Torhonia is a popular garnish in the Carpathians. For many decades torhonia successfully substituted macaroni. Ukrainian grandmothers cooked this second course with red bell pepper and tomatoes by themselves for a couple of months in advance. Nowadays you can buy semi-finished products and simply cook it. However, the homemade torhonia is anyway tastier because it has the energy and warmness of a goodwife. It is toasted with onion and red bell pepper and then served as a garnish to meat dishes.
Ingredients:
- 780 g (27,5 oz) flour
- 4 eggs
- 180 ml water
- a bulb onion
- 250 g (1/2 lb) lard (pork fat)
- a sweet pepper
- two medium tomatoes
- salt – to taste
- ground red pepper – to taste
- some parsley twigs
- some dill twigs
Cooking
Beat eggs and combine them with flour. Add salt and knead dough. Leave the dough for 2,5 – 3 hours in order to let it dry.
Then rub the dough on a fine grater with 3-4 mm holes. Place torhonia in an oven and dry it. It should get a light yellow color. Then place torhonia in a big bowl with hot lark and brown it slightly over medium heat. Add salt, peeled and finely chopped bulb onion. Fry the ingredients for 1-2 minutes. Next add ground red pepper and mix the mass thoroughly.
Treat tomatoes with boiling water and peel them. Cube a pepper and the prepared tomatoes. Combine all the ingredients in the pan. Bring the mass to boil. Cover the lid and place the pan in the moderately heated oven and stew the ingredients for 20 minutes. Add finely chopped parsley and dill at the end of stewing.
The cooked torhonia should be soft and fluffy. You can serve it as a garnish to any dish.
Enjoy your meal!