“gluttonous thursday”

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other countries may celebrate fat tuesday before lent, but in hungary, things are done a little differently. today is torkos csütörtös, otherwise known as “fat” or “gluttonous thursday.”

and how does one honor this most joyous of holidays?

by cramming as many restaurant reservations into one day as possible, obviously. and then, if you’re me, by walking around budapest for hours, taking random pictures and praying that all the walking will counteract two ridiculously cheap restaurant meals.

enjoy some extra city photos, and happy fat thursday!

 

 

stuffed paprikas

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hungarian cuisine is starting to take over our lives.

we’ve now visited several different old-style hungarian restaurants, as well as some more modern ones. i’ve had chicken paprikas (naturally, i had to try one that wasn’t my own!), goulash (recipe coming soon), venison, veal, and a lot of duck. i just love eating duck. plus, i even made my chicken paprikas for some of my husband’s coworkers, and they seemed to enjoy it along with the fresh spaetzle, in spite of the fact that i trashed a friend’s kitchen in the process. spaetzle is delicious, but not the neatest, most elegant thing to make when you have people watching you.

but one of my favorite recipes to date, the one my husband can’t ever stop talking about, is a delicious, not-too-complicated, soul-soothing dish: stuffed paprikas.

in case you’re not aware – i’m not afraid to admit that i wasn’t until i got here – the word paprika is used in english to refer to the bright red spice, created by grinding dried peppers. but in many european languages, including hungarian, paprika refers to a fresh pepper. muddling the waters further, the dish called stuffed paprikas refers to a stuffed bell pepper (or paprikas pepper, as they’re labeled in the markets) that contains paprika (the spice) in the stuffing mixture. confusing, if you’re an ignorant american like myself, but you figure it out pretty quickly when a native hungarian tells you that you absolutely must make stuffed paprikas and you try to figure out how you could possibly stuff something into a ground spice.

insomnia is rough. it makes me easily confused.

anyway, the following recipe is from a native hungarian, who kindly emailed me instructions after taking me to the biggest market in the city to help me shop for ingredients. köszönöm, jutka!

hungarian stuffed paprikas

1 lb ground pork
1/2 cup rice, partially cooked
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp hungarian paprika, either sweet or hot
4-6 bell peppers, with tops and cores removed
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
15 ounces tomato sauce or puree
1 cup boiling water (optional)
2 tsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste 

in a large mixing bowl, combine ground pork, rice, egg, and paprika, adding a bit of salt and pepper. using your fingers, gently stuff the cored peppers with the meat mixture. if you have any remaining, add a bit of flour and create meatballs. place peppers and meatballs side by side in a large saucepan or stock pot.

in a saucepan, saute chopped onion in olive oil until lightly browned. add tomato sauce and, if it’s very thick, boiling water, and allow to come to a simmer. carefully pour tomato mixture over peppers and meatballs, then put over medium heat. top with chopped parsley, salt, and pepper, and cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes, or until peppers are just soft.

this dish is traditionally served over potatoes, either roasted with oil and seasonings or mashed. for a healthier alternative, try with sauteed winter greens or brown rice. for a hungarian touch, top the whole thing with (you guessed it!) sour cream.

and for all of you who keep complaining about the lack of dorky vacation-type photos, here’s a quick shot of us on our way out the door for our valentine’s day dinner:

i promise to put some shots of us up in my next post, once we get back from our next weekend trip – to rome!

minestrone & the alps

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even on a cloudy day, there’s nothing quite like the alps.

i spent this past weekend following my husband and his coworkers around for a corporate training in a little village in germany, and then we all headed to another little village in austria to do some skiing. while waiting for the consultants to finish their training wasn’t particularly exciting, the little ski lodge nestled in the beautiful mountains more than made up for it.

i don’t ski. however, it’s impossible to resist riding up the lifts, simply to see the views that many of these people seem to take for granted – and, of course, to join the freezing skiers for the après-ski on the mountain after they finished the day. especially after being in new england for so many years, i wanted to spend as much time as possible near the mountains, in spite of how cold it was.

it got pretty cloudy by the time my fingers thawed enough to get my camera out, but i’m grateful that i got at least a few photos to remember the alps by.

also? four days eating nothing but deep fried meat, french fries, chicken cordon bleu, and beer really makes you grateful for winter vegetables. i plan on eating nothing but soup for the next week, and this is a delicious place to start.

my minestrone is thick and hearty, rich, and very filling. topping it with crunchy croutons and serving with crusty bread only makes it better. as always, feel free to play around with ingredients and amounts to get the proportions and flavors you like (for example, this really should have celery, but i’m at the mercy of the little market near our flat). and you may have noticed that basically every soup recipe i post contains bacon – i shouldn’t need to justify this, but i feel that any soup or stew benefits from this salty, fatty, delicious treat. don’t pretend you don’t agree.

