Meatballs in tomato sauce - Hungarian version

This meal is very popular in  Hungary. It's great for kids too, they like it. Delicious, easy to cook and can also be stored in a freezer.

Ingredients: 6 serves


For the meatballs:
750 g minced pork meat
150 g rice
2 tsp salt
grounded black pepper
1 onion 30 g (egg size)
1 tbsp grounded paprika (red pepper)
1 egg

For the sauce:
4 tbsp all purpose flour (80 g)
750 ml dense tomato juice or 150 g tomato purée + water
1/2 tsp salt
100 g sugar
1 strand of celery green
2 slices of green pepper

Method:

1. Wash the rice and cook in boiling hot water in 5 minutes. Filter and cool.
2. Peel the onion and chop it very finely.
3. Take a bowl. Put in the meat, add egg, salt, grounded pepper, paprika, chopped onion, and mix them together well.
4. Finally add the rice too and mix.
5. Shape a piece of the mixture into a ball (approx size double eggs)
6. To cook the meatballs boil the 750 ml tomato juice, add celery, salt and 2 slices of green pepper. Put the meatballs into hot juice. Boiling them  in 30 minutes.
7. Remove the meatballs to a bowl. Throw the celery and green pepper off.
8. Stir the flour with a little water smoothly in a cup. Pour it into the tomato sauce and boil it for 3 minutes. Add the sugar too, boil with it still 1 minutes. Power off the heating.
9. Place the meatballs to the sauce.

This food usually serving with diced cooked potato or only with slice of bread.

one-course dish

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Venison stew (Őzpörkölt)

This is the best if you have a cast iron pot. If you have no one use a thick hard pot.

Ingredients:
1 kg of venison without bones
1/4 kg onions
1 tablespoon ground paprika
10 pieces of whole black pepper
1 clove of garlic
1 chili pepper (optional)
1 dl of dry red wine
1 tablespoon neutral oil (fat of duck/goose/pork in our country)
salt

Preparation:
Cut the meats into cubes (about 3x3 cm).
Heat the oil (or fat).
Put the meats to the pan and roast them in all sides until white, during stir them.
Add some water but not too much (about 2 dl), and cook the meats under the cover for 60 minutes.
Chop the onions and garlic finely and add them in the stew. Add salt and peppers too. Put some water again, and cook it for 60 minutes again (or until the meats almost are cooked).
Pour 1/2 dl of dry red wine in the stew. Cook it for 15 minutes.
Add the ground paprika too but cook the stew only 5 minutes.

You could eat the stew with  boiled potatoes, noodles or pasta.

I live in Zala County. Around here this stew is normally eaten with a specially noodles - dödölle. (dodolle)
Dödölle is made from potatoes puree and flour. The noodles are roasted on fat (or oil).

maindish

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Meals in Hungary on the Easter Sunday morning

Braided bread is a typical easter meal in Hungary. This bread is often eaten with cooked ham and sausage (both are smoked) on the Easter Sunday morning. Hungarians are usually serve few hard boiled eggs too, which are painted with different colors. There are also grated horseradish, mayonnaise, mustard and vegetables on the table attached to the ham.

easter

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Linzer cookies

The Linzer's dough preparation is simple, fast, and lots of cakes and pies can be based. The classic Hungarian version's shape like flowers, one of which has the center hole. Linzer usually is filled with homemade jam.
This cookie is very popular in Hungary.

Linzer dough:

3 units of flour
2 units of unsalted butter (or margarine for lactose intolerants)
1 unit powdered sugar
1 yolk
pinch of salt

Preparation:
1. Crumble the flour and the soft butter.
2. Add the salt, sugar, yolk and knead them.
3. Rest the dough for half an hour. Then stretch and shape it.
4. Preheat the oven to 350-380 F (180-200 C). Bake the linzers for 8-10 minutes. Let it cold.

For example 20-25 double linzers are made:
300g flour, 200g butter, 100g caster sugar, 1 egg yolk.
Instead of third of the flour you can add several kind of ground seeds: nuts, almonds, poppy seeds, pecan etc.

The fresh linzers are crisp, but if you fill them with jam or ganache they will be crumbly the next day.

You can bake from this dough several cookies: base of creamy or fruity pies, Xmas cookies etc.

