Liver noodles (or liver dumplings)

Liver noodles is employed in vegetable soup in Hungary. You can make it from poultry and pork liver, my favourite is the chicken liver noodles.

Liver noodles

Ingredients:
2 chicken livers
1 egg
1/2 onion (small)
3 parsley
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoon breadcrumbs
10 g butter
salt
pepper

Chop the onion fine.

Scratch off the livers.

Chop the parsley fine.

Heat the butter and braise the onion until pale yellow. Let it cool.

Add the parsley, livers and egg. Add salt and pepper too. Mix them.

Add flour and breadcrumb...

...and mix them again.

Shape with a teaspoon...

...and put them to the hot soup. You should cook them about 5 minutes.

Traditional Hungarian Chocolate Sponge - Rigojancsi

This cake is one of the famous traditional Hungarian desserts. It was called after a popular Hungarian gipsy first-violinist, his name was Rigo Jancsi (pronounce "Reegho Yanchy" = "Johnny Blackbird"). He had a great romantic love story at turn of the 20th century.
Claire Ward (Claire Chimay) was the wife of the Belgian Prince de Caraman-Chimay and the daughter of an American millionaire. In 1896 Rigo Jancsi played violin at a restaurant in Paris. Claire had diner with her husband and she was enchanted by black eyes of Rigo Jancsi. The violinist no was very handsome boy from Hungary but he devilish played violin, had charme and he could turn women's heads. Claire loved Jancsi to distraction. She turned adrift her husband and two children and run away with Rigo Jancsi. This romance was a great scandal all over the Europe and the hot story were written by press many times. Claire and Jancsi were married and lived in differents countries. They were visited Budapest several times and dwelt in Hotel Rémy. Jancsi had a confectioner friend and asked him to create a new dessert for his wife Claire. The cake was created which was called after Rigo Jancsi and became popularly in short time.
The story no had the happy end. They lived together ten years and spended a few million dollars but after all Claire was married with an Italian receptionist. Jancsi got into evil ways, became poor man and played violin at differents honkey-tonks. He died in 1927.

Hungarian chocolate sponge (Rigojancsi)



Ingredients: for 15 services (5x5 cm = 2x2 inch cubes)

Chocolate sponge:
5 eggs
150 g all-porpouse flour
150 g granulated sugar
25 g unsweetened cocoa
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Cocoa whipped cream filling:
0,7-0,8 l whipping cream
150 g powdered sugar
30-40 g unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
4-5 tablespoon water
vanilia extract

Chocolate ganache:
80 g bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoon consistant apricot jam
1-2 tablespoon rum (or brandy or whisky)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180 C = 365 F degrees. Line a 30x25 cm = 12x10 inch jellyroll pan with parchment and spray with nonstick vegetable spray.

Measure flour and cocoa, put in the salt and mix them well in a bowl.
Put the eggs and sugar in another bowl and beat them with mixer until very creamy and white (about 7-8 minutes).
Add the dry ingredients to the creamy mixture and whisk them with a spoon carefully. At the end add and whisk the oil too.

Spread the sponge in the prepared pan...

...and bake it for 8-9 minutes until set. Let it cool.
Split the sponge fifty-fifty (15x25 cm = 6x10 inch), strip the parchment.

Either part put back the oven pan and the other part put on a tray.

Mix the jam and rum and grease the mixture on the sponge (on the tray).

Melt the chocolate and oil over barely simmering water or in the microwave oven.

Make the ganache. Pour it over the cake. Allow cake to chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes until chocolate is set.

Slice the ganache sponge 5x5 cm = 2x2 inch squares.

Steep the gelatin with water. Let it stand 5 minutes.
Mix the powdered sugar and cacao.
Beat the whipping cream.
Dip the gelatin to the whipped cream and mix them with mixer. Put the sugar-cacao mixture and vanilia in the cream and whisk them with a spoon carefully.

Spread the cream on the sponge (in the oven pan)...

...and finish it.

Put the squares on the filling one after the other.

Put the cake in the fridge. Slice cubes.

Cucumber salad

This salad is made very frequently in Hungary. Paprikash is usually eaten with this but you can serve it with other meaty dishes. This salad is similar to the greek tzatziki.

Ingredients: 2 portions

500 g cucumber
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3 large cloves of garlic
2 dl sour cream (or yogurt) - I prefer sour cream than yogurt!
1 teaspoon vinegar (10%)



Preparation:

1. Peel the cucumbers.



2. Slice the cucumbers with slicer. Thickness: 1mm.



3. Sprinkle the cucumbers with salt and mix in. Let it stand for about half an hour.



4. Crush out liquid of the cucumbers.



5. Add crushed garlics to the cucumbers.



6. Add the sugar and the vinegar too.



7. Put the sour cream on the cucumbers and mix in. If it is necessary add more salt.



8. Let it stand for at least half an hour before eating.

What does it mean? 1. - Paprikash and Hungarian stew

Paprikash and gulash are the most famous Hungarian dishes. Both of them are made by similar technology but gulash is a soup which may contain vegetables too. However, paprikash has only little and dense gravy without vegetables.

