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!

Stuffed Pepper

Ingredients

1 egg (tojás)

1 onion (hagyma)

8 dkg (3 oz) rice (rizs)

3 tablespoon of flour (liszt)

1 teaspoon of sugar (kristálycukor)

1 tablespoon of cooking oil (főzőolaj)

ground red pepper (pirospaprika por)

8 medium sized yellow pepper 

40 dkg (14,1 oz) ground pork or turkey (darálthús)

1 l (33,8 fl oz) tomato juice (paradicsomlé)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #16

Cut the onion into little pieces. Put a little cooking oil in a frying pan and fry the onion. When the onion is soft enough, put the ground meat, rice, egg, and the fried onion in a bowl. Add a little bit of salt and pepper to them. Now, mix the ingredients in the bowl together. Take out the seeds from the medium sized yellow peppers, and fill the middle of the peppers with the dollop, but don’t use too much of the dollop, only a little. In the middle of the dollop stick the haft of a wooden spoon, so the rice will have enough space to get bigger. Boil the tomato juice with the salt and the sugar; put the peppers in a pan, and cook it till the peppers get soft. Heat up one tablespoon of cooking oil, and put the flour in it, then caramelize it. When this step is ready, add the ground red pepper to the flour and slowly start adding this mixture to the pepper while you are stirring it.  The last thing to do is to boil the stuffed peppers before you serve them with a slice of bread or mashed potato. Jó étvágyat!

Palacsinta (Hungarian pancake)

Dear Readers, 

After a really hard school year I needed to relax a bit, so I haven't been writing my blog for a while. For those of you, who looked for new recipes every week, I am sorry! But now I am back and I'll continue my blog. I was in the United States at my relatives for a couple of weeks, where I was surprised at the Hungarian ingredients they have there. I'm glad that you are able to find everything you need for the Hungarian specialities in most of the cases.

Just before I left to the airport I was invited to an amazing American style breakfast. What does American style mean? For me it consists of the traditional American pancake and monkey bread. Well, today's recipe was inspired by this breakfast. As most of you probably know the Hungarian pancake is very thin, and there is almost nothing in common with its American sibling. Here is the recipe for the Hungarian pancake, which is very easy to prepare: 

Ingredients (for 12 pieces)

15 dkg (5,3 oz/0,5 cup) flour (liszt)

1 egg (tojás)

3 dl (14,14 fl oz) milk (tej)

1 dl (0,4 fl oz) mineral water (szódavíz) 

a pinch salt (egy csipet só)

cooking oil (főzőolaj)

How to become a master of the Hungarian kitchen #15

In a big bowl put the half of the milk, a pinch of salt, flour, and the eggs. Now please mix them together. After this step, slowly add the mineral water to the ingredients and stir them until it doesn't become smooth. If you think that the mixture is not smooth enough, add more mineral water or milk to it. The next step is to warm a frying pan up and put a little cooking oil on the surface. Here is how we prepare our pancake at home:

As you can see the Hungarian pancake is very thin. You can put many things in the middle then roll the pancake. Jó étvágyat!

Notes from the writer:

Here are some tips what you can put in a Hungarian pancake: curd cheese with sugar and raisin, jelly, sliced banana or strawberry, even ice cream, etc. In my next blog post, I will write the traditional pancake from the Hortobágy, which contains meat and is a very filling meal. 

Lángos

Dear Readers,

Today's recipe was inspired by this nice weather we have in Hungary right now. Okay, it's not as warm as it should be but the sun reminds me of the summer which is coming. If summer then Lángos. If Lángos then beach and Lake Balaton. It is a typical Hungarian dish that we eat during summer time. It's very easy to prepare, so you won't need to go to the beach in order to taste this amazing food. Here comes the recipe:

Ingredients

50 dkg (17,64 oz) flour (liszt)  

3 dkg (1,06 oz) yeast (élesztő)

2 dl (6,77 fl oz) milk (tej)

2 tablespoon of cooking oil (olaj)

a pinch sugar (cukor)

1,5 dl (5,07 fl oz) water (víz)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #14

Please chill the milk and the water a little bit. Put a pinch of sugar in a bowl and then add the crushed yeast to it with 1 dl (3,4 fl oz) milk. Cover the bowl with a lid and wait till the milk does not run up. 

