The dairy products of the Rata House
The Rata family`s house is the next welcoming host in our culinary route from Palanca. Here we are invited to taste dairy products based on cow milk. The fresh warm milk, or cold, curd, kefir, sour-cream and cottage cheese are the house`s specialties.
We are welcomed by the householders Tatiana and Nicolae, who created a small farm close to their own household: three cows and their calves, a horse, a numerous chickens house. Being a veterinarian, Tatiana`s husband takes care of all the animals and assures their good and healthy situation. Actually, all the family members are taking part in maintaining the little farm in proper condition.
„Our dairy products are safe and healthy; the cows are fed only with grass during the summer and with hay and corncobs during winter. We don`t add any single food supplement in the animals` diet. This is why our products are very tasty and largely requested”, tells us Tatiana Rata.
The process of preparing each dairy products is based on specific own recipe, and cleanliness is essential in each step of the work process. Tatiana Rata has a special room – the milk room – in which she keeps and prepares all the dairy products. Here the fresh milk is distributed in jars, which are later covered with clean gauze. After a night of fermentation the milk becomes sour, which means it started its transformation in curdled milk. This product is being used since old times in order to assure a good digestion, being served best cold.
The cottage cheese, another product suggested for tasting, is made from the curdled milk which is slightly warmed on low heat and then poured into a special gauze bag. The bag is left to drain for several hours: from 10 liters of curdled milk one can obtain two kg of cottage cheese. The whey which drained from the bag is very good, and so the housewife, instead of throwing it, gives it to the animals from the little farm.
The curd is a mixture of raw milk and sour cream: a spoon of sour cream is added at 1 liter of milk, and then is left to ferment for almost 24 hours, afterwards being ready to consume.
Mrs. Tatiana Rata describes her products with great enthusiasm, and prepares them with love and dedication. She is known to be the leading producer of the best dairy specialties from Palanca.
Right from the first visits, the guests showed their interest to watch how a cow is milked, and even to take part in this activity. Thus, the host family is thinking about a way of organizing the place, in order to adjust to this wish during the tourists’ visits.
Being helped by their two kids and their expanded family, the Rata spouses are willing to open the gates of their farm to more and more visitors, in order to promote the traditional culinary culture of their place.
Text in Romanian language: Lilia Curchi
Translation and adjustment: Silvia Ursul and Elena Scobioala