Basic technology - base for paprikash (and gulash):
1. Chop onions and garlics finely.
2. Braise them in oil or fat until pale yellow.
3. Pull the pan from the fire, add the paprika, mix in, add 1 dl of water. (The paprika will taste bitter if you leave the cooker without water!)
4. The cooking procedure continues from this step toward a variety of dishes.

Paprikash is made of different kinds of meat.
There are two ways to cook paprikash:
1. first cook base of paprikash then add meat. This is called: "paprikash".
2. first fry the meat without oil on all sides until they have a white color. Then add some water. Cook the meat semi-finished add fried (in oil or fat)chopped onion and garlic. In the end add paprika, cook about another 5 minutes. That is called: Pörkölt pronounced "porkolt" = Hungarian stew.

Apart from meat, Hungarian people cook paprikash from a wide range of commodities. For example:
Peas, cauliflower, mushrooms, eggs and all kind of vegetables.
If the paprikash is made of tomatoes and green peppers that is called: "lecho". It is a famous Hungarian dish too.
If the paprikash is made of potatoes that is called: Paprikáskrumpli pronounced "paprikashkroomplee" = paprika potatoes. This food is made by Hungarians frequently.

Dumplings with apricots

The potatoe dumpling is a typical Hungarian food usually filled with plums. Now is the season for apricots so the filling is made from them. This is a very delicious food which is eaten after a meaty soup.



Ingredients: for 15 dumplings

Dumplings:
500 g potatoes
125 g all purpose flour
Crumbs:
100-150 g dry crumbs of bread
2 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoon sugar
Filling:
7-8 apricots
and salt, powdered sugar

Preparation:

Wash the apricots.

Dice potatoes and cook them until soft in boiling water without salt.

Crush the hot potatoes - without the water, only the potatoes.

Let it cool.

Make crumbs of dry bread with rasp.

Frizzle the crumbs in a pan without oil. If it is as good as done add sugar and frizzle together. Sugar will become caramel. In the end admix 2 tbsp oil.

Add flour to the potatoe puree and knead dough - about 1-2 minutes - add a pinch of salt too. Sprinkle flour under and over the dough because it is sticky.

Stretch the dough - it should be about 1 cm thick.

Slice to 6x6 cm squares.

Cut apricots in half or quarter. It depends on the size of the fruit.

Put apricots on the squares.

Take by 4 corners of each square and compress the crevices well. Round them ball-shaped.

Heat some water in a saucepan add salt too. When the water is boiling put the dumplings in the pan and cook them 4 minutes.

Take out dumplings from water and put them in the crumbs.

Roll the dumplings in the crumbs.

Sprinkle dumplings with powdered sugar before you eat them.

Dumplings are made in Hungary with plums, peaches and jams too.

Onion salad

This is a very simple and easy but delicious salad and goes very well with roast meats.

Onion salad



Ingredients:
3 onions
1 dl sour cream or yogurt
few drops of pale balsamico (optional)
salt

Preparation:

1. Peel the onions, first cut them in half, then cut the parties into thin slices (sorry for your eyes swimming with tears).
2. Add salt and let it stand for about half an hour.
3. Add a few drops of balsamico (optional).
4. Add some sour cream or yogurt. I prefer sour cream to yogurt.

"Strudel of lazy housewife"

Wow it is a really quick pastry. (Especially if you have stoned sourcherries:)) You should strew everything on the oven pan, and you are done.
It becomes very soft and crumbly. Yummy.

Sour cherry and curd cheese strewed cake



Ingredients: 24x35 cm oven pan

250 g butter
400 g all-purpose flour
250 g powdered sugar
12 g baking powder
500 g curd cheese
500 g stoned sourcherries
3-4 eggs
2 dl milk
pinch of salt

Preparation:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl.
2. Grease the oven pan with half of the butter.
3. Strew on half of the flour-mix.
4. Crumble on the curd.
5. Cover over the sourcherries.



6. Strew on remains of flour



7. Pour on remains of melted butter (You can do it in microwave oven)



8. Mix milk and the eggs and pour on



9. Let it stand for about 1 hour.
10. Bake the cake approximately for 30 minutes in hot oven (200 celsius degree).
11. After baking it seems very soft and maybe you can't cut it. Let it cool to achieve firm texture.