Mix the flour with a little salt (add salt to taste) in a bowl. In the middle of the flour please create a little hole and then put the two tablespoon of cooking oil, the ran up yeast, 1 dl (3,4 gl oz) milk, and a smack of warmish water. Start to slowly mix up these ingredients and then add the warmish water to it bit by bit in order not to get thin pasta. When the pasta is meanly thin, put it into a big bowl, and leaven it for half an hour. Now, please smear a tray with a little cooking oil, then with oil on your hands tear 7-8 cm (2,76 - 3,15 inch) big pieces from the pasta and put them on the tray. Cover them with a kitchen-cloth and leaven it for a while. When your pieces are big enough, you can start baking them.

Put a little cooking oil in a frying pan, and then chill it. Please shape nice pieces (as big as you would like to) with oily hands and put them to the warm cooking oil. Bake both sides (they should have a nice brown color), then drip it. Serve it on a plate with a pinch of salt on the top; smear it with sour cream and then grate cheese on the top. Jó étvágyat!  

Notes from the writer:

In my opinion, lángos is the most tasty when you smear it with garlic, too. In Hungarian beaches, you can choose what flavoring you would like on you lángos. Attention: you can't stop eating it! :)

Tejfölös gombapaprikás (Mushroom with Sour Cream and Pepper)

Dear Readers,

Maybe you've recognized that I haven't posted our next recipe on Sunday which I usually do. The reason for this is that in Hungary we have the so called "school leaving ceremony" on the last weekend of April and I was invited to attend a ceremony. As we are Hungarians and we like to celebrate every special event with food, I was able to visit two different restaurants with very different dishes. Both of them were great, I have to say. Among others I ate lecsó which was put on chicken breast and tejölös gombapaprikás with pork. I thought that I'm going to share the recipe for the tejfölös gombapaprikás with you. Here we go:

Ingredients

50 dkg (17,64 oz) mushroom (gomba)

1 onion (hagyma)

cooking oil (főzőolaj)

ground red pepper  (pirospaprika por)

a half of a green pepper (zöldpaprika)

1 tomato (paradicsom)

0,5 dl (1,7 fl oz) sour cream (tejföl)

flour (liszt)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen # 13

First of all, cut the onion and the mushroom into pieces (it should be medium sized). Put 0,5 dl (1,7 fl oz) cooking oil in a pan and fry the onion. When the onion looks soft, add the mushroom and one coffee-spoon ground red pepper to it. Now add 0,5 dl (1,7 fl oz) water and a little salt. Cover the pan with a lid and stew the mushroom until it gets soft. If you feel that this step is ready then add 1 coffee-spoon flour and mix it with the mushroom. The next step is the sour cream (0,5dl - 1,7 fl oz), which you mix with the gravy. Our last, but not least, job is to add 1,5 dl (5,07 fl oz) water to the mushroom, but it depends on you how thick you like it to be. Boil the ingredients together while you are stirring the gravy. How do you now that your first tejfölös gombaparikás is ready? When the surface turns clear then you can start eating it. Jó étvágyat!

Notes from the writer

Most of the Hungarians I have met so far served this dish with noodles (see the recipe at Paprikás csirke), but it's also tasty with rice. It is important to notice that this dish can't be stored in a fridge for days, because it deteriorates very easily. 

Easter dishes (Part II) - Fonott kalács (Braided Bread)

Dear Readers,

Happy Easter to all of you! As I promised, here is the second recipe for the holiday. We prepare all kind of dishes today, but I chose one which can, in my opinion, be found in every Hungarian household when Easter comes: fonott kalács. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1 kg (2,2lb - 35,3oz) flour (liszt)

2 eggs (tojás)

5 dkg (1,77 oz) yeast (élesztő)

5 dkg (1,77 oz) sugar (cukor)

5 dl (17,64 oz) milk (tej)

5 dkg (1,77 oz) clarified/run butter (olvasztott vaj)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #12

Our first step is to put the flour, the sugar, and the clarified butter in a bowl. Now, heat the milk for a while. Put the yeast in a bowl and with a tablespoon of sugar and a little heated milk dissolve it. Add two tablespoon flour and mix the ingredients together. If you like, you can put raisins in the braided bread to make it special. We let it rise for about 20-30 minutes.  After it is ready we add it to the flour  (that we prepared in the beginning). Now, start to mold it.

