15 Nov 2009

IZGARA KÖFTE (GRILLED KÖFTE)

10 portions

1,5 Kg. minced mutton
1 slice white bread, stale
2 cloves garlic
½ tea spoon red pepper
1 tea spoon pepper (black)
1 tea spoon cumin
2 onions, grated
3 table spoons water
1 tea spoon salt



PREPARATION

remove the crust and soak the stale bread in water for 10 minutes, squeeze well and crumble. Finely chop the parsley. Mix all the ingredients together and knead well. Roll the mixture into ovals. Brush a little oil on both sides. Grill both sides, 2 minutes each, and serve with charcoaled tomatoes and green peppers.

PATLICAN SALATASI (EGGPLANT SALAD)

For 10 persons

2 Kg. medium sized eggplants
2 medium sized lemons
1 cup olive oil
Salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups yoghurt

To Garnish:
1 tomato
1 green bell pepper
½ cup Paisley, chopped
6 black olives


PREPARATION

Pierce the eggplants with a fork, place in a pan over an open flame or on a high gas flame or on charcoal and cook for half an hour, turning often until the skin blisters on all sides and the eggplants become soft. Once the eggplant is cooled down, cut lengthways into two. Scoop out the pulp, squeeze out all the moister and mash with a fork on a wooden board. Place the eggplant pulp into a bowl and add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, garlic and yoghurt. Mash until it becomes a puree. Place on a serving bowl and garnish with tomato, bell pepper, parsley and black olives. Chill for half an hour before serving.

11 Jul 2009

SALMOREJO, a Spanish recipe from Córdoba


SALMOREJO is a typical dish from Córdoba.
It’s hot and a cold “salmorejo” is perfect to cool down.


Ingredients (for 4 people):
200 grams of bread some days old
1kg of tomatoes with no skin
2 hard eggs
2 slices of cured ham
Half a clove of garlic
200 ml of cold water
50 ml of olive oil
Salt


How to do it
Slice the bread (without crust) in small bites and place it in a bowl with the water so it soaks.
Put water to boil in a saucepan. When the water boils we add a bit of salt and the two eggs. Boil for ten minutes to get your two hard eggs.
Peel the tomatoes. (If it is difficult to peel them, boil them for a few moments before peeling them. If you are going to use a beater such as Thermomix, you won’t need to peel the potatoes)
Dice the tomatoes and the garlic. Add them to the bowl with the soaked bread.
Grind everything up (soaked bread, tomato and garlic) with the help of a blender until it gets very thin.
Now we add oil and salt. Blend again and check for salt or oil. Ahora añadimos el aceite, vinagre al gusto y una pizca de sal.
Let it cool in the fridge for at least two hours.
Serve it with hard egg, cured ham in small bits and some oil on top.
Don’t put too much garlic. If it is very liquid, add more bread. If it is very thick, add a bit of water or an extra tomato. Be generous with the oil.

16 Apr 2009

Peach cookies


Peach Cookies

Ingredients

800 g flour
300 g castor sugar
200 g margarine
200 ml milk
1 ½ packet of baking powder
1 packet of vanilla-flavoured sugar
2 egg yolks

Filling

200 ml milk
50 g margarine
150 g ground walnuts
150 g castor sugar
2 tablespoonful of cocoa
2 tablespoonful of apricot jam
1 rum aroma

For the decoration
1 almond aroma
1 blood orange aroma
granulated sugar

Making the dough

First stir 300 castor sugar, 200 mg margarine and 2 egg yolks with an egg-beater until it is frothy. Add the milk and stir the mixture creamy. Put aside the pre-made dough for 2 hours in a cool place.
After these 2 hours add 800 mg flour, the baking powder and the vanilla-flavoured sugar. Knead together thoroughly the dough and then form balls of a walnut. Bake the balls in a gentle oven. While baking the balls grow bigger, take care that they don’t touch each other.
After baking the balls dig out the middle part carefully using a teasppon or other handy tools. Don’t let the balls break into pieces.
The dug part is taken aside for the filling. Also put aside the ready made empty half balls.