winter minestrone

2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3-4 slices bacon, chopped, or 100g unsmoked lardons
2 large carrots, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped or pressed
1 15 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 5 oz can tomato paste
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup red wine
1 cup water
1 cup chopped kale, spinach, or your favorite winter green
1 15 oz can cannelloni or kidney beans, drained2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
1 cup shell or pipe rigate pasta, cooked
salt and pepper to taste 

in a large, heavy stockpot, warm olive oil over medium heat and add onions and bacon, cooking for about 5 minutes until onions are starting to brown. add carrots, potato, zucchini, and garlic, and allow to cook for 2-3 more minutes.

add chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock, and wine. if vegetables are not covered, add water. allow to come to a boil, increasing heat if necessary. reduce heat, partly cover with a lid, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. add kale, drained beans, oregano, basil, salt and pepper, and allow to simmer for another 15 minutes.

when ready to serve, spoon several tablespoons of pasta into bowls and add soup. top with grated cheese and, if you like, crusty croutons – rip or cut several slices of bread into small chunks, and place in a bowl with salt, pepper, and several tablespoons of olive oil. use your hands to coat bread, then spread onto a baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

for best results, make this a day or two in advance. if you don’t have enough time to do this (or are like me and don’t plan meals out very far ahead), at least try to make this in the morning so that it can hang out all day. the longer it sits, the better it will taste – trust me.


paprikas & spaetzle

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we’ve been living in budapest for a month (!!!), and while i’ve eaten out quite a bit, i haven’t had the opportunity to eat nearly enough hungarian food. this cuisine is delicious and flavorful, but has a tendency to be a bit heavy. in winter this is great, since this food is warm and incredibly comforting, but there’s only so much sour cream i can consume in a day before i feel a bit sick.

however.

chicken paprikas, served with fresh homemade spaetzle, is something i could probably eat daily and not get tired of. if you’ve never had this dish, stop what you’re doing, go to the store for the ingredients, and start cooking the recipe below. i can wait. go ahead.

see what i mean?

spicy, crunchy, creamy, soothing, addictive, delicious. this is what hungarian cuisine is all about. i’m not going to lie, it’s not the most attractive dish i’ve ever made, and i kept remaking it and postponing publishing in the hopes that it would look prettier for these photos – but don’t worry about it. just grab a beer and a fork and dig in.

there are a number of recipes out there for chicken paprikas, and i’ve already made at least 3 of them. for the money, i like sheryl julian’s recipe from several years ago the best – while some complain about the use of tomatoes, i find it gives the sauce more depth and a better consistency. play around with ingredients and let me know what you like – i love adding a finely chopped paprikas pepper to this, since they’re so easy to find here.

you don’t have to serve the chicken with spaetzle…but it’s so easy and absolutely delicious that you’re really missing out. it can be a bit messy to make, which is why i love smitten kitchen’s recipe (and photos!) – she also explores the many ways to create these twisty noodle-shaped dumplings, meaning that even if you haven’t tried it before, you’ll get a delicious end product.

i may be training for a marathon in barcelona in march, but if i keep eating this daily like i threaten to, i may come back roughly the size of a house.

wochenende in wien

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nothing like a weekend in vienna to give you a new perspective on budapest.

two nights anywhere is hardly enough to say you’ve seen a city – it feels like we were barely even in austria. lots of walking/being lost, schnitzels, beers, and confusing subway rides – though we felt like pros by the end of it and even helped fellow tourists navigate the streets. hurried looks at gorgeous buildings, running by the opera house, a 30-second glimpse of st. stephen’s cathedral, and wandering through palaces. we even rode a gigantic ferris wheel and saw the whole city lit up at night, but i barely got any pictures and it all seems like a whirlwind.

vienna is gorgeous. it somehow feels cleaner and more modern, yet older and more established, than budapest. and you’d think that being surrounded by people speaking german would feel pretty much the same as being surrounded by people who speaking hungarian, given that i speak neither, but it feels surprisingly different. my few hungarian words and phrases get me pretty far in budapest, but the same knowledge of german got me almost nowhere. as much as i apologize in budapest for my ignorance, i said “i’m sorry” twice as many times in vienna.

my favorite part of the trip? definitely the huge market, filled with breads, spices, meats and fish, cheeses, oils, vinegars, mulled wine and cider, fruits, vegetables, antiques, fabrics…i even got a cute little hat. cafes and restaurants lined the center, and we had a delightful lunch of rolled crepes with prosecco and coffee. i could’ve sat there all day, watching people go by.

