In stressful times, just like in the case of the coronavirus, one of the best things you can do is have some comfort food. If you want to avoid sweets or unhealthy snacks and eat well while drowning your stress in food, keep reading.
One of the best ways to discover another culture and at the same time bond with its people and hopefully find new friends is through food. It is especially the case in Hungary, where the saying “the way to a man’s heart is through food” might be a bit more true than in other countries.
“Frankfurt soup” is one of these dishes. Yes, you read it right, it is the German city’s name. What is it doing in an article presenting Hungarian specialities then? The answer is very simple: it has nothing to do with Frankfurt. Well, to be 100% precise, there is some connection. In Germany, in many restaurants, you can find different types of Frankfurt soups (Frankfurter Suppe), the only criterium is the special type of sausage in them, the Frankfurter.
The Hungarian version, of course, also contains Frankfurter sausage, but in our case, the recipe is fixed, always the same ingredients go in it (maybe except for some minor changes by regions).
It is the perfect dish containing protein thanks to the sausage, carbs thanks to the potatoes, and vitamins provided by the cabbage.
It is delicious comfort food, especially for the end of March when we can still experience some colder days with low temperatures.
Here is everything you will need:
1 tbsp of lard (can be replaced with sunflower oil or even a bit of coconut oil for a healthier version)
1 medium-sized onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
4 potatoes
1 medium-sized kale
100 grams of Frankfurter sausage (around 4 pieces)
salt and pepper
175 grams tejföl (can be replaced with greek yogurt, it is not advised but better than nothing if you do not have tejföl)
1 tbsp flour
Start by chopping the onion, peeling and dicing the potatoes, and washing and cutting the kale leaves. Then get a pot and melt the lard or the oil before adding the onion to it. Stir it twice, then take it off the stove to quickly add the paprika and cumin.
Frankfurter soup Photo: Pálma Bruder – Daily News Hungary
Stir it again and add the potatoes. It has to go back on the stove for about a minute while constantly stirring, before adding around 2 litres of water to the potato-onion mixture.
Add the finely diced or grated garlic and cook it under the lid for 5 minutes. Next, the chopped kale goes in with the salt and pepper, to be cooked for half an hour. Once the vegetables are nice and soft (it depends a bit on your personal taste), add the chopped sausages and cook the soup for an additional 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the flour with the tejföl. When it is well incorporated, add some tablespoons of the hot soup into the mixture and stir it together. The now colourful tejföl goes into the big pot to be stirred and cooked for about 2 more minutes.
The soup is best served as soon as it is done, as you will definitely be hungry once you smell it.
In this case, it is not the colour but literally the little flower. In this article, you will get a glimpse into the creativity of cooks and can try out something completely new and unique.
According to 24, violas are one of the first flowers of spring, somewhat of a harbinger. Even though the current weather in Hungary does not seem like it would be spring, it is. This little flower is edible and has a lot of scent and aroma; therefore, it can be used in gastronomy in many ways.
Both the garden and wild varieties can be used to spice up your meals, and usually, wild violas are more aromatic. You should collect them when the flower is fully open, preferably after the morning dew has been dried. According to the recipe, the flowers have the most aroma and flavour in this state.
Viola cake
Source: facebook.com/ennivalotermeszet
This recipe is one of Mónika Halmos’s recipes, who has rediscovered many viola-based recipes in age-old cookbooks. As it turns out, violas can be used in many foods and in many ways: sorbets, salads, candied violas, and several types of cakes.
Only use flowers that have not been treated with arboricides.
Instructions:
Beat the eggs until they are foamy and then mix them together with the warm butter and the sugar. Mix the baking powder into the flour and slowly add the flour mixture to the foamed eggs. Add a little viola syrup to it until it becomes a thick mass.
Line a small pan with baking paper and smooth the mass into the pan. Bake it at 180°C for about 20-25 minutes. Let the cake and the pan cool down for a while and then horizontally cut the sponge into three sheets.
While the sponge is in the oven, you can easily make the cream. First, melt the chocolate over steam, add the mascarpone, the dried flowers, and the liqueur, and mix it until it is fully homogenous.
Put it into the fridge for about 15-20 minutes. Use half of the cream between the layers and use the other half to coat the outside of the cake, then decorate. Enjoy.
You can find more recipes like this in Mónika Halmos’s book and on Rózsakunyhó.
Travelling abroad is the best way to get to know a foreign country, its people, its culture, or its cuisine. But when a global pandemic paralyses almost the whole world, crossing borders is not an option. What can be done then?
One of the best ways to discover another culture and at the same time bond with its people and hopefully find new friends is through food. It is especially the case in Hungary, where the saying “the way to a man’s heart is through food” might be a bit more true than in other countries. Although we have no control over the opening of borders and countries, we can try our best to present you with the delicious side of Hungary and provide some help to travel to a Hungarian restaurant until you get to do so in person.
When the lockdown started, my flatmate and I decided to organise thematic dinners at the weekend to try to have a good time, apart from simply coping with the situation. I have the same proposition for you: Let’s take your kitchen to Hungary, or the opposite, let’s sneak some Hungary into your kitchen, wherever you might be in the world.
Today, we start with a very simple recipe that includes few ingredients and less than 45 minutes to prepare, together with preparation and cooking. The name “poor man’s stew” or potato paprikash already suggests a simple meal. It consists of two main ingredients, potato and sausage; however, do not judge simply by the name, its flavours are more intense and more complex than the name suggests. Here is what you need to prepare a quick but delicious meal for 4 people:
1 kg potato
150 g sausages – preferably a dry type made of pork (quite a lot of people nowadays prepare it with hot dogs, which is a fine choice, but please make sure to use a quality type as it adds a lot to the flavour)
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp paprika (preferably Hungarian paprika; however, the recipe has been tested with a sweeter, ground red paprika)
Salt and pepper to taste
ingredients
The first step is to peel the potatoes, the garlic, and the onion. Cut the potatoes into medium-sized cubes, dice the onion, and mince the garlic cloves.
Heat the oil and simmer the onion until it becomes completely transparent. Then remove the pot from the stove before adding the paprika so that it does not burn.
Mix it together, add the garlic and the potatoes, put it back on the stove, and add some water, but without completely covering the potatoes.
Then season it with salt and pepper and cover the pot to cook the potatoes until half-done, for about 15 minutes. To finish, add the sausages to the pot and cook it for another 15 minutes.
The final consistency can vary a bit by regions; some people prefer to cook the potatoes completely but leave some water on them, while others overcook it a bit so that some cubes become a bit smashed and more water evaporates.
I told you it would be easy and quick but delicious.
If you decide to give it a go and cook some “paprikás krumpli” and you think it turned out especially good and looks beautiful on your plate, feel free to send us a picture.
“Food is life”, as many people’s posts and photos on social media say. They are not wrong; food is fundamental, but a good and filling meal varies from country to country. Today we have our guidelines concerning the matter, but what did Hungarians think almost 200 years ago about a nutritious meal giving you enough energy to lead a revolution?
“You can not make a revolution on an empty stomach”, may or may not said Sándor Petőfi on 14 March 1848, the night before members of the Opposition circle met in Pilvax café. Even though this might not be exactly what he said, he definitely got ready with a filling meal to be one of the most important characters of the War on Independence. But what was this meal exactly?
What gave the so-called “Youth of March” enough energy to win, even if only for a short year, independence from the Habsburg Empire?
