Taci și înghite: layered mămăliguță with quail eggs

Ingredients

For the mămăligă

• 500 ml water
• 500 ml fresh milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 300 g fine cornmeal

For the layers

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 200 g smoked sausages
• 50 g pastrami
• 150 g telemea (feta-style brined cheese)
• 100 g curd cheese
• 3 quail eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Preparation

1. In a pot, add the water, milk and salt and heat them over medium heat. 2. Before it boils, add the cornmeal gradually and stir vigorously with the wooden spoon. 3. Cook the mămăligă for 15 minutes, stirring, until it comes away from the sides of the pot. 4. Take the pot off the heat and let the mămăligă cool for 10 minutes. 5. Cut the sausages into slices and the pastrami into small pieces, then fry them in a dry pan over medium heat for 5 minutes, until browned. 6. Grate the telemea and the curd cheese and mix them in a bowl. 7. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. 8. Grease a heatproof dish with 1 tablespoon of oil. 9. Put half the mămăligă, half the sausages, half the pastrami and half the cheese mixture in the dish. Add the rest of the mămăligă, then the other half of the sausages, the other half of the pastrami and the other half of the cheese mixture. 10. With a wet ladle, make three hollows in the top layer and put a quail egg in each. 11. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over each egg, up to 1/4 teaspoon in total. 12. Put the dish in the oven at 180 °C for 10 minutes, until the eggs are set and the whites have firmed.