and while returning to budapest on sunday night wasn’t quite like coming home, it definitely felt nice to be in the shadow of the parliament building again. these little weekends away make me appreciate the beauty and history of budapest even more.

i may have been stuck in bed with a cold since we got back from vienna, but i still feel pretty blessed.

daily adventures

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besides the fact that i’m in this incredible city, the best part about my time in budapest is that i have nothing to do but wander around with my camera, watch people, and cook.

the city is so alive, and has such a different feeling than boston, new york, los angeles, san diego. these people fascinate me – they’re kind but not friendly, which means i can walk the city for hours and not make eye contact with a single person, but can get help as soon as i need it from a warm cafe server. this delights me for reasons i can’t explain. i love the feeling of strength and independence these people exude, but i’m relieved to know that if i ask, i can always get helpful directions or advice from a native. i’m not sure i’ve felt this way anywhere else before.

i’m fascinated by the blending of old and new, both in architecture and in business. brand new, modernly designed hotels sit amongst old, broken down buildings, and brightly colored american fast food chains compete with local restaurants.

steve and i have been trying to explore local restaurants, both hungarian and otherwise, which meant that we went out all weekend, and that yesterday i met him for lunch at his office and we tried out this absolutely delicious burger bar. my bleu-cheese filled, pepper crusted burger on ciabatta bread was delightful, but after we were finished eating and i asked steve what he might like for dinner, he simply said “vegetables.”

i can work with that.

the following recipe is so loose, it hardly counts as a recipe. use whatever vegetables you like and can find – this soup should be rich, flavorful, and full of comfort. i wanted to use celery and turnips but the lady at the market wouldn’t sell them to me for reasons she thoroughly explained…in hungarian. i imagine most of my readers won’t have this problem.

warming winter soup

2 tbsp olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
4 scallions, finely sliced
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
1 medium can cannelloni beans
1-2 cups water, chicken stock, or vegetable stock
2 strips bacon, chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

in a large stock pot over medium heat, warm the oil and saute the onions for several minutes. when they start to develop color, add the garlic and cook for another minute. add butter and flour and mix well until mixture thickens, then add white wine, tomatoes, carrots, parsnip, and scallions. allow to come to a simmer.

in a separate pot, boil potatoes in water for several minutes until tender, then add potatoes to stock pot with cannelloni beans. add enough water or stock to completely cover vegetables, then add bacon, oregano, basil, bay leaf, and a bit of salt and pepper. allow mixture to come to a boil, stirring regularly, than turn heat down to low and cover, cooking for 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. you’ll probably need to add more seasonings but i like to start low and add as i go, so taste regularly to adjust. serve with crusty bread, a glass of wine, and (ideally) a crackling fire.

next up: chicken paprikas.

“this is hungary”

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budapest is breathtaking.

incredible architecture is nestled in next to rundown buildings covered with graffiti. modern buildings unexpectedly mixed in with ancient moldings and doors. houses are built right into the hills, and crumbling walls house brand new apartments.

the smells here are so vivid. paprika, garlic, sweet wines, smoked meats, peppers and cabbage, ripe cheeses, fresh pastries. there are markets hidden through
doorways that offer every fruit and vegetable imaginable, butchers and cheesemongers just waiting to sell you their delicious wares. the danube cuts right through the city, and the smell of the river and the sight of the huge bridges that cross it makes everything a little more exciting.

and the parliament building across the river…photographs can’t capture the massive size of this absolutely magnificent building, but i’m sure i’ll spend the next few months trying. our cab driver called this building the “house of crazy” but i can’t get over how gorgeous it is.

do you know that song stupid american by eddie from ohio? it keeps running through my head as i nod and smile at shop owners and market workers. some are kind, some are obviously annoyed, but all patiently wait as i stutter the two hungarian words i know (“hello” and “thank you”) and attempt to pay for my onions and chicken thighs. hungarian is a gorgeous, complicated language that is utterly baffling to an ignorant, language-challenged american, but i’m working on it. my next essential word is “please” before i start on numbers.

steve and i have only been here for three days, but the excitement hasn’t worn off yet – not even close. there’s so much to see and explore, so much people-watching to do, and so many recipes to make. would you believe me if i told you that about three blocks away is a small hungarian cooking school that offers classes in english? you can bet i’ll be trying that. i took my first attempt at the classic hungarian dish paprikás csirke (chicken paprikas) for dinner tonight and while i have no idea how “authentic” it is, it was certainly delicious.

i’m craving great recipes right now, so send me whatever you’ve got. i have nothing but time here and i’m planning to cook something fantastic every day. and if you’d like a postcard (once i figure out how to mail them) leave your address as a comment or email me.