We will start with the most important figure of the revolution, the already mentioned poet Sándor Petőfi. He was not known for being a gourmet, and he was not picky. As a real Hungarian, he loved meals made with meat. For instance, a good gulyás soup was one of his favourites, but this time we bring you another one of his favourites you may have never heard of. Aludttej, which could be translated to sleeping milk, is a fermented drink/food very popular in Eastern Europe. It is similar to kefir, and you can prepare it very easily at home; all you need is fresh milk. The best time to make aludttej is in summer, as it is ready under a night in a closed cupboard, at room temperature. If you would like to give it a try now, it is advised to add a bit of tejföl to the milk as it speeds up the process. It is ready when it does not run like a liquid anymore, and it has an acidic smell to it. You have to then keep it in the fridge until eating it all on its own, with some bread or some fruit, like berries, if you would like to make it extra healthy.
photo by Kagor at the Ukrainian language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0,
Nobleman, politician, lawyer, statesman, Second Prime Minister then Governor-President of Hungary, Lajos Kossuth, gives us the most precise answer to our question. We know exactly what he ate, even though not the night before, but on 12 of March in Bratislava, together with another figure of the independence movement, probably Mór Jókai. The meal was a kind of steak or roast that became known as Kossuth-steak in certain parts of Hungary.
Even if your goal is not to gather energy to win a revolution but to get through a tough day, for instance, here is the recipe. You can prepare it and let us know in a comment if it worked.
You will need :
4 slices of beefsteak of your choice (around 15 decagrams each)
10 decagrams of fat if you want it to be authentic, but you can replace it with oil
2 onions
2 tomatoes
2 green peppers
4 bigger potatoes
20 decagrams of champignon (works best with this type of mushroom but feel free to experiment)
1 tsp of paprika
1 clove of garlic
5 decagrams of butter
Salt and pepper
We start with the meat. We tenderise the slices a bit but not too much. We do not want them to be thin. Then we sprinkle them with salt and pepper on both sides before frying them in some fat or oil. Next, we dice the onions and throw them in the meat pan to fry together with the chopped green pepper and the mashed clove of garlic, before removing it from the stove to add the paprika some seconds later when it is cooled down a bit, to avoid the paprika getting burnt. We quickly mix it with some salt and pepper, add around half a cup of water and mix it. Then we chop the tomatoes and add in the water, followed by the nicely fried steaks, before covering the pan and cooking it together in slightly boiling water on low-medium heat. The goal is to cook away most of the water; we just leave a little to cover the steaks barely. Then we prepare the potatoes by peeling them, but no cutting is necessary, as we will place them in salty water to barely cook them soft to a point where they do not fall apart, but we can scrape the inside out. Next, we wash, peel and chop the champignon and simmer it with some butter, salt and pepper to get it ready to be mixed with the inside of the potatoes. Then we fill the potatoes with this creamy mixture. When plating, the loaded potatoes are placed on top of the meat slices instead of just putting them on the side, then the whole plate is drizzled with the meat sauce. You can pour all the rest on top, as you prefer.
receptletoltes.hu – Magyar Konyha – Budaházi László
Nobleman and novelist Mór Jókai also played an active role in the revolution. He was the one reading the 12 points at all locations that day. We know his wife was an excellent cook, so he definitely had something delicious before leaving home to liberate his people. Even a bean soup was named after him – recipe available by clicking here. Today we bring you a misleading treat, a pie that sounds like a sweet dessert at first, but what can actually be filled with a mixture of dill andtúró (prepare it at home with this guide). Although I just called it a pie, it is somewhere between a pie and a strudel.
Here are the ingredients you will need:
Milk
Yeast
Sugar
Butter – 1tbsp
Wheat flour
Salt
1 egg
Rest it for 30 minutes
Cream túró
Túró
More salt
Breadcrumbs – 2 tbsp
Sugar – 1tbsp
Dill
3 eggs
Tejföl – 3 tbsp
1 egg -yolk
And here is a video that shows every step of the process.
As we approach the middle of the carnival season, it is time to make the must-have carnival doughnut and refuel from it before the upcoming Lent. Here is a traditional recipe for the most popular dish of the carnival season that is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.
The carnival season from Twelfth Night to Ash Wednesday (January 6 to February 17 this year) was once also called the Feast of the Devil, as everyone could party until dawn at carnivals and costume parties before the restrained forty days that followed until Easter. The indispensable and most popular dish of the carnival season is, without doubt, the carnival doughnut, about which there are three legends, writes funzine.hu.
According to one source, Beatrix brought the recipe from her home, Italy, to the court of King Matthias, and the dish was consumed in the royal court as part of the carnivals organised at the time. Another story is about Queen Marie Antoinette, who loved to walk the streets in disguise and became acquainted with doughnuts on one of these outings. After the first taste, she liked it so much that she immediately ordered the pastry chef to the palace, where she shared the recipe with the Queen’s chef, who then added the treat to his repertoire.
The third story is connected to Vienna: after the death of Krapfen, a baker famous for his bread, his widow took over the bakery, where one day, the bread was not made in time, and the baker got so mad at the unsatisfied customers that she threw the bread dough in her hand at the raging customers. She missed the target, and the dough flew into the sizzling oil, but the accidentally made doughnut was a unanimous success among everyone.
According to tradition, consuming carnival doughnuts, like the New Year’s lentils, brings good luck, a bountiful harvest, and a generous amount of money to the house, but it can also help boost your love life: girls could signal their intention to get acquainted with someone with the help of doughnuts, while the ribbon running around the edge of the doughnut symbolised the wedding ring for couples.
Everyone can decide for themselves which one is the most convincing argument in favour of eating a doughnut, but one thing is for sure: consuming carnival doughnuts is a must during this period. Next, we will show you the perfect recipe.
Ingredients for 35-40 doughnuts
500 grams of fine flour
160 grams of strudel flour
4 grams of salt
35 grams of yeast
35 grams of powdered sugar
2 packets of vanilla sugar
70 grams of butter
4 egg yolks
360 ml of milk
20 ml of rum (optional but ensures that the doughnuts do not absorb as much oil)
Preparation
First, take the yeast. Crumble the room-temperature yeast and a teaspoon of granulated sugar into 150 ml of lukewarm milk, mix it, cover it with a lid, and let it activate for about ten minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the two types of flour (after sifting), the salt, the powdered sugar, and the vanilla sugar, then add the remaining milk, the egg yolks, then the yeast, and start kneading. The easiest and fastest way to do this is with a machine (it takes about 7-8 minutes to knead), but you can also do it by hand (it takes 10-15 minutes). While kneading, slowly add the melted, lukewarm butter.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it, and leaven for one hour. Tip: you can also put it in a lukewarm oven, so it leavens faster and nicer.
When an hour has passed, cover the pastry board with flour and stretch the dough with your hands until it is about as thick as one and a half fingers. If necessary, use a rolling pin. Important: handle the dough carefully to keep it as airy as possible.
The next step is making the pieces. Use a 6-centimetre cookie cutter. Be careful but firm to get the perfect shape.
Cover the doughnuts and let them rise for another 25-30 minutes. Form a small crater in the doughnuts with your finger, but do not pierce them completely.
Preheat the oil (should be approximately three fingers high in your pan). Use a deeper frying pan or a thicker, wider, and flatter pot over low heat, avoiding the doughnuts burning on the outside but remaining raw on the inside.
Place the doughnuts in the oil, the side with the small crater on it facing down. Fry maximum 5-6 pieces at the same time, otherwise the oil temperature will change and you will not get the desired results.
First, fry them for a minute with a lid covering your pot, then turn them over and fry without the lid for another 1-1.5 minutes. The goal is to get golden brown doughnuts.
Place the doughnuts on a paper towel and cool them a bit, then serve with vanilla powdered sugar and homemade apricot jam.
In 1718, Károly Hosszmann received permission to be the first to operate a confectionery in Buda. The name confectioner was not widely known until 1830 when it first appeared in the work of Count István Széchenyi. By 1841, there were already 13 confectioners working in Pest and 17 in Buda. Let’s uncover the history of the most famous Hungarian desserts that simply sweeten your days 😉
From the end of the 19th century, going to a café or confectionery was part of the civic way of life. In addition to the rich selection of cakes, confectioneries tried to entice their guests with different snacks. Ladies in particular were the target audience, who could spend their free time and gossip in the elegant confectioneries while sipping coffee with whipped cream. According to Femina, going to a confectionery was a social, aesthetic, and culinary pleasure at the same time.
