Chiftele, plural form of chiftea, are flat and round
meatball
A meatball is ground meat rolled into a ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, minced onion, egg (food), eggs, butter, and seasoning. Meatballs are cooked by frying, baking, steaming, or braising in sauce. There are ...
s from
Romanian traditional cuisine. Chiftele are usually made from minced
pork
Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...
, mixed with mashed potatoes and spices, then deep-fried. Chiftele is served with
pilaf
Pilaf ( US spelling) or pilau ( UK spelling) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some techniq ...
or
mashed potato
Mashed potato or mashed potatoes (American and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper. It is generally served as a ...
es. A variant mixing rice inside the meatball is called ''perişoare'' for sour soup, making ''
ciorbă de perişoare
Chorba or shorba (from dialectal Arabic ; from , 'to drink') is a broad class of stews or rich soups found in national cuisines across the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is often prepared ...
''.
There is a recipe called ''chiftele de peşte'' (fish chiftele) consisting of
fishcake
A fishcake (sometimes written as fish cake) is a culinary dish consisting of filleted fish or other seafood minced or ground, mixed with a starchy ingredient, and fried until golden.
Asian-style fishcakes usually contain fish with salt, water, ...
made from
carp
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...
.
Etymology
The word ''chiftea'' comes from ''köfte'', which is the
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
word for ''
kofta
Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in Balkan, Middle Eastern, South Caucasian, South Asian and Central Asian cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced meatusually beef, chicken, pork, lamb or mutto ...
''.
History
Centuries of Ottoman presence in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
has left some variations from the
Turkish culinary arts. Chiftele is the Romanian version of Turkish ''köfte''.
See also
*
Kofta
Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in Balkan, Middle Eastern, South Caucasian, South Asian and Central Asian cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced meatusually beef, chicken, pork, lamb or mutto ...
*
List of meatball dishes
This is a list of notable meatball dishes. A meatball is ground or minced meat rolled into a small ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, minced onion, eggs, butter, and seasoning. Meatballs are cooked by frying, bak ...
*
Mititei
Mititei () or mici (; both Romanian words meaning "little ones", "small ones") is a dish from the Romanian cuisine, consisting of grilled ground meat rolls in cylindrical shape made from a mixture of beef, lamb with spices, such as garlic, bla ...
*
Pârjoale Pârjoale (also called ''Moldavian Pârjoale''; ro, Pârjoale moldovenești), plural form of pârjoală, are Romanian and Moldovan meatballs, usually minced pork and beef (sometimes lamb or chicken) mixed with eggs, grated potatoes, slices of br ...
Notes and references
External links
*
Chiftele's recipe*
Chiftele recipe
{{Cuisine of Romania
Romanian dishes
Meatballs