Making the filling

Boil the 200 ml milk and put the walnut, the cocoa and the castor sugar into the boiling milk. Cook for some minutes. Let it cool some minutes then add the margarine. Stir the mixture well and pour on the pastry you just dug out from the balls. Add the apricot jam and rum aroma and stir them well. If you find the filling too hard add some more hot milk. The filling must have a thick creamy consistency otherwise it flows out from the half balls.

Final step

Fill the half balls and join up them in pairs. Match the filled sides of the half balls. Then draw one half greenish using the almond aroma and the other half yellowish-reddish using the blood orange aroma. Intead aromas you can use food colourings having the similar colur. After drawing roll the balls carefully in the granulated sugar.

Enjoy your meal (bon appetit)!

18 Jan 2009

BEIGLI WITH POPPY SEEDS


INGREDIENTS

4 cups flour
4 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
2 eggs slightly beaten
2 cakes yeast reg. or dry
1/2 cup soft butter
1 teaspoon salt

Crumble yeast in bowl, add water and sugar stirring till mixture liquidifies. Blend flour and butter with wire pastry blender. Mix well, mix in eggs, salt and yeast. Mix until dough is smooth and leaves side of bowl clean.
DO NOT LET RISE.
Divide into four portions and roll each out in a rectangular shape spread with filling and roll up like Jelly Roll. Place in greased baking pans. BAKE AT ONCE in 350 oven about 30 to 45 min. or until brown.
See filling on next page.

Poppyseed Filling
1 pound of freshly ground poppy seeds (finely)
2 cups of sugar
1cup BOILED milk
1/4 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest
Mix filling in bowl using only 3/4 cup of boiled milk...It should be thick. If not spreadable use the rest of milk. divide into 4 portions, one for each dough rollup.Makes 4 cakes.

LANGOS (Potato cake)


INGREDIENTS

3 or 4 med. potatoes
1/2 envelope of dry yeast
1/2 cup of warm milk for yeast
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 cups to 1 2/3 cups of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Lard for frying

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water. Peel them and immediately mash them. You should have about 1 1/2 cups. Cool. Mix the warm milk with the yeast and sugar. Let the starter sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Mix mashed potatoes with flour and the salt. Start with 1 1/2 cups and add more flour to make a kneadable dough. Knead dough well. Put dough in a bowl and cover. Let dough rise in a warm place until double in bulk. About 1 hour. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin on a floured board to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rectangles, squares or circles. Prick with a knife to keep big bubbles from forming. Melt Lard in a frying pan so it is at least 1/2 deep. Fry Langos over medium heat. If the lard is too hot they will burn, if the lard is to cool the Langos will absorb too much lard. You will have to watch them. Let them get a nice color. When they are done, rub each Langos with a cut clove of garlic and sprinkle with salt and Paprika. Serve warm.

GOLDEN GALUSHKA

INGREDIENTS

10 inch tube pan
1 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 cakes yeast
3 eggs
4 1/2 cups of flour


Mixture to roll dough in
1/2 cup of soft butter melted
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon


Mix sour cream, sugar, salt and yeast. Stir until yeast dissolves. Add eggs, softened butter and half the flour. Mix well and add rest of flour. Turn dough out on floured board and knead until smooth for about 10 to 15 minutes. Place in greased bowl. Cover and let rise in warm place until double in bulk for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch dough down. Turn over and let rise again for 45 minutes. After second rising, form into walnut-sized balls. Melt butter in small cup. Dip each ball in melted butter and roll in sugar and walnut and cinnamon mixture. Place in layers in 10-inch greased tube pan. Sprinkle any remaining sugar-nut mixture or melted butter over the top layer of balls. Cover pan with waxed paper and towel and let dough rise again 45 minutes. Bake 40 to 50 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown. Run spatula around sides of coffee cake, and invert onto plate. To serve, break coffee cake apart with two forks.

