Shared by Henry Glucroft
Recipe Roots: Bucharest, Romania > Vienna > Brussels and Knokke, Belgium > Paris > New York City

Summers when Henry Glucroft was growing up were spent in a studio apartment in Knokke, a town on Belgium’s coast. “You can bike into the Netherlands,” says Henry, who owns Henry’s Wine & Spirits in Brooklyn. His parents, who split their time between a town outside of Paris and New York City, would ship Henry and his brother to their grandparents for the summer. The one-room apartment was two blocks from the beach and the boys would play mini-golf, ride bicycles, and go to the movies. “We couldn’t be happier spending our summers like that,” Henry adds. “I’m just grateful for how much love they gave us.”

In the middle of the day, the family would gather at a round table in the apartment for a lunch of fried thin filets of sole and a simple salad of mixed greens with tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives, dressed with a heavy dousing of lemon. His grandmother Coca would also prepare mamaliga, a cornmeal porridge that’s a staple of Romanian cooking, and guvetch, a Bulgarian vegetable ragout. “That seemed like the menu of the day, which somehow was the menu of everyday,” says Henry.

The recipes came with Coca and Henry’s grandfather Carol when they fled the Iron Curtain. “My grandparents were trying to leave Romania from the late 1950s. It took them 12 years,” and countless visits to government offices to get the necessary paperwork, he says. Carol documented the family journey in a comic strip. In one frame, security guards outside of a government building even comment: “you’re here a lot.”

The family planned to relocate to Brazil or France, where relatives had settled. But the “realities of needing to put food on the table and providing a shelter,” prevented that, Henry adds. As they traveled from Bucharest to Vienna and finally to Brussels, they relied on a network of friends of friends and family for favors. “I think that’s where Judaism played a big part… all the Jews in Europe [could] relate to the challenges other Jews are facing. I think there was a lot of mutual help in those days — to help people escape and help people get set up in new places.”

Henry’s grandfather Carol drew a comic about the family’s journey from behind the Iron Curtain.

In Brussels, where his grandparents lived most of the year, they would go out for lavish dinners when Henry’s family visited. “They loved to take us out to the best possible food… often way beyond their means,” says Henry. Family meals rarely included Balkan recipes; many were replaced with a Soviet palate of blini and tarama, but the mamaliga and guvetch, which Henry calls ratatouille today, stuck with him. When he moved to Brooklyn as a young adult, mamaglia was an affordable way to round out many of his meals and a sweet reminder of the summer meals with his grandparents.

He no longer makes it during the summer as his grandparents did, but he’s reconsidering that — as well as the complete summer lunch. “I’m revisualizing the table I sat at,” he says. And, “I’m tempted to try to recreate the meal in its entirety.”

Pan-Fried Sole With Lemon

Makes: 6 fillets
Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
6 4-ounce skinless, boneless sole fillet, patted dry
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 1-2 lemons

Preparation

Season the fillets with salt and pepper on both sides.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large non-stick skillet over high heat. Once the oil is hot, place three of the fish fillets in the pan and sear until the fish is just done, about 1 ½ minutes per side. Transfer the fish onto a plate. Add 2 more tablespoons of oil into the skillet and repeat cooking the remaining fillets. Transfer the cooked fish fillets onto a serving plate and sprinkle with the juice of 1 lemon.
Serve immediately.

Mamaliga

Makes: 10 cups
Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
2 cups fine cornmeal
3 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup heavy cream
6 ounces unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preparation

Bring 6 cups of water to a boil over high heat in a medium sized pot. Slowly add the cornmeal, salt and pepper into the pot, whisking vigorously to avoid any lumps. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, whisking often until the mamaliga thickens and the cornmeal cooks, about 2 minutes. If needed, add another ½ cup of water if needed and whisk until a thick paste is formed.
Slowly stream in the heavy cream and whisk until the mamaliga begins to look creamy and velvety, about 2-3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and add the butter and whisk until a porridge consistency is formed.

Guvetch

Serves: 6-8
Time: 60 mins, plus 1 hour and 45 minutes for roasting

Ingredients
1 eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 teaspoons salt, divided
4-5 ripe tomatoes
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 yellow onions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 leek, white and light green parts only, cut lengthwise and sliced into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Half bunch fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped (about 1 cup, packed)
Half bunch fresh dill leaves, roughly chopped (about 1 cup, packed)

Preparation

Line a large tray with paper towels. Place the cubed eggplants in one layer onto the tray. Sprinkle the eggplant pieces with 1 heaping teaspoon of salt and lightly toss them with your hands. Set aside for 30 minutes, ideally in a sunny and warm spot.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Using a sharp knife, score a “X,” on the bottom of each tomato. Place the tomatoes in a bowl and pour enough boiling water to completely cover the tomatoes. Soak the tomatoes for 1 ½ minutes, drain and run the tomatoes under cold water. Peel the skins off of the tomatoes. Cut each tomato into 1 inch pieces and discard the seeds. Transfer to a large bowl.
Pat the eggplant cubes dry and add to the bowl of tomatoes, along with the carrots, onions, bell peppers, leek, and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, black pepper and chopped herbs. Toss well to combine.
Spread the vegetables into an even layer in a large baking pan. Transfer the pan into the oven. Roast for 1 hour, mix the vegetables well, and continue roasting for another 30-45 minutes or until the vegetables are golden browned and tender. Serve warm.

Featured