Tocăniță de Ciuperci
Tocăniță de Ciuperci·(to-kuh-nee-tsuh deh choo-perch)
Mămăligă: 30-Minute Daily Mainstays
The smell of yellow onions sweating into sweet Hungarian paprika is the homing beacon of the Romanian diaspora. Back in the motherland, this dish was built on wild porcini pulled from the damp floors of the Carpathian forests, but you don't need a plane ticket to replicate that deep, woodland umami. The secret isn't the fungi—it's the technique. Sear everyday supermarket mushrooms with fierce heat until they caramelize, coax the onions into a sweet jam, and finish it with a rich liaison of sour cream. Spooned over hot mămăligă, it’s a thirty-minute masterclass in working-class cooking that tastes like it simmered for days.
Before you start
Wipe the mushrooms.
Use a damp paper towel or a pastry brush to clean the dirt off the mushrooms rather than rinsing them.
Mince and divide the garlic.
Keep the minced garlic separated into two piles so you have a mellow cooked base and a raw, pungent punch right at the end.
Ingredients
- cremini mushrooms1 1/2 lb
- neutral oil3 tbsp
- yellow onion1 large
- sweet red bell pepper1 small
- garlic4 clove
- sweet Hungarian paprika1 tbsp
- dry white wine1/3 cup
- tomato puree1/2 cup
- vegetable broth1/2 cup
- full-fat sour cream1/3 cup
- all-purpose flour1 tsp
- fresh dill1/2 cup
- kosher salt1 tsp
- black pepper1/2 tsp
Method
- 01
Sear the mushrooms in batches over medium-high heat.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wide skillet, add half the mushrooms, and let them sit untouched until a deep brown crust forms. Toss, cook until their water evaporates, remove to a bowl, and repeat with another tablespoon of oil.
- 02
Cook down the alliums into a sweet jam.
Reduce heat to medium-low, add the final tablespoon of oil, the diced onion, red pepper, and a generous pinch of salt. Sauté for about 10 minutes until completely soft and translucent before stirring in half of the minced garlic.
- 03
Toast the paprika and build the sauce.
Pull the skillet off the heat to stir in the paprika for 30 seconds without burning it, then return to the heat to deglaze with the white wine, scraping up the browned bits until the liquid nearly evaporates.
- 04
Simmer and marry the flavors.
Stir in the tomato puree and broth, return the browned mushrooms to the pan, cover, and simmer on low for 5 minutes.
- 05
Temper the sour cream liaison.
In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream and flour together, then vigorously whisk in two tablespoons of the hot stew liquid to prevent the dairy from curdling.
- 06
Thicken the stew off the heat.
Turn off the stove entirely, stir the warmed sour cream mixture into the skillet, and fold in the remaining raw minced garlic, fresh dill, salt, and heavy black pepper.
Notes
Make it a fasting dish (De Post).
To honor the traditional Romanian orthodox fasting days, simply omit the sour cream and flour. The paprika-tomato base provides immense, historically accurate richness all on its own.
Mind the moisture.
Never wash your mushrooms under running water; they act like sponges and will boil in the pan rather than achieving the necessary hard sear.
From Cook Romanian in America.