PASTA WITH COTTAGE CHEESE


INGREDIENTS

12 oz egg noodles
1/4 pound slab bacon, or breakfast bacon, cut in 1/4 in slices
1 cup sour cream
3 tbs buttermilk
8 oz small curd cottage cheese
black pepper to taste
2 tbsp fresh dill (optional)

Cook noodles per package directtions. Meanwhile fry the bacon until tender. Scrape bacon and fat into a bowl. Add the cooked noodles and mix thoroughly. Thin the sour cream with the buttermilk, and fold it into the noodles and bacon. Mix in the cheese until it breaks up. Ideally, slab bacon is better and can be purchased in a Hungarian specialty store. Sprinkle with pepper and dill and serve immediately.

CHICKEN PAPRIKAS

2 onions chopped
4 Tbsp. shortening, corn oil or lard
3 Tbsp. Hungarian paprika
1/8 Tsp. black pepper or whole pepper corns
2 Tsp. salt
4 to 5 lbs. chicken disjointed, use legs, thighs, breast and back for best flavor
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 pt. sour cream

Brown onions in shortening. Add seasonings and chicken, brown 10 minutes. Add water, cover and let simmer slowly until it is tender. It will smell wonderful!Remove chicken, add sour cream to drippings in pan and mix well. To thicken gravy, mix into a paste 1 Tbl. soft butter with 1 Tbl.of flour and stir into drippings.Add dumplings and arrange chicken on top. Heat through,but do not boil, and serve.

LECSO


2 Tbs. lard or oil
2 med. onions sliced
1 lb. of yellow sweet banana peppers, seeded and sliced.
3 large, very ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 Tbs. sugar
1/2 Tbs. salt
1 Tbs. paprika

Heat lard, add sliced onion, and cook over very low heat for 5 minutes. Add green pepper slices and cook for an additional 15 min. Add tomatoes, sugar, salt and paprika. Cook for 10 to 15 min. longer. Adjust sugar and salt to taste. If you are going to put sausage into it, reduce salt. Lecso can be frozen sucessfully.

SOUR CHERRY SOUP


Ingredients

1 1/2 quarts of water
3 Tbs. flour
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. of salt
1 pound of sour cherries
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Into a soup pot containing 1 1/2 quarts of boiling water add fresh or frozen sour cherries and granulated sugar. Stir and cook. In a separate bowl mix flour, sour cream, salt and beat until smooth. Add to flour mix, 1 cup of hot cherry sugar mix. Stir vigorously. Now add the flour, sour cream and hot cherry mix into the pot of hot soup, stir well and simmer for 5 or 6 minutes until it thickens. Cover the soup and let cool. Keep cover on while it chills in refrigerator and it will not form a thick skin. Serve very cold.

POTATO SOUP


Ingredients

1 small whole stalk of celery, cut in small pieces, about 2 cups
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 Tbls. chopped parsley leaves
3 Tbls. oil
5 medium potatos, peeled and cut in small cubes
1 mild pepperoni sausage cut into 2 inch chunks
1/4 tsp. black pepper corns
4 Bay leaves
2 quarts of water
3 Tbls. of good white vinegar
6 raw eggs
1/2 pint of sour cream
1 tsp. Salt (celery and the vinegar are naturally salty)

In soup pot, saute celery and onions in oil until limp. Add to soup pot parsley, potatos, pepperoni chunks, pepper corns, Bay leaves and 2 quarts of water. Simmer slowly for at least one hour, until potatos are soft.
Add the 3 Tbls. of vinegar. Taste and if soup does not have enought salt, add to taste. While soup is simmering, break 6 raw eggs, one egg at a time, into the pot. Space them so they will cook to a firm stage, without touching one another. Do not stir soup!
Serve soup, eggs and chunks of sausage in each soup plate. Put a heaping tablespoon of sour cream in each plate. Serve with good bread.

Liver pâté as Ági prepares it



Ingredients


100 gr liver paste (tinned)
2 hard-boiled eggs
1 teaspoonful mustard
20 – 30 gr butter
1 tablespoonful sour-cream

Smash the eggs into very small pieces then mix the ingredients and stir it until it is homogeneous. Season it with salt and ground pepper.

