Tocinei (Moldovian potatoes balls)


Travelling on the virtual waves as I usually do, I reached a Facebook page of some friends from Bukovina (old Romanian lands). And alongside their pictures, I had seen... "TOCINEI"I had no any idea what "TOCINEI" meant, but the very next moment I realized that is a traditional Moldavian recipe and obviously it turned out into a "must do".
So, I pulled up my sleeves and got going...and what better culinary critic I could find than my own daughter? I asked her for an honest opinion. What I heard from her, gave to me the right size of what the value of that Moldovian dish means: 
 "Mom ... it's a Royal breakfast! "



Ingredients:
1 kg potatoes 
2 eggs 
2 tbs of flour 
150-200 g sour cream
 pepper, salt
oil

Peel potatoes, wash and grate them in small sizes.Then squeez'em. Mix potatoes with the rest of the ingredients. Form potato balls, flatten them out  (to look like discs) and fry them in oil. Get the discs out on a paper towel and eat TOCINEII with sour cream or yogurt.
I've done an adaptation of the original recipe and I boiled potatoes, drained the liquid and then I mashed potatoes. I added all the ingredients plus an extra amount of dried cheese(as like parmesan) and 1 tsp of cumin.
It was .....no comment. Just a Royal breakfast, as my daughter said.



Variants 3-4 are from tocineii with cheese. Others are from the first 'shift', without cheese.
Both of them are great.
Thank you Izvoarele Sucevei Bucovina. God bless you!





Romanian version:
Curata cartofii, rade-i pe razatoarea mica, stoarce-i apoi amesteca-i cu ouale, faina, sarea, piperul si smintina. Formeaza bile de 'aluat', aplatizeaza-le si prajeste-le.
Eu am adaptat putin reteta originala, am fiert cartofii si-am mai adaugat chimin si telemea de oaie la restul de ingrediente. Uleiul in care i-am prajit a fost in cantitate extrem de redusa, folosind o tigaie antiaderenta ca ajutor.





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