Autumn special: Hungarian layered potatoes with pork chops and Szabolcsi apple
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Potatoes, cheese, and sour cream: layered potatoes are probably Hungarians’ favourite comfort food for the autumn season – if not all year round. It also has many varieties across the country, so why not try with something that is generally delicious in Hungary: apple?
Layered (or scalloped) potatoes (rakott krumpli) are a very popular meal of Hungarian cuisine, and as many other signature foods, it usually does not have one variety only.
Depending on where you are and who your chef is, you will encounter quite different versions of layered potatoes.
Of course, some ingredients are a must if you want to make it the Hungarian way, such as potatoes, eggs, and sour cream, but even on this, there are differing opinions. Experimenting with ingredients is undoubtedly an exciting thing to do, as you can also see from this recipe from Sokszínű Vidék, to which apples were added to get a fresher and more fruity result.
The name Szabolcsi in the title refers to the origin of the apples, as Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County in northeastern Hungary produces some of the best apples in the whole country – but wherever you get the apples from, it will surely make this otherwise traditional meal very exciting!
Ingredients
- 1 kg boneless pork chops
- 600 g apples (Jonathan, Idared, or Golden, but preferably a sweeter type)
- 2 pc onions
- 1 kg of potatoes
- 20 cl sour cream
- 20 cl cooking cream
- 200 g cheese, grated (one that melts easily)
- Salt, pepper, marjoram, nutmeg
- A few cloves of garlic
- Some flour and oil
Potato and apple gratin is not an especially Hungarian dish, it is very common in lots of other regional cuisines, the main difference being that the others don’t make the dish with sour cream (the dish is calorific enough!) and use a better quality cheese (often Gruyére).