Dobos Cake, Rigó Jancsi, and others
One of the most famous Hungarian cakes, Dobos Cake, is named after its creator, József C. Dobos. Dobos came from a real cooking dynasty; he studied the profession from the Andrássy family. In 1878, he opened his shop in Kecskeméti Street, and in 1884, he created the now world-famous cake named after him. The developed Dobos cream, made with egg whites whipped with sugar while warm, cocoa powder, melted cocoa butter and tea butter, has become a real speciality.
The Esterházy cake was named after Foreign Minister Pál Antal Esterházy, who later became the Ambassador to Moscow of Austrian Emperor and King of Hungary Franz Joseph. An unknown confectioner created this cake to express his respect for him. What made it special was that its dough was baked from egg whites, sugar, and finely chopped almonds.
The chocolate cake called Rigó Jancsi was created at the beginning of the 20th century. It was named after János Rigó, the world-famous leader of a gypsy band. The cake was baked by an unknown confectioner and named after the scandalous musician.
The confectioners of the time preferred to use the names of the celebrities of the age, including, in addition to Jancsi Rigó, Lujza Blaha. The cake, named after the actress, is made of brown shortcake dough with raspberry jam filling and pink sugar coating.
Interestingly, the Rákóczi cottage cheese cake did not get its name from the famous monarch. Instead, the Rákóczi cake was created by János Rákóczi, another famous chef of the 20th century. The light icing made from egg whites and sugar, moulded from piping bags onto the cottage cheese filling of the cake, has turned out to be a real innovation in confectionery.
In Hungary, the farsang or carnival period lasts from the day of the Epiphany until Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lent. However, in terms of most customs and beliefs, it is mostly Carnival Sunday, Carnival Monday and Shrove Tuesday, which is called the “farsang farka”, meaning the end or (literally) the tail of the Carnival is when most of the fun happens. The day after Ash Wednesday, fasting is suspended so that leftovers from the Carnival can be eaten. This day is called “torkos csütörtök” meaning Gluttonous Thursday.
According to Rockstar, the development of the Carnival season in Hungary can be traced back to the Middle Ages, mainly due to German influence. Its most characteristic event is the masked, costumed figuring that occurs in almost every carnival custom. One of the most well-known Hungarian customs around this time is the busújárás at Mohács. It was originally a procession of the South Slavs near Mohács, but it developed into a Hungarian tradition.
The Carnival period is characterised by dancing, merrymaking and revelling and selecting a partner. It used to be a marriage and bridal season, as it was forbidden to hold a wedding during the following Lent. In addition to choosing a mate, this is also the period of scaring away Winter and welcoming Spring. In Hungary, the ball season is also celebrated during the Carnival season.
Because Carnival is a pre-Lent period, characterised by the abandonment of meat and alcohol, merrymaking and revelling are accompanied by consuming fatty and spicy meat dishes made with alcohol. In this article, we collected the typical dishes you could make to celebrate farsang along with Hungarians. All the recipes in this article are from Anna Fischer at Bien.hu.
Gombás korhelyleves (Hungarian korhely soup with mushrooms) Photo: facebook.com/hangulatvendeglo/
The essence of the korhelyleves, of course, is to soothe a hangover after a revelling; reduce headaches, heartburn and other symptoms of having had too much fun the previous night, and also to replenish energy so you can rinse and repeat.
Ingredients:
25 dkg smoked meat
10 dkg smoked sausage
35-40 dkg sauerkraut
10-15 dkg mushroom
2 onions
a bundle of parsley
5 dkg flour
2 dl sour cream
2-3 teaspoons of olive oil
salt, pepper, paprika
Instructions:
Dice the onions and glaze them in a bit of oil, then put the diced meat into the pot. Sprinkle it with paprika, mix it and then add the sauerkraut. Add as much water so that it covers everything, then cover with a lid and cook over medium heat.
While the soup is on the heat, slice up the mushrooms and fry them with a little oil. Add it to the soup, season it and bring to a boil.
Make a light roux to thicken the soup. Slice the sausage and when the soup is almost ready, add in the slices of sausage. Season the soup with sour cream to your liking, or you can serve the sour cream on the side. You should be careful not to add too much salt as the smoked meat and sausage is already quite salty. Enjoy.
The sour fricassee soup is also ideal for alleviating hangover while recharging with a little energy. Like most Hungarian cures, it works for everything; you could heal a broken heart or help you with your cold. But seriously, nothing beats a hot and delicious soup in the gloomy winter months. Thanks to the ingredients and spices, it is a genuinely nutritious soup.
Ingredients:
40 dkg pork
20 dkg carrots and parsley roots mixed
10 dkg celeriac (celery root) and kohlrabi mixed
a bundle of parsley
2 dl sour cream
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
salt and pepper
Instructions:
Cut the meat into small cubes and sear them in a little oil. Add salt and then add approximately 1 litre of water.
When the meat is cooked semi-soft, add the chopped carrots, parsley roots, celeriac, kohlrabi and the parsley into the pot and continue cooking.
When the meat is completely tender, remove the soup from the heat. Stir in the sour cream and vinegar mixed with the egg yolks. Serve with more sour cream.
If you like heavier, more spicy foods made with white wine, then this dish might be for you. This is a main staple dish during the Carnival season.
Ingredients:
1 medium-sized, whole chicken
10-15 dkg of smoked bacon
10 dkg butter
3-4 dl white wine
salt, pepper, marjoram
Instructions:
Wash the chicken and salt it heavily and thoroughly. You can put plenty of salt on both the inside and outside of the chicken, but also put pepper on the outside and marjoram on the inside.
Pour the melted butter all over the chicken and pour the white wine into the pan.
Cover the whole thing with foil and bake it in the oven on light heat, while continually checking to see if it needs more wine.
When the chicken’s meat is baked soft, take it out and cover the chicken with thin bacon slices. Put the whole thing back in the oven and bake it crispy brown.
If you want to make a really delicious main dish, try this recipe, but beware as this Carnival roast is not dietetic at all, as you could expect from a real Hungarian Carnival dish.
Ingredients:
50 dkg pork leg
2 buns or similar bread
10 dkg mushrooms
25 dkg carrot, parsley root, celeriac mixed
1 egg yolk
3 dl white wine
a carton of tomato juice
a bundle of parsley
1-2 tbsp olive oil
allspice, white pepper, salt
Instructions:
Cut the mushrooms into thin slices and fry them in a little oil. Chop and steam the vegetables. Mix the mushrooms and steamed vegetables and add the finely chopped parsley as well.
Soak the buns in white wine and squeeze them thoroughly. Ground the resulting mixture and then add the egg yolk and spices.
Cut the meat into 4-5 larger pieces and thoroughly tenderise them. Put the stuffing on the slices and roll them up. Fry the rolls in a little oil until the meat is red and then add some tomato juice and a little white wine.
The dish is ready when the meat is completely softened. Cut into slices and serve with any garnish you like.
This dish is ideal for those who love duck meat with bacon and liver. In addition to the spices, the flavours are brought out by the aromas of red wine and cognac.
Ingredients:
1 duck for roasting
10-15 dkg duck liver
10 dkg bacon
2 dl red wine
5 cl cognac
5 dkg flour
5 dkg butter
1dl olive oil
1 onion
a bundle of parsley
bay leaves, thyme, salt
Instructions:
Glaze the duck liver in a little oil and crush it when done. In a separate pan, mix the other duck trimmings, the coarsely chopped onion and the diced bacon and sear the whole mixture in a little oil.
When the meat is reddish or has a little sear, sprinkle the flour on it and add the red wine and cognac and a little water, so that is mixes easily. Add the spices and bring to a boil over medium heat.
When done, remove it from heat and strain through a small mesh filter. Add the crushed duck liver to the filtered sauce am mix it in well.
Bake the duck in an oven until it is crispy and when done, stir the fat from the pan of the duck into the sauce. Before serving, cut the duck into slices and serve with the sauce. You can eat it with any side dish.
