Placinta Making: The Inside Story

Co-Written with Renée Griffith 

With potatoes, cabbage, and cheese, Moldovan placentas are the best.

 As Renée and I spread out the thin placenta, we couldn't wait to eat them. I interviewed Renée as we made them and she said, "I can't imagine life without placentas." Wait, wait...I've been spelling that wrong this entire time. That's suppose to be placintas, pronounced plachintas. Ugh, you guys. Get your minds out of the gutter. We would never, I stress never, eat the thing that you guys are thinking about. That is gross.  

Anyways, a couple of weeks ago, before my life got crazy for the summer, Renée and I had the opportunity to go to Freedom Home and make placintas with the girls there. 

The dough was already made and so they placed a large heaping bowl of heavy dough on the counter. They'd grab a handful of dough from the bowl and stretch it into a long thin roll. As Renée is quoted, "We severed the placintas from their life source." From there, they cut off hand-sized pieces and would then roll them into balls and them coat them in flour.  

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

To add to our Moldovan kitchen experience, Renée and I were invited to don traditional Moldovan housewife garb. Renée participated in the full experience, from the nice apron to the grandma--babushka--head scarf, while I stuck to just the apron, looking as cute as can be. 

Back to placinta making: after rolling them into balls, we would use a rolling pin to roll the balls into nice flat circles...or triangles, rhombuses, squares, or ovals because Renée and I might not have been the best were horrible at rolling them out. They would then fix our poor dough pieces and then place them on a plate soaked in oil. 

Look at all that oil.

We would then take them off that plate after they had been thoroughly soaked in oil and stretch them out, using our oil-soaked hands, into a rectangle...on top of an oil-soaked countertop. Getting the picture? They love oil. 

A great big bottle of oil.

Stretching the dough out. 

Finally, we then placed the fillings in a line across the top of the stretched our dough, rolled them up into a long tube, and coiled them into a circle

 After a long time of waiting for them to be cooked, they were pulled out of the oven and enjoyed.

More enjoyable and funny pictures: 

We don't really know what is wrong with Renée...

Rolling the placinta.  

Vica loves Dya-Dya (Uncle) Andy