Hungarian recipe is in a Büfé (The Buffet).

cookies

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Rabbit soup

Ingredients:

bellies of rabbit cut in four

harslets of the rabbit: kidneys, lungs, heart, liver

80 g of carrot
80 g of parsley root (or a bunch of parsley leaves)
5 cm of leek
1/4 of onion
cellery leaves
parsley leaves
tarragon leaves
1 mushroom
20 g butter
1 dl cream (30%)
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of pepper
1 teaspoon cognac - optional
noodles or other pasta
salt

Preparation:

1. Cut in four the belly of rabbit and cook them in 2 liter water in small fire. Add salt too. Let it stand.
2. Cut in four the rabbit lung, cut in half the kidneys and heart. Slice the liver in small pieces.
3. Cut the leek, carrot and parsley-root into rings. Chop the onion small pieces.
4. Warm the butter in another pan, add the carrots, leeks and parsley-roots, braise them for few minutes. Pour the soup in the vegetables, put the chops in the soup too. Add salt if neccessary, pinch of ground nutmeg and ground pepper. Put the lungs, kidneys, hearts and mushroom in the soup and cook them for 20 minutes.
5. Add the noodles and the livers, cook the soup 10 minutes.
6. Pour the cream and cognac in the soup, boil them for 2-3 minutes. Chop the parsley and tarragon leaves, add them into soup.
7. Let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Ingredients:

soup

1

Hungarian pork stew

Goulash, stew, paprikash, Hungarian fish soup, paprika potatoes etc. are similar traditional Hungarian dishes. The Hungarians cook stew or goulash on every holiday and family gathering. These foods are included in the main family events: Weddings, christenings, birthdays, funerals etc. These dishes often are cooked outdoors on fire at the friends gatherings.
Read this post if you want to know what are the goulash, stew and paprikash means:
http://www.hungariancook.hu/2009/07/paprikash-and-gulash.html

Ingredients:
3/4 kg of pork thigh
1/2 kg of pork ribs or collar (or instead of them 1/2 kg pork thigh too)
150 g onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon ground paprika
1/2 tomatoe
1/4 green pepper
1/2 dl of dry white wine (optional)
1 tablespoon pork fat (or neutral oil)
pepper, caraway seed, salt

Cut the meats into cubes (about 3x3 cm).

Chop the onions...

...and the garlics finely.

Braise the onion and the garlic in fat (or oil)... 

...until pale yellow.

Put the meats to the pan and roast them in all sides until white, during stir them.

Cook the stew for 45 minutes under the cover in its own gravy. (Add some water if it is neccessary.)

Slice the tomato and put out a quarter of green pepper (with the cores). Add them to the stew.

Add some salt,...

...some coarsely ground black peppers,...

...some caraway seeds...

...and a whole chili too (optional).

Pour 1/2 dl of dry white wine in the stew. Add some water if it is neccessary (stew is the best if it have only little and dense gravy). Cook the stew again for 30 minutes under the cover.

Add the ground paprika to the stew and stir it. Cook the stew for 10 minutes under the cover (or while the meats are cooked).

The stew is now ready.

The stew is eaten usually with salty cooked potatoes, Hungarian dumplings, pasta or fried egg barley. Pickles or cucumber salad is served too with them.

maindish

6

Gundel pancake

The Gundel pancake is maybe the most famous Hungarian dessert. It was prepared by Gundel Károly who had a very famous restaurant in Budapest at the interwar period.
Gundel's restaurant was world wide known not only in Europe but also in America, mainly because of this pancake. The Gundel family are very proud of this old recipe.

Ingredients:

5 pieces of crepes (diameter: about 22 cm)

Filling:
100 g ground walnuts
100 g coarsely chopped walnuts
2 dl heavy cream
50 g raisins
100 g ice-sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
3 tablespoon rum

Choco-sauce:
2 egg yolks
50 g bitter chocolate
1 heaped tablespoon cocoa powder
120 g sugar
20 g cold unsalted butter
2 dl milk
10 cm vanilla rod (or vanilla extract)
3 tablespoon rum

Preparation:

Bake the crepes. You can find here how you prepare them:
Hungarian pancake

Soak the raisins in lukewarm water.
Admix chopped nuts and ground nuts in a little bowl.
Add ice-sugar, cinnamon, grated orange peel and raisins.

Tepefy the heavy cream and pour it into bowl.
Mix them and heat the mixture until thick and creamy. Let it cool.

 Add the rum to the filling.

If the filling too thick, add some heavy cream.
The filling is now ready.

The choco sauce:
Slice the vanilla rod and put the vanilla seeds to the milk (or the vanilla extract).

 

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together. Add the milk too, and stir them.
 
 

Heat the mixture until thick.
You should not boil it, heating at 70-80 Celsius (160-175 Fahrenheit) is sufficient. 

Add the cocoa powder and chocolate and stir them.
 

At the end add the cold butter too and stir the sauce until the butter is melt.

Let it cool.
Add the rum to the sauce.
The sauce should be thick but fluent.

Put some filling on the center of pancakes.
Fold them in half and then in quarter.
Sprinkle them with melted butter.









For serving:
Heat the pancakes in microwave oven for 30 seconds or in the oven for 3-5 minutes.
Heat the choco sauce too.
Sprinkle the crepes with ice sugar and pour over them with choco sauce.

dessert

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