Layered Pancakes

Layered Pancakes (as Ági prepares it)
500 gr flour
4 eggs
500 ml milk
1/2 – 1 dl fizzy mineral water
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoonful sugar
for the filling:
500 gr cottage cheese
2 egg yolk
sultanas, grated lemon peel, sugar to taste
The eggs, the sugar, the flour and the salt is mixed and stirred until its thickness is medium. Then the dough is thinned with the mineral water in order to have a liquid consistency.
In a frying pan a tablespoonful of sunflower oil is heated then I pour a not fully filled ladle of the dough into the pan. Both sides must be fried until they are golden brown.
The cottage cheese, the yolks, the sugar and the salt is stirred thoroughly. Then I add some sultanas soaked in milk and vanilla-flavoured sugar. I butter a Pyrex bowl thickly. I fill the flavoured cottage cheese, roll the up and place them into the bowl (two lines). Every line must be sprinkled with sour cream and then I dust them with sugar. In the oven I bake it.

Goulash Soup


Goulash soup

Goulash, that most Hungarian of dishes, is really a type of soup, in contrast to its close relative to „pörkölt” (stew) which is a thick Paprika Stew. In both cases the meat is cut into small pieces, or cubes which are fried in lard with onions and paprika. A little water, wine or stock is added and it is braised with the lid on. Now comes the difference , because while only a little liquid is needed for the gravy of the stew, most of the water in which the peeled and cubed potatoes have been cooked is added to the goulash. The „pörkölt” or Paprika Stew is served on a meat dish, while goulash is put on the table in a soup tureen, and eaten with a spoon.

When talking about goulash one usually thinks of beef goulash. In wine growing districts mutton goulash is very popular, but this is always emphasized by the name mutton goulash.

Pork or veal is often added to the beef when making goulash, but pork tends to make it too fatty and therefore rich, while the flavour of veal is often lost in the cooking process. On the other hand, several cuts of beef are necessary to make a really good goulash. First of all, there is tenderloin, popularly known as roly-poly. It is a tasty full-bodied cut, but one would be much mistaken in thinking it would be sufficient on its own. Other flavours must be added: a little offal, a few pieces of the spleen, liver and parts that provide meat jelly, such as the hock or cheek, and some sinewy pieces as well, otherwise the result will be no better than a watery swill. All these must find their way into the pot hanging over the fire (or the saucepan on the cooker).

Nothing like the amount of onion is required as is generally, and unfortunately, supposed. It is not the onion that gives the flavour or thickens the soup, but the well selected meat and the excellent aromatic paprika from Szeged or Kalocsa (Paprika-growing centres in Hungary). Onion is merely a nuance in the multitude of flavours Too much onion will make it sweet, give it an unpleasant smell, and stimulate the gastric acids.

Fry the onion to golden brown, sprinkle on the paprika and when this is bubbling add the chopped meat. Braise it slightly, adding a little flour if desired. To make it especially delicious add a glass of good white wine (usually dry) season to taste, cover and braise till tender

Meanwhile cook the peeled and quartered potatoes in salted water. When they are almost cooked, add them to the meat, and enough of the water they cooked in, to make a good, thick soup. Cook for a little longer, and when both are tender, taste to see if any more salt or paprika are nedded. It can be then served. (Naturally only the choice pieces of meat are served. Do not add caraway seeds, as they spoil the touch, though they may be all right for Viennese „Gollasch”. There is no need for tomatoes, either (that is a fashion that filtered into southern Hungarian paprika dishes from the Serbs), but green peppers can happily be added. Tiny dumplings or pasta are better not cooked in the soup, but tossed in hot fatand served on a separate dish.

From Elek Magyar’ Cookbook (He was a member of the most famous Hungarian cook dynasties.

Note: instead of salt and some of the paprika you can use the goulash cream and the „Piros Arany” paprika cream, but count with their salt content!