The history of the iconic bejgli is not totally clear, different sources report different origins. It came to Europe in the 14th century, and the word bejgli has been used by Hungarians since the 19th century. According to folk tradition, there is no Christmas without bejgli, because it was believed that walnuts protect from spoilage and poppy seeds bring abundance.
The traditional baking process of bejgli requires a lot of time, often a whole day. Grinding the walnut and the poppy seeds, forming and stretching the pasta and baking it are complex tasks.
Photo: www.facebook.com/Cookta
According to Origo, our grandmothers ground the poppy seed and walnut themselves, and did the dough from scracth.
It was almost a family programme – especially if there were girls at the house who, over time, passed on the knowledge of traditional bejgli making.
Although bejgli is now made with a number of fashionable fillings, the real traditional remains of walnuts and poppy seeds. Even though nothing can top off our grandothers’ recipes, below we offer a collection of articles on the topic:
What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘pancake’? Is it the thick and fluffy or the thin, rolled-up dessert that you think of first? And do you know which pancake Hungarians eat? If you have ever had doubts about which type of pancake is eaten in which country, worry no more, because we collected some of the most common ones here.
Let us start with some basic definitions. Lexico defines ‘pancake’ as “a thin, flat cake of batter, fried on both sides in a pan and typically rolled up with a sweet or savoury filling” whereas ‘crêpe’ – the word originates from French – is defined as “a thin pancake.”
The Hungarian language, however, calls them both ‘palacsinta’. We usually differentiate the thicker pancakes from the thinner ones by adding ‘American’ when referring to the former, suggesting its place of origin.
So, as you know by now, one essential difference between pancakes is their thickness. But other than that, the size of the diameter, whether they are sweet or savoury, whether they are rolled-up or not, and when people eat them can all vary.
Hungarian palacsinta
The Hungarian palacsinta is by definition on the crêpe side. It is a thin pancake with a larger diameter size; the batter – that includes eggs, milk, mineral water, flour, and sugar – should cover the whole pan when cooked. The thin cakes are then filled with jam, cocoa cream, or Nutella, and then they are rolled up.
French crêpes
Photo: www.facebook.com/ZsofiaHamoriPhotography
The French eat their pancakes very similarly to Hungarians. The difference is that they do not add mineral water to the batter, and instead of rolling it up, they rather fold the cakes. Besides the sweet chocolate and fruity fillings, they also serve it with cheese or vegetables.
American pancakes
As we have already suggested, the Americans’ typical pancakes are the thick, fluffy ones. To get this fluffy texture, besides the eggs, milk, flour, and sugar, baking powder is also added to the batter. It is one typical breakfast food, served with butter, syrup – Canadians also eat this type of pancake with maple syrup, of course –, and fruits, etc.
Dutch Baby
The Dutch eat oven-baked pancakes. The batter is similar to the previous ones but, in the end, you get a completely different pancake experience: the cake puffs up in the oven, which is then served in the skillet it was baked in, with lemon juice, powdered sugar, and fruits.
Have you ever wondered what Hungarians eat for treats when the Christmas season comes? What sweet snacks do they eat between the Christmas feasts? You need no further search as in this article, I will tell you everything about just that. What is more, you could try out the treats at home even if you do not have any shops around you that sell these things.
Let us start that journey by talking about the most popular sweet snack, the treat of treats when it comes to Christmas time in Hungary, the szaloncukor (salon candy). The szaloncukor is a typical Hungarian snack which, in many households, is also used as decoration for the Christmas tree. One aspect of this candy is the wrapping itself, which you can also customise to match the decor of the tree. If you are interested in it in greater detail, you can find out who sneaks the candy from its wrapping, but I will move on to how it is made. Because there is a wide variety of fillings for this candy, you can customise it for your family’s taste, but in this article, I can give you only a few examples.
Szaloncukor (salon candy)
Photo: Szerencs szaloncukor via Association of Hungarian Confectionery Manufacturers
Ingredients:
Chestnut filling:
250 g chestnut paste
3 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp apricot jam
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Coconut filling:
500 g granulated sugar
10 tbsp (~150 ml) water (about 100 ml more on the side if needed)
120 g coconut shavings
2 small packets of vanilla sugar
2 tbsp food starch
Jelly filling:
250 ml fruit juice (to your liking)
6 gelatine sheets
2 tbsp granulated sugar
For the coating:
about two bars of chocolate of your liking
facebook/Paleo Szaloncukor
Instructions:
Chestnut:
Add the cocoa powder to the chestnut paste, the jam, cinnamon, and honey, and mix the ingredients well. Make about 2-3 cm cylinders from the paste and put them aside.
Coconut:
Add the water and the sugar to the bowl and boil it for 8 minutes after it first starts to boil. Add the coconut shavings and a little bit more water. When the water boils away again, add in the vanilla sugar. Boil it for 5 more minutes while constantly stirring. Mix in the starch and put the whole paste on something to let it cool. Once it cools, wet your hands and form similar cylinders as before.
Jelly:
Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water until they become soft. In a separate bowl, start boiling the fruit juice and add the sugar. Take out the now soft sheets of gelatine from the cold water and squeeze the water out of them. Add the sheets to the boiling fruit juice and mix them in. Pour them into an ice cube tray of sorts (could be any shape, but the regular rectangular is perfect) and let it cool down.
Coating:
Once you are ready with the fillings, melt some chocolate of your choice, and you can either pour it over the fillings or you can submerge the fillings like a fondue. Put the coated treat on parchment paper and let the chocolate harden. You can follow the recipe of Receptvideók in this video:
You can make a wrapper with parchment paper on the inside and any soft paper you want on the outside. You could also use food-safe plastic foils or sheets, and here is a video on how you can make your own re-usable cloth candy wrappers. There is also a video on how the szaloncukor is usually made in a chocolate manufacture.
Textile candy wrappers
How szaloncukor is made
Habcsók (meringue)
Habcsók or merengue
Source: Pixabay / boaphotostudio
Another dessert that could also be used as decoration for the Christmas tree is a habcsók (literally: foam kiss). A light (literally) dessert made of egg-whites and sugar, it is also known outside of Hungary as a meringue. Although not of Hungarian origin, it is often used for decorating trees – by threading a string through it – in households in Hungary. This recipe is from Nosalty.
Ingredients:
egg white of 2 eggs
100 g powdered sugar (you can use caster or granulated sugar as well)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Whisk the egg whites and gradually mix in the sugar until you get a thick but still somewhat runny paste. Put the mixture in a pastry bag and squeeze little mounds or rings onto an oven pan lined with baking paper. Bake it in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat in the oven but leave the treats in for another ten minutes to dry.
This is a base recipe; you can add in food colouring, vanilla extract, or marble it with fruit juice. The ingredients are relatively cheap, and it does not take long to make them, so feel free to experiment and come up with your own colours and shapes. There is also a video recipe for you:
One of the most popular and well-known Hungarian pastries is bejgli, and you can find a good recipe for the Hungarian bejgli in this article. Another famous Hungarian dessert is zserbó. For a traditional zserbó recipe, read this article.
Kókuszgolyó (coconut ball)
Kókuszgolyó or coconut balls
Source: Pixabay / Einladung_zum_Essen
Kóksuzgolyó is also a beloved dessert of many Hungarian families. It is easy to make, but it tastes incredible. You could omit the coconut shavings on top, and you could even coat it in chocolate or glaze, or if you wanted, you could use this recipe and wrap it in szaloncukor wrapping. A similar type of Hungarian treat even made a cameo in Netflix’s Lucifer, but more on that in another article.
Ingredients:
500 g biscuit crumbs (sweet or unsalted, you can also break up whole biscuits yourselves)
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 small packet of vanilla sugar
200 g powdered sugar
200 g butter
200 ml milk
20 drops of rum flavouring
200 g coconut shavings
Instructions:
Leaving out the coconut shavings, mix together all the ingredients into a thick mouldable paste. With a wet hand, form balls, and then roll them around in the coconut shavings until they are covered. Put it in the fridge for 1-2 hours, and you can serve them afterwards.
