The Hungarians are hospitable people, always ready to offer guests delicious food and excellent wines. In the 1996 Chef's Olympics, Hungary's team won the silver medal overall, as well as numerous other honors. Hungary's chefs are rigorously trained through an apprenticeship process dating back to the medieval guild system. Hungarian wines have earned a reputation for high quality, garnering first prizes in a number of international competitions.
The country's unique cuisine has influences from the Central Asian Magyar founders of the nation, Turks, Germans, French, Austrians, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbians, and Croatians. The simple agrarian and shepherd lifestyles of the Hungarian Plain and mountains have also helped shape the country's unique dishes.
While many popular restaurants in Budapest have adapted their cooking to today's lighter style of eating, traditional Hungarian cuisine is for those with hearty appetites.
Sauces rich in sour cream, delicacies such as goose liver and an emphasis on meats, including game such as boar and venison, are often on the menu. Fish - especially Lake Balaton Pike, eel stew or a thick and sometimes peppery fish soup - is also quite popular. Other traditional favorites include veal paprika stew and roast chicken with cottage cheese noodles. Fabulous desserts, served with strong espresso, include strudels, tortes and the legendary Gundel pancakes with chocolate rum sauce.
Wine connoisseurs are familiar with the most famous of Hungary's wines - the sweet white Tokaji Aszú and strong red Bull's Blood (Egri Bikavér). Hungary boasts 20 wine-producing districts which make a wide range of wines,including Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Gris, Merlot, Riesling, Chardonnay, sparkling, rosé and other unique Hungarian varieties. Favorable natural conditions make our country a prime location for the production of smaller quantities of premium wines.
Source by gotohungary.com
Gulyásleves (Goulash): Ingredients: 1 1/2 oz. lard · 2 medium-sized onions · 1 tbs. paprika · 2 lb. beef (thick flank and fillet ends) · 1/2 raw grated potato · 1 tbs. tomato purée · 4 1/2 pints bone and vegetable stock ·1/2 tsp. caraway seeds · 1 lb. potatoes · 1 green pepper.
For csipetke: 6 oz. flour ·1 egg · pinch of salt.
Fry finely chopped onions in lard to a golden color, add paprika. the beef cut into walnut-sized cubes, caraway seeds and the grated raw potato. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomato purée. half cupful of stock: simmer till meat is nearly done. Then add the remainder of stock, bring to the boil, add potatoes cut in small cubes. If available add some sliced green pepper to the gulyás; in my opinion it gives the finishing touch to an excellent dish.
Csipetke: Genuine Hungarian Gulyás Soup is garnished with csipetke. Make them as follows: sift flour into a bowl, add egg and salt. Knead ingredients into a stiff dough. Flatten between your palms and pinch into small, bean-sized pieces, add to the gulyás and boil slowly for 10 minutes before serving.
Meggyleves (Morello Cherry Soup): Ingredients: 1 1/2 lb. morello cherries · 3 pints water · 2 gills sour cream · 1/2 pint dry red wine · 1 egg yolk · 6 oz. sugar · the peel of half a lemon ·1 inch-sized piece of cinnamon · 2 tsp. flour · pinch of salt.
Stone the morello cherries, then put them to cook together with sugar, salt, lemon peel, and cinnamon. Allow to simmer. Meantime, mix in a bowl the flour. egg yolk and 1 gill of sour cream. Mix with a ladleful of soup, then add to the boiling soup stirring constantly. Finally, mix wine and other half of sour cream. and add this to the soup as well. After 10 minutes of simmering put soup aside and let it cool. Take lemon peel and cinnamon out before cooling. This soup is excellent when chilled. It can be made from gooseberries, black-berries, raspberries or red currants as well.
Töltöttkáposzta(Stuffed Cabbage): Ingredients: For the stuffing: 1 1/2 lb. shoulder or best end of pork. ·2 oz. streaky bacon. · 1 egg. · 2 oz. cooked rice. ·1 oz. lard ·1 small onion. · pinch of salt · pinch of ground black pepper.
For the stew: 1 lb. sauerkraut · 6 large sour or fresh cabbage leaves · 2 oz. lard · 2 tbs. flour ·1 tsp. paprika · 1 gill sour cream
Cut cabbage leaves in two, trimming of the thick vein in the middle. Mince the meat together with the bacon. Heat lard in small saucepan, add finely chopped onion and fry till golden-yellow. Pour it over the minced meat. then add cooked rice, 1 egg, salt and pepper. Knead mixture well together. spoon even heaps onto the cabbage leaves. Roll them up. push the edges of leaves in at both ends. Put the sauerkraut into a large saucepan, add 1/2 pint water, bring to the boil. Arrange the stuffed cabbage leaves on top, cover and simmer slowly for 1 hour. Remove stuffed cabbage leaves from top into a deep dish but keep them hot under cover. Heat 2 oz. lard in a small saucepan. add flour and fry till golden- brown, then add this roux into the sauerkraut. Stir well, bring to the boil, add sour cream and boil briskly for 5 minutes. Spoon sauerkraut and gravy over stuffed cabbage leaves and serve hot. In Hungary garnish is not served with stuffed cabbage.
Túróscsusza (Noodles with Cottage-cheese): Ingredients: 1/2 lb. noodles · 7 oz. cottage-cheese ·1 tsp. finely chopped fresh or dried dill · 2 oz. fat bacon ·1 1/2 gills sour cream
Cook noodles in plenty of salt water. Cut bacon into small cubes meantime, and fry on low heat till crisp. Lift out bacon, put aside. Drain the cooked noodle, then put into the bacon-fat in the saucepan. Lower heat under saucepan then add sour cream. Stir, pull aside and add the crumbled cottage-cheese and chopped dill. Put immediately into a hot dish. sprinkle the chopped, fried bacon on top and serve.
Diós Bukta (Walnut Roll): Ingredients: l lb. flour ·1/2 lb. butter ·2 egg yolks · l whole egg · 4 oz. castor sugar · 1/4 cup milk ·
1 oz. yeast · about l/2 gill sour cream · pinch of salt
For the filling: 1 lb. ground walnuts · 3/4 lb. granulated sugar ·7 oz. sultanas · a good pinch of ground cinnamon · 1/2 stick of vanilla
Put in a cup a spoonful of sugar, crumbled yeast and 1/4 cup milk. Leave to rise. Put the flour in a bowl, rub butter lightly into the flour till mixture is crumbly. Add egg yolks, sugar, the risen yeast and enough sour cream to make a not too soft dough. Knead thoroughly, then cover with cloth and let dough stand for at lest 3 hours. After this time turn out onto a floured pastry-board: divide in two, shaping a ball of each part. Roll dough-balls out to 1/3-inch thickness, spread generously with the filling and roll up neatly. Place rolls into a very lightly greased oblong baking tin, brush top with egg, leave to rise 1/2 hour longer. Then brush the top of the again with egg, and bake in a medium oven for 20-30 minutes.
Filling: Put the sugar into a saucepan together with 2 tbs. water. Stirring constantly. add ground walnuts as soon as sugar is melted. After 5 minutes add flavourings, put aside to cool. then stir till creamy, and use.