It has been about half a year since I started with my regular practice of intermittent fasting. I follow a routine 24 hour fast for 3 alternate days in a week. The rest of the week I follow a 16/8 or 18/6 routine where I contain my eating within an uninterrupted sequence of 6 to 8 hours, within 24 hours. My energy level is high, I sleep well, I exercise daily and feel much lighter and stronger. I feel calm and content.
Voluntary fasting is quite an amazing and a simple health maintenance technique exercised by people through several millennia. Ancient Greeks believed that fasting improves cognitive abilities and has healing powers. Fasting for spiritual purposes is widely practiced by all major religions in the world.
The health benefits are many, and it costs nothing, it is free. That is probably why it does not get much publicity and you don’t hear much about it. Horror! You cut down on your consumption!
In simple terms fasting clears your mind, regulates your hormonal levels, reduces blood glucose level, burns body fat and has a calming effect on your nervous system. Body uses large amounts of energy on digestion and giving it break helps redirect that energy to reprocess its own damaged cells, excess protein etc., all part of a metabolic process known as autophagy. In 2016 Nobel price for Medicine was awarded to Japanese researcher Yoshinori Ohsumi for research in this area.
When is time to break the fast, I am very particular and like to make sure that I have something outstanding on my plate. Something well made, healthy, flavorful and tasty, something that counts and was worth waiting for. No, I don’t take restaurant takeouts nor buy pizza or whichever prevailing fast food craze of the day is. Instead, I pick and cook myself whatever inspires my palate and whatever my soul desires. The quality of the dish is of utmost importance to me. It doesn’t matter how much effort and time it takes to make, nor how long it takes to gather all the ingredients. I am more than willing to go all in, it is well worth it. It is to me anyways.
How do I find the time? Simple; I don’t have a favorite TV show, actually I don’t watch TV. Cable was cancelled several years ago, for good. That alone frees up at least couple of hours per day, time that I like to use on something much more productive and inspiring: drawing, painting, reading, listening music and yes, cooking.
Traditional Romanian stew called Tochitură fits a savory comfort food profile. It is amazingly delicious and is made out of few common ingredients. If you are smoked meat lover as I am, this is a dish to remember. But be aware; although it is fairly simple to make, creating that special taste requires some attention or otherwise it can easily turn into a common, bland and boring stew.
One of critical components that is a flavor secret of this dish is home dried sweet paprika; do not to use a store bought ground paprika. If you want truly outstanding dish you need to dry and grind your own paprika. You can find all about this simple but important process in my previous blog “Dried Sweet and Hot Chili Peppers“.
I already cooked Tochitură several times with different kinds of sausages and by far the best I found is a Polish sausage with garlic. It has a great flavor profile and it does not fall apart after hours of slow cooking. Tochitură is traditionally served with polenta and sunny-side up egg sprinkled with some fresh parsley or dill.
A variation that is equally as delicious but definitely not traditional, is to wrap Tochitură with little minced onion into a flour tortilla, burrito like. You have to try that, it is finger-liking delicious!
The recipe has been adapted from chef Greg Easter and his book “Cooking in Russia -Volume 2“.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 3.5 hours |
| Servings |
servings
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- 300-400 g pork tenderloin sliced in about six 1/2" thick slices
- 4 pork sausages lightly smoked
- 120 g bacon cut in 4 thick slices
- 4-6 smoked pork ribs cut
- 2-3 tsp paprika ground sweet paprika
- 120 g cherry tomatoes halved
- 60 g scalliions chopped
- 90 ml white wine
- 1+5 garlic cloves coarsely chopped
- 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 l cold water
Ingredients
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|
- Over medium low heat (3 out of 10) preheat medium size (4-5 L) pot, add vegetable oil to the hot pot.
- Add sliced bacon to the pot, and cook for 7-8 minutes to render the fat.
- Sprinkle over paprika, stir and cook for about 30 seconds.
- Add sliced pork tenderloin, stir well to coat the tenderloin with fat and paprika. Cook for about 3 minutes.
- Add about 1/2 of chopped scallions and all of halved cherry tomatoes. Increase heat to medium (5 out of 10), and cook until tomatoes start softening up, about 8-9 minutes.
- Add 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped, and the sausages. Stir and cook for about 5 more minutes, to infuse the sausage with flavors.
- Add cut pork ribs, stir and add about 1 litre of water. Make sure that everything is submerged. Partially cover the pot, let it simmer for 1 hour at medium low heat (4 out of 10). Stir every 10-15 minutes of cooking time.
- Take the lid off, increase heat slightly (5 out of 10), stir gently, and let simmer for another 1.5 hours. This is the beginning of reduction phase. We want to make it nice and thick.
- Add the rest of coarsely chopped garlic (5 cloves), the rest of chopped scallions, stir gently being carefully not to break sausages and ribs. Cook until liquid is reduced and is becoming quite thick (10-15 minutes).
- Add white wine and continue cooking at the same heat for the final reduction. When is almost completely dry, and all the liquid is evaporated, the dish is done.
- Serve warm over boiled corn meal or polenta, add fried egg on top, sprinkle with freshly chopped dill or parsley.
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