This is a base recipe from Nosalty. Some families put rum cherries in the middle. Using this same recipe, if you make a coconut crème and flatten the dough, you could make coconut rolls instead of balls. Experiment. You can also follow a video on how to do it here:
Who would not love a heavenly, delicious poppy seed cake? A true Hungarian Christmas treat. Mákos guba (poppy seed dough) in the form of a cake sounds like a must. With this recipe, you are guaranteed to be successful.
(These quantities are ideal for a cake tin of 24cm diameter, but if you have another size at home, scale it up.)
8 dried crescent rolls
1 litre milk for the base, another 250 ml of milk for the cream
3 egg yolks for the base, 2 egg yolks for the cream
150 g powdered sugar for the base and also 150 g powdered sugar for the cream
2 packets of vanilla sugar for the base and also 2 packets of vanilla sugar for the cream
100 g butter for the base and 200 g butter for the cream
150 g poppy seed for the base
100 g raisins for the base
zest of 1 lemon for the base
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
3-4 tablespoons of apricot jam for the base
1 packet of vanilla custard powder for the cream
whipped cream for the top
Making the poppy seed cake:
Cut up the crescent rolls evenly into circles as a first step, as this is also the basis of the poppy seed cake.
Then, after cutting the crescent rolls, start to prepare the milk sauce as follows: add 100 g of butter to one litre of milk and heat it up. The 3 egg yolks are mixed smoothly with the 150 g powdered sugar and the 2 packets of vanilla sugar. Once a smooth texture is obtained, pour the milk over it while slowly stirring and let the whole thing boil in water steam until it thickens.
Return to the crescent rolls again, sprinkle them with poppy seed, cinnamon, raisins, and grated lemon zest, then mix. Once this is done, also pour the boiled milk over it, stir it, making sure that the crescent rings stay intact, and let it sit for a while. It takes a few minutes for the crescent rolls to absorb the liquid.
Sprinkle a buttered cake tin with breadcrumbs, then pour in the poppy seed-covered crescent rolls. This is where the jam comes in, which you should spoon onto the crescent rolls and spread evenly, and then put it in the preheated oven (100 degrees Celsius) for 15-20 minutes.
If it has a nice colour, allow it to cool in the tin before placing it on a tray.
Then comes the preparation of the cream. Mix 200 g of butter until smooth with half the amount of powdered sugar (75 g), then set aside. Mix the other half of the icing sugar with the 2 egg yolks and 2 packets of vanilla sugar and the custard powder, then add the milk as well and cook, stirring constantly, for a few minutes, then let it cool completely.
Add the sugared butter to the cooled pudding. If you get a plain cream, you can also spread it on top of the chilled poppy seed-covered crescent rolls, and then put it all in the fridge to freeze well.
As the last step, beat the whipped cream into a hard foam and decorate the cake with it.
Are you as much of a bejgli fan as we are? Do you also have trouble deciding which one do you prefer; the walnut or the poppy seed filling? If so, the following bejgli cake recipe is for you.
Gulyás, chimney cake, mulled wine, pálinka… What else is missing from the festive table? Bejgli, of course! Hungary’s traditional poppy seed and walnut roll, the bejgli is served around the Advent and Christmas period. If you want to come up with a special dessert this year, we have got the perfect one for you: the bejgli cake. This recipe from Magyarországom mixes the traditional walnut and poppy seed bejgli in a cake shape to give life to something even more delicious!
Ingredients
For the dough
40 dkg plain flour
20 dkg butter
1 beaten egg
1 dl sour cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 dkg yeast
Pinch of salt
For the walnut filling
20 dkg ground walnuts
1 dl hot milk
10 dkg sugar
1 packet of vanilla sugar (can be substituted with vanilla extract)
1 tbsp breadcrumbs
3 dkg raisins (if you like them)
Zest of ½ lemon
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 small apple grated
For the poppy seed filling
20 dkg ground poppy seeds
1 dl hot milk
10 dkg sugar
1 tbsp semolina
Zest of ½ lemon
3 dkg raisins (if you like them)
1 small apple grated
1 packet of vanilla sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Plus, you will need 1 egg to spread on top of the cake, and 3 cl rum to soak the raisins in.
Instructions
As the very first step, soak your raisins in approximately 3 cl rum for a couple of hours before you start baking.
We are going to start with preparing the dough: crumble the butter and the yeast into the flour and work it well together with all the ingredients for the dough.
When everything is combined, form three buns from the dough. Cover them and put them aside to rest for about half an hour.
While you wait for the dough to rise, let us start making the fillings. The process is the same with both the walnut and poppy seed fillings: boil the milk with the sugar and then take it off the heat. Mix the walnuts (or poppy seeds) in, as well as the rest of the ingredients for the filling, then let it cool.
Grab a cake tin of 26 cm diameter and cover it with baking paper. Roll the first bun to the size and form of the cake tin and place it in the tin, then spread the walnut filling on it.
Roll the second one similarly and cover the walnut filling with it. Then spread the poppy seed filling on it.
Finally, cover the poppy seed filling with the last rolled bun. If you wish, you can also make more layers with more dough and fillings.
Spread beaten egg yolk on the top of your cake. Let it dry and give it another spread of egg white. Put the cake aside for about half an hour.
Grab a fork and poke the top of the cake with it, then place it in the oven preheated for 190 degrees. Bake your cake for 25-30 minutes. To get the best flavours, it is recommended to let it rest for a day and then serve.
Goulash is one of the most famous Hungarian dishes. As Hungarian dishes gained some popularity over recent years, it is being served in more and more places around the world. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus pandemic that struck the world, it is almost impossible to travel or to go to a good restaurant, so if you crave some Hungarian flavours, in this article you will find five recipes for you to try out at home and get to know the many flavours of goulash there can be.
As in the case of almost all good home-cooked meals, every family has its own little tweaks and twerks. Well, this is the case concerning the Hungarian goulash. While it is mostly the traditional goulash that conquered the tastebuds of the world, there are many variants of the dish from different parts of the country or depending on what is at home. Now let us move on to the recipes.
Traditional goulash
Although the traditional Hungarian goulash is best in a ’Hungarian pot’ or kettle (bogrács), this might not be possible because the weather can be quite chilly this time of the year, but do not worry; it can be just as tasty when cooked on the stove. You can adjust this base recipe however you like. Some people add diced green pepper, tomatoes, or more vegetables like turnip, you could add more meat if you want. You could make it with less water or leave it on a bit longer if you prefer your goulash thicker, more like a stew. Feel free to experiment and come up with your own family recipe. The most important thing is quality meat. In my opinion, it is best with some fresh bread to soak up the broth with or to clean those last bits from your plate.
For illustration purposes Source: facebook.com/magyargulyasetterem
Ingredients:
1 kg beef (shank or crop)
2-3 big onions
50 dkg of potatoes
3 carrots
2 parsley roots
1 head garlic
2 tablespoons of paprika
2 teaspoons of ground caraway seed
mangalitza or pork fat (lard)
parsley
salt and pepper
for the noodles:
1 large egg
10-12 dkg of flour
salt
Directions:
Prepare the ingredients; wash and peel the vegetables. Cut the meat into bite-sized cubes. Dice the onions, slice the carrots, parsley roots, and the potatoes. I usually prefer the potato pieces to be bigger than the meat.
Start by adding the lard and onions into the pot. You should cook them until they get glossy or slightly yellowish, but not brown. Add in the garlic as well, stir it and remove the pot from the heat or turn it off for a bit. Add in the meat cubes, the ground caraway seeds, and the paprika powder, and mix it well together. It is important to remove the pot from the heat because if you burn paprika, it becomes bitter. After mixing it together, put it back over the heat and add just a little water if needed. After the water is cooked away, you can season it with salt and pepper.
