Hatlapos

Dear Readers,

I would like to share my favorite Hungarian cookie with you. It's easier to prepare than you would think. Here we go:

Ingredients for the layers:                            Ingredients for the cream:

60 dkg (13.23 lb) flour (liszt)                      1 liter (35 oz) milk 

1 packet of salt volatile (szalalkáli)              4 dkg (0.88 lb) margarin

2 dl (1 oz) milk (tej)                                  4 dkg (0.88 lb) cocoa-powder

7 dkg (1.54 lb) sugar (kristálycukor)             20 dkg (4.41 lb) sugar

5 dkg (1.1 lb) cooking grease (zsír)              4 spoonful flour

2 eggs (tojás)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #23

Our first step is to warm the milk up and put the salt volatile in it. You may know that salt volatile has a very strong smell, but milk takes this unpleasant smell away. Now mush the pasta’s ingredients together and bake 6 layers from it. Cut the pasta into 6 pieces, roll the pieces out to get thin layers, then bake one layer at the time on your baking pan’s back-side. Bake the layers for about 8 – 10 minutes. We used an old baking pan, which was 15.75 inch long and 8.86 inch wide.

Now mix the cream’s ingredients together. Take a bake board which you can put in your fridge later, and put the first baked layer on the board. Then smear one sixth of the cream on the layer and cover it with the second layer. Continue doing this process until the sixth layer (see the picture above). When you are ready take another baking board and put it on the top of your cookie. Put your Hatlapos in the fridge and after a day slice it up. You can put powder sugar on the top, but as the cream is very sweet we usually leave this step out. Jó étvágyat! :)

Székelykáposzta

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry I haven't been around for a long time. There were many reasons for my absence, but now my mom and I are back with all new traditional Hungarian dishes. We hope you're going to like them.

We begin with Székelykáposzta (note that it's not the same as stuffed cabbage) as the flu season is still here and this dish contains a lot of vitamin. Here we go:

Ingredients:

1 bigger onion (vöröshagyma)

0.5 kg (1lb) sauerkraut (savanyú káposzta)

0.5 kg (1lb) chump-end (pacsni)

2 teaspoonful ground red pepper(őrölt pirospaprika)

2 dl (7oz) sour cream (tejföl)

2 spoonful flour (liszt)

salt (só), pepper (bors), cooking oil (főzőolaj)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #22

First of all, cut the onion into little pieces and braise it in cooking oil. Add the diced chump-end and the two teaspoonful ground red pepper to the onion. Spice it with salt and pepper. Now cover the meat with water and cook it until the chum-end gets white – this shows that our meat is half-cooked. While you are cooking the meat, wash the sauerkraut and add it to the half-cooked meat. We need to add water again to cover the sauerkraut. The amount of the water depends on how thick you like your soup. The duration of the cooking lasts for about an hour, but it depends on the age of you pork. When the meat is tender we get to the final step: the liaison. 

For the liaison we need sour cream and flour. Put 7 oz sour cream in a bowl and stir it, then add two spoonful flour and a little hot water to it. Now stir the ingredients so that the mixture comes to be clean-boled. After your liaison is ready, start adding it slowly to your meat while you are stirring them together. For the final step boil your soup. Jó étvágyat! 

Note from the writer

Serve your Székelykáposzta with a big slice of fresh white bread and a little sour cream on the top.

Merry Christmas to Everyone! :)

Christmas Dishes (Part IV) - Halászlé (Fish Soup)

Dear Readers,

this is the dish, which most Hungarian families have on Christmas Eve. Carp is almost every table's content at this time. Hope you'll like it and/or try it! 

Ingredients:

30 g (2 tablespoon) Hungarian ground red pepper (pirospaprika por)

500 g (1 lb) onion (hagyma)

3 kg (7 lb) carp (ponty)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #21

Scale and wash the carps before gutting them. Then cut into equal-sized pieces, salt, and cover with onions. Put the heads, backbones, tails, and fins with some sliced onions into a pot of water and boil it. When the water reaches boiling point add the two tablespoon ground red pepper and cook it till the onions don’t get tender and light brown. It’s about an hour and a half. Strain the stock over the pieces of fish and boil for 25-30 minutes. Don’t forget to shake the bowl several times. You mustn’t stir it; you can only shake the bowl. It’s important, because the fishes will stay in gross. You can add a few green peppers to the fish, if you have them at home.  Serve the soup in a plate with a slice of bread. Jó étvágyat!

Christmas Dishes (Part III) - Sült Libacomb burgonyával és párolt káposztával (Roasted Legs of Geese with Potato and Stewed Red Cabbage)

Dear Readers, 

I continue posting the Hungarian Christmas dishes. The following dish takes a long time to prepare, but it is worth to try it. I hope you'll like it. 

