Thursday, July 14, 2011

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.