Add the potatoes, carrots, and parsley roots. It is usually at this step that some people add diced green pepper or tomatoes. You need to add water to cover everything. Now you must be patient as the meat and potatoes can take about 2 hours to cook well. If you want a soup, add some water to the pot as it boils away. Meanwhile, you can prepare the noodles: simply mix the eggs, the flour, and some salt. If everything in the goulash has softened, add in the noodles by tearing bite-sized pieces off from the dough. You need to cook it for ten more minutes, and the meal is ready. Enjoy with a little parsley on top.
Csango goulash (csángó gulyás)
The Csango people are a Hungarian ethnographic group of Roman Catholic faith living mostly in the Romanian region of Moldavia. Their traditional language, Csango, an old Hungarian dialect, is currently used by only a minority of the ethnic group.
The following recipe is from Norecipes: “Cooked in stock with sweet paprika and a bit of caraway, Csango Goulash is traditionally more of a hearty soup than a stew, though you can take it in either direction by adjusting the size of the beef and the amount of liquid. Finished with a dollop of sour cream, it is the ultimate comfort food for a cold winter day”.
For illustration purposes Source: Pixabay / RitaE
Ingredients:
650 g beef cheeks (shins or chuck is also good)
2 tsp vegetable oil (can use pork or mangalitza lard)
270 g onion (~1 large onion, finely chopped)
14 g garlic (~2 large cloves, finely minced)
50 g peppers (chopped)
6 cups vegetable stock
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp caraway seed
1 bay leaf
50 g long-grain rice
680 g sauerkraut (lightly rinsed)
sour cream (to serve)
Directions:
“Cut off the excess fat from the meat and dice them up into small cubes. Season it with salt and pepper. A dutch oven or a good quality thick-bottomed pot is recommended. Heat the vegetable over medium heat and add the beef in a single layer. Brown the beef in one side and then flip the pieces over to brown the other side. When this is done, transfer the meat to another bowl and set it aside.
Turn down the heat and add the onions and garlic to the pot. Cover the pot and let the onions steam for about ten minutes until they get tender. Remove the lid and add the peppers and sauté it until the onions are browned. Add the vegetable stock, paprika, caraway and bay leaf, cover with a lid and then let the beef cheek simmer over medium-low to low heat until it starts to get tender (about 45 minutes).
Drain and lightly rinse the sauerkraut. When the beef is almost tender, add the rice and sauerkraut to the Goulash. Cook until the sauerkraut and rice are tender (about another 30 minutes). Adjust salt to taste and serve with sour cream and dumplings, or boiled potatoes”.
Shepherd’s goulash (pásztorgulyás)
The recipe is from Tutireceptek. This is just a slight take on the original recipe that has organ meat in addition to beef, giving it a bit of a stronger flavour.
For illustration purposes Source: Pixabay / liga008
Ingredients:
0.5 kg beef (shank or crop)
30 dkg organ meat (heart and liver)
1 tbsp lard (you can use oil, but be cautious when adding the onion and paprika)
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
salt
paprika
caraway seed
marjoram
2 tomatoes
1 kg of potatoes
noodles from the first recipe (smaller portion here)
Directions:
Wash the meat and organs and cut them into small cubes. Melt the lard in a quality pot and add the diced onions. Cook them until they get glossy or slightly yellowish. Add in the garlic as well and stir it. Sprinkle it with paprika and add the beef and organ meat to the pot. Season it with salt, caraway and finely chopped marjoram and cook it over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and pour some water into the pot, just small amounts and steam it until the meat starts to soften. When it is almost entirely softened pour water into the pot to cover everything well. Add the potatoes and cook together until it thoroughly softens. You can add the noodles you cooked separately when you serve.
Venison goulash with beans
This recipe is from Mindmegette. It uses beans instead of potatoes and venison instead of beef. It has a different flavouring due to the different meat, but the method is almost the same.
For illustration purposes Source: Pixabay / Grifan4ik
Ingredients:
1 kg venison
8 dkg lard
25 dkg beans (dry or canned)
8 dkg green peppers
1 tomato
10 g paprika
15 dkg onions
2 cloves of garlic
salt
chilli (pepper, powder or flakes, not necessary)
0.5 dl red wine
Directions:
Cut the venison into cubes and wash it with cold water. Put the lard in the pot and cook the onions until they become glossy or slightly yellowish. Add the paprika and the crushed garlic. Add the diced venison and salt, then steam it with a bit of broth with the lid on until it becomes soft. If needed, add water or wine to the mixture as it boils away. Add the green peppers and the tomato (or puree). When the meat is soft, add the canned beans and mix it in. Boil it for a few minutes. If you use dry beans, you need to soak them beforehand and cook the soft separately.
Lentil goulash with pork knuckle and Hungarian sausage
This recipe is from Mindmegette. This recipe does not use the traditional onion and paprika base and uses pork instead of beef.
For illustration purposes Source: Pixabay / mygraphx
Ingredients:
25 dkg pork knuckle (hock)
1 l pork knuckle broth
2 onions
5 cloves of garlic
2 chilli peppers
3 bay leaf
25 dkg lentil
3 carrots
2 parsley roots
half the head of a kohlrabi
half the root of celery (celeriac)
1 green onion
2 pepper
2 chilli peppers (not necessary)
2 tomatoes
2 potatoes
salt
ground black pepper
spicy paprika (you can use the normal/mild)
10 dkg Hungarian “peasant” sausage
2 dl sour cream
Direction:
Cook the pork knuckle beforehand and save 1 l of the broth. Wash the lentil and use the broth to soak the lentils the day before. Clean and cut the vegetables. Add the lentil and the vegetable into a pot and season it. Cook it for about 45 minutes. While it is cooking, cut the pork knuckle into small cubes, peel the skin off the sausage and slice it up. Add the meat into the mixture and cook it for about five more minutes. Serve it with a bit of sour cream on top and with bread on the side.
Christmas markets are cancelled, and we will not be able to go out and enjoy a nice glass of heart-warming mulled wine with our friends. But we have good news for you: mulled wine is very easy and quick to make at home, too.
After you tried our chimney cake and langalló recipes, top off your at-home Christmas market experiences list with some delicious mulled wine with these recipes provided by Magyarorszagom.
You definitely cannot go wrong with the classic one.
Ingredients
750 ml dry red wine 100 g sugar 2 cinnamon sticks 9 whole cloves 2 whole allspices 3 slices of lemon
The classic mulled wine is an all-time favourite. It could be the perfect choice also because it is so simple to make: grab your spices and sugar, put them in a saucepan, and add your red wine. Start heating it and when your mixture almost starts boiling, add the lemon slices. Serve while it is still hot.
Spice things up with this special Hungarian mulled wine recipe.
Ingredients
½ l red wine honey to taste 1 cinnamon stick 3 whole cloves ½ tsp Erős Pista (or chilli) 1 lemon
That is right, we put paprika in mulled wine, too, but do not judge until you have tried it. This spicy mulled wine is also recommended if you feel a bit under the weather. Similarly to the classic recipe, just pour your wine into a saucepan, add the spices, the honey, and the Erős Pista (if you cannot get your hands on it, just substitute it with some chilli). Boil it and add your lemon slices. Enjoy!
Mulled cider recipe
Ingredients
¼ cup of sugar 1 l cider 0.5 tsp orange zest ¼ cup of orange juice 5 whole cloves 2 whole allspices 1 cinnamon stick pinch of nutmeg 1 lemon
This special Christmas drink is just as easy to make as mulled wine: boil the cider with all the spices, then serve it with slices of lemon.
Fruit-lovers out there, this fruity mulled wine recipe is for you.
Ingredients
1 l red wine 1 orange 3 whole cloves 2 cinnamon sticks 1 tsp grated ginger 50 g raisin 50 g mixed dried fruit (apple, plum, cherry) 50 g sugar 1 small cup of rum
This is a bit different from the previous ones but definitely worth the effort. Peel your orange, put aside a piece of the peel, and slice the fruit. Place the spices and the orange peel in a linen cloth and moisten it. Pour the wine into a saucepan and add the sugar and the spices. Boil it on low heat, and when you see white foam forming on the surface, remove it carefully with a spoon. Add the rum, the dried fruits, and the raisins into your mixture, stir it well, and let it sit in a warm place for about half an hour so that the flavours can mix. Finally, take out the linen cloth with the spices, and you are ready to serve: place a slice of orange at the bottom of each cup and pour the hot mulled wine on it.