 It is important that the pasta has to be very soft. How do you when the pasta is ready? If you can see little bubbles on it and your pasta can be easily removed from your hand and the bow, it is ready. Please cover the dollop/pasta with a dish-towel and mold it for half an hour. Now, roll the pasta out and braid it (you can see it on the picture). If we are ready with the previous steps, butter a baking pan and put the pasta in it. Dub the braided brad with an egg's yolk. Our last step is to bake it for 40-45 minutes on 350 Fahrenheit (180 Celsius). Serve it for the ham instead of bread. Jó étvágyat!

Easter dishes (Part I) - Stefánia szelet

Easter is my favorite holiday. Really, it's better than Christmas, I think. I will show you two dishes for Easter. I will put the second recipe on my blog on Friday, because my mom will prepare it on that day. I hope you will try them. Stefánia szelet is the first Easter recipe. Here it is how to prepare it: 

Ingredients

80-90 dkg (1,77 lb-1,99 lb) ground pork (darált sertéshús)

7 eggs (tojás)

2 onions (hagyma)

4 cloves of garlic (fokhagyma)

ground pepper (pirospaprika por)

2-3 bread roll (zsemle) OR 3 slices of bread (kenyér)

water (víz) + milk (tej)

bread crumbs (zsemlemorzsa)

bors (pepper)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #11

Put the ground pork in a bowl and salt it. Now mince the onions and the garlic and add them to the meat with a pinch pepper. Mix the ingredients together and let it set for a few minutes. Take a bowl and put half of the water and half of the milk in it. Cut the bread rolls or the bread and soak them in the water/milk. Now, squeeze out the liquid and mix it with the meat. Add an egg to the meat, taste it and if it is not salty enough, salt it. Look for a medium sized roast pan and grease it. Cut the mean in half and form two rolls. Please slice each rolls in half horizontally and then place 3 boiled eggs in the middle of each, then put the top slice of the loaf back on the eggs and seal the two parts of the meat a little bit. Oil the top of the meat rolls a bit and then scatter them with bread crumbs. In a preheated oven, on 350 Fahrenheit (180 Celsius), bake the rolls for about an hour until they get a nice brown color. Cut the rolls into slices. You can serve this dish with boiled potatoes, but it is popular to serve it as a cold dish and eat it without any garnish. Jó étvágyat!

Dödölle

This is a very cheap dish and I would say that it is special, because many Hungarians haven't heard about it. In the historical Hungary dödölle was a meal for the poor people, because they didn't need money to buy the ingredients for it; they could produce the potato and the onion for it. Dödölle has many names in Hungary: ganca,   krumpligánic, cinke, and gánic stand for the same dish in different parts of Hungary. Nagykanizsa is the "capital city" of dödölle where there is an annual festival in September called Bor-és Dödölle Fesztivál (Wine and Dödölle Festival). Visit this program if you have time! Here is the very easy recipe:

Ingredients

50 dkg (17,6 oz) potato (burgonya) 

25 dkg (0,55 lb-8,82 oz) flour (liszt)

1-2 onion (vöröshagyma)

2 dl (7 oz) sour cream (tejföl)

cooking oil (főzőolaj)

salt (só)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #10

Cook the potatoes in salted water so it just covers the potatoes. When the potatoes are soft enough, mash them with a potato-masher. Stirring constantly, add flour to it (it shouldn’t be lumpy or clammy). Cut the onion(s) into little pieces and put it into a pan. Now fry it in cooking oil and add potato dollops with the help of a tablespoon. Brown it a little and then serve it with sour cream on the top. Jó étvágyat!