Ingredients:
6 pieces of leg of goose (libacomb)

2 teaspoon yellow mustard (mustár)

3-4 dl (10-13 fl oz) cooking oil (főzőolaj)

2 piece of onion (vöröshagyma)

2-3 broth cubes (húsleves kocka)

pepper (bors)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #19

Wash and then salt the legs of goose. After this put them in a bowl and cover it with aluminum foil. Keep the bowl in the fridge for 5 hours. Then marinate the legs with a sauce, which you have already prepared from mustard, cooking oil, and onion. When you are ready with this step pepper them and put the covered bowl to the fridge for a night. Grab a pressure cooker and put the legs of geese in it, then cover them with water. In order to get a more tasteful dish, use 2 or 3 broth cubes. When it boils, cook it for an hour on stage 3. Then let out the steap from the pressure cooker and check if the meat if tender enough. Now separate the legs from its liquor. The legs get in a roast pan and salt them and add the liquor from the pressure cooker to the pan. Roast the geese for one and a half hours. It is important that you should smear the legs with the liquor in every 15 minutes, so they won’t dry. Serve it with potato and stewed red cabbage (see the recipe below). Jó étvágyat!

Ingredients for the Stewed Red Cabbage:

1 red cabbage (piroskáposzta)

black pepper (fekete bors)

cooking oil (főzőolaj)

sugar (cukor)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #20

Wash and then cut the red cabbage. Salt it a little bit and leave it for 10 minutes. During this time caramelize 2-3 tablespoon sugar on cooking oil and when the sugar is melt, add the cabbage (you need to squeeze out the water from the cabbage first). The final step is to add pepper and salt to it, and fry it until it gets a light brown color. 

Christmas Dishes (Part II) - Borsos tokány (Pepperpot)

Dear Readers,

here is the second part of the Christmas dishes. What will be the menu at your house on Christmas Eve? Tell us here or our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Sprinkle-of-Hungary/109330032486033

Ingredients:

1 kg (2,2 lb) sliced leg of pork (csíkokra vágott sertéscomb) 

150 ml (5 fl oz) cooking oil (főzőolaj)

1 big onion (vöröshagyma)

25 dkg (8,8 oz) fresh green pea (zöldborsó)

6 pieces of pickling cucumber cut in four (ecetes csemege uborka)

4 pair of frankfurt sausage (virsli)

2 dl (6,7 fl oz) sour cream (tejföl)

2 tablespoon flour (liszt)

parsley (petrezselyem)

pepper (bors)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #18

As usually a Hungarian cooking process starts cut the onion into little pieces and fry it in cooking oil. When the onion is nice light brown add the sliced leg of pork to it. Stir the pork for two or three minutes and then cover the meat with water. Add a little pepper and salt to it. I suggest you not to use too much of them. When the pork’s color is pinkish-brownish, it means that it is half cooked. Now add the green peas and the pickling cucumber which you have cut in four pieces. Before the leg of the pork is fully cooked, put the frankfurter in the pot and stir them together. In another bowl mix the sour cream, the flour, the parsley, and a little wate, so the dollop won’t be lumpy. Add this dollop to the pork and cook it for two more minutes. The ingredients always have to be covered by water, but you don’t need to use too much water. Serve this meal with pasta or rice. Jó étvágyat!

Notes from the writer:

The ingredients always have to be covered by water, so the meat won't dry out. Also, you can put a few real hot Hungarian paprika in it, so your meal will be more delicious. You can use hot dog sausages for this dish if you would like to. 

Christmas Dishes (Part I) - Hagymás rostélyos (Roasted Beef with Onion)

Dear Readers,

it's time to think about your Christmas menu. In my family it is usually not a question what kind of dishes we will prepare for Christmas Eve. In the next few weeks I would like to show you a few of our favorites, and I hope that maybe you will try one of them and send me a picture about it! I will show you easier and more difficult specialties that are time consuming but it is worth to taste. Also, I would like to try a foreign country's Christmas specialty, so if you have  a good recipe, please share it. The first on the list will be 'Roasted Beef with Onion'. Here comes the recipe:

Ingredients

80 dkg (1,76 lb) leg of beef (marharostélyos) 

3 big onions (hagyma)

cooking oil (főzőolaj)
flour (liszt)

1 clove of garlic (fokhagyma)
ground cumin (őrölt kömény)
yellow mustard  (mustár)

marjoram (majoránna)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #17

Our first step is to souse the leg of beef slices with crushed garlic, yellow mustard, and cooking oil the day before the cooking. Then put one chopped up onion, ground cumin, and marjoram in frying pan. Now roast the pork until it does not get tender and nice red. 

If this is ready, cut 2 onions into pieces and mix it with a little flour after fry it in cooking oil. Please poor off the onion when it is already nice brown. Put the roasted beef on a plate and then the fried onion on it. Serve this amazing dish with mashed potato and pickles. Jó étvágyat!