Flaming mulled wine with rum
Ingredients
0.75 l red wine 130 ml rum 150 g sugar 5 whole cloves 1 cinnamon stick 1 vanilla bean 4 cardamom pods ½ orange ½ lemon
We saved the most exciting one for last: starring rum and a little special attraction. First, slice your orange and lemon, then place them in a saucepan with the red wine, spices, and sugar. Heat it up, and when the mixture starts boiling, add the rum and put it on fire (preferably just the rum, not the whole kitchen). Once the flame goes out, leave it for just a couple of minutes, and then it is ready to drink.
Looks like due to the pandemic situation, this winter we are left without our beloved Christmas markets and all the yummy food that comes with them. But don’t you worry, we have got your back! Here is a go-to tasty and easy chimney cake aka kürtőskalács recipe.
Year after year, we are counting the days until the opening of Budapest’s lovely Christmas markets. We cannot wait to walk under the fairy lights at Vörösmarty Square or in front of the Basilica with our loved ones, while everything smells like spicy mulled wine and cinnamon chimney cakes. It is the unmistakable scent that tells us: Christmas is on its way.
Although we have to face the fact that this year’s Christmas and Advent period is not going to be the same, this by no means means that we have to cancel all the good stuff. If you also agree that the Advent period cannot pass without chimney cakes, we encourage you to try this foolproof chimney cake recipe.
The delicious treat that is popular both in Hungary and Transylvania might seem difficult to make at first sight, but the following version of the recipe brought to you by Magyarorszagomcan easily be made by anyone without special baking talents or equipment. You will only need a couple of aluminium beer cans to make your whole house smell like Christmas.
Ingredients
For the dough
500 g plain flour 1 egg 1 egg yolk 20 g fresh yeast (not instant) 3 tbsp sugar 50 g butter 220 ml milk (at a lukewarm temperature) pinch of salt
For the coating
6 tbsp melted butter 6 tbsp sugar 2 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp cocoa powder Or anything else you fancy rolling your cakes in: chocolate shavings, coconut flakes, ground nuts, etc.
Plus, you will need some aluminium foil and aluminium beer cans (about 6).
We are going to start with the dry ingredients: first, sift your flour and add the pinch of salt. Add the egg and the egg yolk, too.
Mix the sugar with the milk and crumble the fresh yeast in with your fingers, then let it do its magic for a couple of minutes. After you see the mixture rise, pour it into your flour mixture.
Combine everything well, then add the butter, too, and you can start kneading your dough. When you are ready, let the dough sit at a warm temperature, for at least half an hour but no longer than an hour (until it has doubled in size).
While your dough is rising, prepare the beer cans: cover them evenly with foil and grease them with butter – do this very carefully, otherwise the dough is going to stick to the cans.
After the dough is ready, divide it into 6 approximately equal pieces and start forming your chimney cakes. Roll each piece of the dough on a floured surface until it is approximately 5 mm thin, then cut it into 2 cm wide ribbons.
Wrap the dough around the cans, but not too tightly. Carefully press the dough together by rolling it on your work surface.
Grease the dough with butter and spread sugar on a tray, then roll your dough in it – this will give it a sweet and crispy layer.
Place the cakes on a baking tray, not too close to each other, and put them in the preheated oven on 200 degrees Celsius. Bake them for about 12-14 minutes – it is highly recommended to turn them every 2 minutes until they are golden.
When your chimney cakes are fully baked, roll them in the coating of your choice while they are still hot. Wait for them to cool a little bit (if you can) and then slide them off the cans.
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
Cut the pork chops into slices and pound them thin. Season them with salt, pepper, and marjoram, then flip the chops in flour and fry both sides in little oil for 1-1 minute. Chop the onion and garlic, and caramelise them in little oil. Cut the raw potatoes into thin slices.
Grease the bottom of a baking pan with lard. Put one layer of potato and season with salt as desired. For the second layer, add the thin slices of meat, and for the third, the apple slices. When these layers are done, add the caramelised onion and garlic, as well as half of the grated cheese.
Make another potato-meat-apple layer, then add the remaining cheese on top. Mix the sour cream and cooking cream with nutmeg, and pour the mixture on top.
Cover the baking tray with aluminium foil. In a preheated oven, cook on 180°C for 1.5 hours. Remove the aluminium foil before the end of cooking time if you want to give the top a slightly brown colour.
If the weather turns gloomy outside, then one of the best things you could do is to stay indoors and bake some delicious desserts. In this article, we have gathered four desserts for you that use some of the most characteristic ingredients of the Autumn: apples, poppy seed, walnut, pumpkin.
Apple
Hungarian sour cream dough apple “pie” (‘béles’)
Ingredients:
1,5 dl milk
25 g fresh yeast
4 tbsp granulated sugar
50 dkg flour
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp powdered sugar
20 dkg butter
3 eggs
2 tbsp sour cream
8 apples
lemon peel (half)
the juice of half of a lemon (freshly squeezed)
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp semolina
Instructions:
Crumble the yeast into lukewarm milk and add one tablespoon of granulated sugar and let it sit to activate the yeast. While the yeast is sitting, weigh the flour into a large bowl and add the powdered sugar and a little salt to it. Cube the butter and add it to the bowl and knead it until it is crumbly. After this, add two eggs, the sour cream and the activated yeast mixture and knead into a soft dough. Cover it with a kitchen towel and let it sit while preparing the filling.
Peel the apples and grate them into a large bowl. Add the remaining granulated sugar, cinnamon and cloves to the grated apples. Grate the peel of half a lemon and squeeze it into the bowl and mix it.
Sprinkle some flour to your work area and put the dough on it. Cut it into two parts and roll them out separately. Butter a large heat resistant bowl and lay one of the rolled-out dough in it. Pierce it with a fork in a few places and sprinkle the semolina on it. Squeeze a bit of the moisture out of the apple filling and put it on the dough. Sprinkle it with brown sugar and cover it with the other rolled-out dough. Also, pierce the top layer in a few places and then glaze it with a beaten egg. Put it in a pre-heated oven at 180 °C and bake it for about 45-50 minutes. When serving, sprinkle some powdered sugar on top.
Poppy seed
Hungarian poppy seed and cherry “pie” (‘béles’)
Ingredients:
For the dough:
400 g flour
1 packet of baking powder
a pinch of salt
200 g butter
5 tbsp sour cream
For the filling:
350 g poppy seed
200 g sugar
400 ml milk
50 g semolina
lemon peel
coffee spoon cinnamon (0.2 teaspoon)
5 tbsp apricot jam
350 g cherry kompot
For glazing and sprinkling:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
Photo: nosalty
Instructions:
First, prepare the filling. Boil the milk with the sugar and add the ground poppy seed and the semolina. Mix it well, turn off the heat and let it cool down. Mix the flour with the salt and baking powder. Add the butter and crumble it, then add the sour cream and knead the mixture into a malleable soft dough. Separate the dough into two parts (about 400g each).
Pre-heat the oven and put parchment paper in a pan. Flour your work surface and roll out both pieces of the dough and lay one into the prepared pan.
Mix the pitted and drained cherries into the cooled poppy seed filling and add some grated lemon peel and cinnamon into it. Spread 5 tbsp apricot jam on the dough and put the poppy seed filling on it evenly. Cover it with the second layer of dough.
Mix the egg yolk with the milk and glaze the top of the dough with it. Pierce the dough with a fork in a few places. Bake it in a pre-heated oven until it is golden brown. Let it cool down and it is ready to be served with a sprinkle of vanilla sugar on top.
