomed to it, and absolutely addictive. But what really enhances it is using homemade broth and schmaltz. While this isn’t a requirement, I highly recommend.
This is my version of Jewish-Romanian mititei, adapted from Safta Nadia. Enjoy!
1 pound ground lamb
1 pound ground beef or bison
About 1/2 cup or other similar significant scoop of schmaltz. I recommend making a soup before making this, and using the schmaltz AND the soup together to enhance the flavor, it’ll blow your mind. If you’re unable to do this (understandable, it’s a long process), my mom likes to save duck fat from a fancy meal to use. But any kosher animal fat additive also works. I haven’t tried beef tallow, but that probably works? If you don’t care about keeping kosher, a stick of butter works. But it has to be a fat. Not a light healthy oil.
1 cup broth
1 tablespoon thyme (I’ve been told this should be summer savory, but that thyme is a good substitute. I’ve yet to get my hands on summer savory to tell you how that works)
1 teaspoon ground star anise
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
As much ground-up garlic as you can stand
1/2 tablespoon salt
Instructions:
- Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl by hand.
- Cover the bowl tight and leave the ingredients in the fridge overnight so they can ‘get to know each other’.
- Roll your meat into little sausage shapes and cook in a pan, on a griddle, or other similar hot surface. You do not need to spray any extra non-stick stuff. The fat in the meat will melt and work just fine.
- I’m not sure exactly how long I let each one cook… a few minutes? I prefer them pink inside, my mom cooks them all the way through. Cook on each side like you would a meatball or a hamburger.
- EAT.
This is a great main star, but I often make it as part of a Hanukah buffet. You can see my plate from last year below. Other items I made that year included mamaliga, sarmale, oven-baked green beans, challah, latkas with apple sauce, and schnitzel I topped with zacusca. I was going for a “I swear Ashkenazi food can be delicious, trust me” theme that year. And it was!
For a smaller gathering where you’re not feeding 20 people a buffet, I recommend mititei with a green vegetable and mamaliga (cornmeal polenta I’ll eventually put a recipe up for).
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