Vörösboros marhapörkölt (Red Wine Beef Stew)

Dear readers,

This week will be special. I will post four recipes in the next few days. Why? The answer is simple: I received many responses and I would like to please you. Also, I will show you two recipes for Easter, so you will be able to celebrate this holiday as a Hungarian. Our first dish is very popular among my friends, because my parents and I usually throw a barbecue party on my birthday every summer. Red Wine Beef Stew is one of the dishes we prepare and it is my dad's specialty. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

80 dkg (1,77 lb) beef (marhahús)

3 big onion (vöröshagyma)

4 cloves of garlic (fokhagyma)

4 tablespoon cooking oil (főzőolaj)

1,5 tablespoon sweet ground red pepper (pirospaprika por)

2 tomatoes (paradicsom) or 1,5 dl (5,07 fl oz) tomato juice (paradicsomlé)

2 pepper (paprika)

2 dl (6,77 fl oz) red wine (vörösbor)

salt (só), pepper (bors)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #9

First, here is a tip from my dad: before you cook this meal, soak the meat in wine the day before you prepare it. Wash the beef and then dice it. Now, cut the onion into little pieces and fry it in the cooking oil. Take the saucepan off the stove in order not to burn the onion and scatter it with ground red pepper. Add the meat to the onion and put it back on the burner to continue the stewing. Cut the tomatoes and the peppers adding them to the meat bringing it to boil. Spice it with salt and pepper. Cover the saucepan with a lid and cook it (stew it) on stage 3. When all of the liquid has evaporated, add 1 dl (3,53oz) water to it. Cook the beef for an hour and then add the wine to it. The second tip from my dad: never add too much liquid to the meat, only a little because the secret of the red wine beef stew is that it needs to stew in thick liquid. The duration of the cooking lasts for about 2 hours, but it depends on the age of you beef. When the meat is tender, your meal is ready. The last step is to add the garlic to the meat with the use of a garlic press. You can serve it with bread, dödölle (see in my next post) or boiled potato. Jó étvágyat!

Reszelt túrós (Grated Curd Cheese with Cocoa)

Dear Readers,

We baked an amazing Hungarian cookie today for our big Sunday lunch; it is called "Reszelt Túrós." The duration of the preparation lasts about fifteen minutes, but it needs to be baked in the oven for about an hour. I'm travelling back to Budapest today and I'm sure that my roommate in the dormitory will be extremely happy, because this is her favorite cookie. For this week's recipe I took many pictures and I also made a video, so you will see how easy it is to prepare this tasty goody. Here is the recipe, don't be afraid to try it:

Ingredients (for the pasta)

40 dkg (14,1 oz) flour (liszt)

15 dkg (5,3 oz) powered sugar (porcukor)

1 egg’s yolk

25 dkg (8,82 oz) margarine (margarin)

half package baking powder (sütőpor) – see on the picture

1 package vanilla sugar (vaníliás cukor)- see on the picture

3 tablespoon cocoa (kakaó)

Ingredients (for the filling)

75 dkg (26,5 oz) curd cheese (túró)

3 egg yolks (tojássárgája)

1 package vanilla sugar

1 package pudding powder (vanilla flavor) - see on the picture

25 dkg (8,82 oz) powdered sugar (porcukor)

4 white of egg (tojásfehérje)

raisin (mazsola)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #8

Mush together the ingredients of the dough. (See the video below) Put the white of the egg in a separate bowl because you will use it for the filling later. After the pasta is ready, split it into two. Put the dough to the fridge while you are preparing the filling.

Preparing the filling doesn't last more then 5 minutes. Mix together the 3 eggs yolks, vanilla sugar, pudding powder and the powdered sugar. Add the curd cheese, the whipped foamy 4 egg whites adding raisins if you like. Find a medium sized baking pan and evenly grate one part of the dough on the bottom of the pan. Put the filling over this layer of dough, and then grate the balance of the dough on top.

In a preheated oven, on 350 Fahrenheit (180 Celsius), bake the cookie for about 50-60 minutes. In order to make sure your cookie is ready or not, stick a toothpick into it and if it comes out dry, the cookie is ready. Allow it to fully cool, and then cut it into little squares. Enjoy!

Rakott krumpli (Pleated potato)

Dear Readers,

This week I found a recipe, which can be easily prepared even for those, who are not that good chefs. Today's dish is called "Rakott krumpli." We cook it when we don't have too much time to prepare a more complex menu. Also it is a huge advantage that it's the cheapest dish I've ever seen. Let's see what we have:

Ingredients

1 kg (2,2 lb) potato (burgonya, krumpli)

6 eggs (tojás)

1 strand Hungarian sausage (egy szál magyar kolbász)

5 dl (16,9 fl oz) sour cream (tejföl)

10 dkg (3,53 oz) bacon (szalonna)

butter (vaj)

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #7

Clean up the potatoes and the six pieces of eggs. Put the potatoes in a cooking pot with a tablespoon salt, and add water in it until the water doesn't cover them. Cook them under a topper till they don't get soft (I usually stick a knife in the potato to see if it's soft enough or not). Put the eggs in another pot and boil them. When the eggs are boiling, cook them for 10 more minutes in order to get the necessary hardness of them. Spill the water from the pot and immediately put cold water on the eggs, so it will be easier to peel them. Now, spill the water from the pot (in which you have the potatoes), and peel them. 