Walnut
Hungarian tipsy walnut cake
Ingredients:
For the dough:
15 dkg margarine
10 dkg powdered sugar
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
7 dkg flour
1 packet of baking powder
10 dkg walnut
4 eggs
7 tbsp apricot jam
For the walnut cream:
20 dkg walnut
10 dkg powdered sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 dl rum
For the chocolate cream:
20 dkg margarine
10 dkg powdered sugar
1 dl milk
1 packet chocolate pudding powder (must not require cooking)
For the top:
10 dkg chocolate glaze
Photo: nosalty
Instructions:
The dough:
Mix the margarine with the powdered sugar and the yolk of the eggs. Mix the baking powder into the flour and add them to the margarine. Dice the walnuts into tiny pieces and whip the egg whites into a foam, then add these to the mixture as well. Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured pan and bake it in a pre-heated oven at 200 °C. If it cooled down, spread the apricot jam on it evenly.
Walnut cream:
Mix the ground walnuts with the powdered sugar, the vanilla sugar, the milk and the rum until it becomes homogenous. Spread this cream on top of the dough over the apricot jam.
Chocolate cream:
Mix the margarine with the powdered sugar. Prepare the pudding powder and then mix the two. Spread this cream on top of the previous layers. Melt the chocolate glaze and spread it over the dessert. Let it cool and harden in the fridge.
Pumpkin
Pumpkin muffins with lemony sour cream
Ingredients:
For the muffin:
40 dkg pumpkin
40 dkg sugar
4 eggs
a pinch of salt
30 dkg flour
1 packet of baking powder
cinnamon (to taste)
175 ml sunflower-seed oil
For the sauce:
the juice of half of a lemon (freshly squeezed)
175 g sour cream
half of a vanilla bean
2 tbsp powdered sugar
lemon peel
Photo: nosalty
Instructions:
Prepare the pumpkin and grate it. Combine the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls, then mix them and add the grated pumpkin while mixing. Pour the dough into a baking mould and bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes on 200 °C.
While the dough is in the oven, prepare the sauce. Grate the peel of half a lemon and juice it, then add the sugar, sour cream and vanilla. Mix it until it is homogenous. When serving, drizzle some of the sauce on top of the muffins.
Hungarian gastronomy is gaining popularity or at least some publicity around the world recently, and if you are a regular reader of ours, you might be familiar with its flavours and even some recipes. Mainly it is famous for its meat dishes, such as the goulash (gulyás), potatoes and one of the most well-known Hungarian spices, the paprika. To be honest, yes, these are all part of Hungarian gastronomy today, but it was not always like that. Let us go on a journey into the past and look at what the ancestors of Hungarians ate.
We should start with some ‘debunking’. So, although we use paprika, the plant itself is from America. At first, it was thought to be poisonous, so it was used only as a decorative plant and the name ‘paprika’ was only coined in Hungary in 1724. Towards the end of the 18th century, it started to gain popularity as a spice and have since transformed the Hungarian cuisine entirely. The same goes for potatoes as well. Although the Hungarian ‘paprikás krumpli’ (potato paprikash) is a prevalent dish, it could not have been made earlier than 1650, as the potato presumably entered the country from the New World around that time. Bread, as we know it today, was not consumed by early Hungarian either, but more on that later.
If they could not have used the things that make Hungarian cuisine Hungarian today, then what did they eat? – you might ask. Well, to be honest, it is easier than you might think, and some things endured the sands of time and are still used as important building blocks of several Hungarian dishes. The main difference was their lifestyle.
Early Hungarians were equestrian people who were frequently on the move. They did not often use stationary cooking methods such as ovens for example.
Wiki Commons – Painting by Mihály Munkácsy
Ingredients and ideology
Ingredients-wise, they mostly ate what nature offered; what they could catch or collect. Of course, they also grew some plants and bred some animals to eat their meat or use their milk, such as cattle, horses, and sheep. They used a wide variety of wild-growing spices, fruits, and vegetables as well as a plethora of different types of grains. According to some speculations, Hungarians might have brought two spices with themselves to Europe: ‘tárkony’ (tarragon) and ‘csombor’ (savoury, esp. summer). Other spices include: ‘kakukkfű’ (thyme), ‘fűszerkömény’ (caraway), ‘fokhagyma’ (garlic), ‘kapor’ (dill), ‘zsálya’ (salvia/sage), ‘lestyán’ (lovage) among others. As I mentioned, they also used other, wild-growing plants, which were mainly: ‘csalán’ (nettle), ‘kamilla’ (chamomile), ‘medvehagyma’ (bear leek), etc. They hunted different types of game, such as ‘szarvas’ (deer), ‘vaddisznó’ (boar), ‘nyúl’ (rabbit), but fish were also often part of their menu.
Their main idea of gastronomy was based on the respect of the five elements that were part of their culture: fire, water, earth, wood and iron.
Therefore, it seems logical that they cooked in an iron pot or kettle (‘üst’ or ‘bogrács’) with water in it, standing over the ground heated by fire made from wood. This combined every aspect of their gastrological beliefs, and it is still viral today. Some of the most delicious Hungarian dishes are made with this technique. They could either make their dishes thick, such as ‘pörkölt’ (stew) or thin which would more-or-less resemble a rich soup. This might be the reason behind the fact that Hungarian ‘gulyás’ (goulash) could be a soup and a stew depending on how you make it, which is often confusing for foreigners.
For Hungarians today, bread is important, be it sourdough or otherwise, but for our ancestors, it was not as important, and it does not resemble our modern concept of bread. When early Hungarians were on the move, they could not use ovens – although ovens were not predominant due to their lifestyle, they sometimes built similar structures in their base camps – they had to improvise. While cooking in a ‘bogrács’ was possible, it could not be used to bake “bread”. What they ate instead was a mixture of flour, salt and water and baked on a hot, flat stone. This is called a ‘lepénykenyér’ (flatbread). Interestingly, in Csík and in Háromszék, the term ‘kőre leppencs’ which would translate to “crepe/flatbread on stone” is still used to describe a similar dish and in Bodrogköz the term ‘kövönsült’, meaning ‘baked on stone’ is used for Hungarian pancakes.
The dairy problem
There is an interesting problem with Hungarians and milk. The ancestors of Hungarians were unable to digest milk sugar or lactose, which is still true to many Hungarians even today.
But how could you use something at hand if you cannot digest it, well, Hungarians were crafty and developed methods to be able to consume milk, which leads to many different discoveries and interesting dishes. You might have heard about ‘Túró Rudi’, but if not, I will brief you up, it is a sweet snack of curd coated with chocolate. How does it fit here? The ancestors of Hungarians used several methods to get rid of lactose or reduce it, one of them was curdling, which meant that bacteria would transform lactose into lactic acid. Our ancestors have managed to produce several dairy products, such as cheese, curd, sour cream and yoghurt and one very interesting drink.
Pixabay / Illustration
Quench your thirst
Naturally, the main drink of the ancestors of Hungarian was water, but there were some other, somewhat startling drinks they liked to consume. One such drink was ‘kumisz’, which is a common drink among Central Asian peoples. It is a somewhat sweet, mildly carbonated alcoholic drink made by fermenting the milk of a mare. They fermented it in skin, which made it consumable for lactose-intolerant people (Hungarians). The longer they left it in, the higher the alcohol content and the least sweet it got. You might think that Hungarians were always wine drinking people, but it is not true. Although they liked wine, they mostly got their hands on it via trade, or, you know, by taking it. What they drank instead was a rudimentary type of beer, as grains were much easier to grow than grapes.
How do we know
Although these are scientific speculations, they are not set in stone. There is not a lot of written evidence from such an early period, so the best method is to look for information about Hungarians in other nations’ history they have made contact with. For example, Hungarians learned making more complex beer from Slavic peoples. Looking at how peoples untouched by civilisation around Central Asia live might also uncover how the ancestor of Hungarians lived. One very similar ethnic groups are the ‘jugar’ or ‘jogur’ (Dzungar/Zunghar) who have very similar gastronomy to what has been described. Hope you found this article interesting.
