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.