Wash down the sausage with cold water, so you can pull its peel off easily, and then slice it up. Switch on your oven and warm it up until it becomes 400 Fahrenheit in it. Slice up the potatoes (they shouldn’t be too thin). Butter  an ovenware, and then put one-fourth of the sliced potatoes on the bottom of the bowl. Slice up the eggs on the potato, put one-fourth of the sausage and also the same measure from the sour cream on it. Keep repeating this process until you have ingredients left, but it’s important that there must be potato on the top. Now that your bowl is full, put sour cream and bacon on the top. Cook it till the bacon becomes brown and the sour cream’s color turns into auburn. Serve it on a plate with pickles. Jó étvágyat!

Paprikás csirke (Chicken paprikás)

I've just eaten my usual Sunday lunch with my family. In Hungary, lunch at 12 a.m. is the main meal. Today, my mom cooked chicken paprikás, so I thought that I will share the recipe with you. It's possible that you won't be able to prepare the noodle for the chicken, because you can't find the necessary device in your country. Well, I'll give you a tip in the section "Notes from the writer" about how to solve this problem. Let's start our journey!


Ingredients for the chicken

8 pieces of chicken wings (csirkeszárny)
1 big onion (vöröshagyma)

1 tablespoon flour (liszt)

200 ml (6,76 fl oz) sour cream (tejföl)

3 tablespoon cooking oil (olaj)

1 green pepper (zöldpaprika)

1 tomato (paradicsom)

1 coffee-spoon ground red pepper (pirospaprika por)

Ingredients for the noodle

50 dkg (17,6 oz) flour (liszt)

3 eggs (tojás)

salt (só)

water (víz)

a special device which you can see on the picture

How to become master of the Hungarian kitchen #6

First, clean the chicken wings and salt them. Now, cut the onion into little pieces and fry it in the cooking oil. Add the ground red pepper to the onion, and then come the chicken wings. Put 2 dl water and a little salt in the sauce. Cut the green pepper and the tomato into pieces and add them to the chicken. Cover the saucepan with a lid and cook it (stew it) for about an hour. About every five minutes stir it slowly, so the chicken wings won't fall apart. Keep adding water until the wings are covered. Without water, your chicken wings would burn. If the chicken is soft enough, put only the chicken wings in a bowl and set it aside for a while.

Mix the sour cream and the one tablespoon flour together (it mustn't be lumpy) and add the mixture to the sauce, so you get the gravy for the chicken. Boil this gravy and then put the chicken wings back to the saucepan. Cook it for a few minutes in order to mix all of the ingredients. If it's ready, put it away till you are preparing the noodles.

How to prepare the noodle

It's not as difficult as it looks like. Mix the flour with the egg and a little salt. Add water to the mixture, so it won't be either soft or hard. Put 1 liter (33,8 fl oz) of water in a pot with a little salt and now cover it with the special noodle maker (see above). Now add a little piece of the mixture to the grater and slowly move it on the noodle maker back and forth. Stir it a little once in the water, so it won't stick to the bottom. The noodle is ready when it floats on the top of the water. When you take the noodles out from the water, drain them. Here is a tip from my mom: warm a little cooking oil in a pan, and when the noodles are ready, put them into the warm oil, so they won't stick together. Now that you made your first Hungarian noodles, put them on a plate and serve it with the chicken. Jó étvágyat!

Notes from the writer

If you are in Hungary and you intend to buy a noodle grater, go to a simple supermarket. Usually they sell it, too. In the case that you don't live in Hungary and don't have an opportunity to find it, you can prepare this meal with simple pasta that consist of small pieces. You won't get the same taste, but it's good that way, too. Also, if you don't like chicken wings, you can prepare this meal with any parts of the chicken that you like.