Töltött paprika - stuffed peppers

One of the family favorites is the stuffed pepper, and given that the peppers are in season, it was served as lunch today in our house.
I can't find the "appropriate" peppers here, aka TV paprika (tölteni való, meaning to-fill-peppers), but it has never bothered me.
I figured that the bitter taste of the green peppers is heavenly in these stuffed peppers, and apart from their size, yeah, those are HUGE, nobody had any complaints.
When the kids were younger and pickier, I peeled the skin of the peppers after they were cooked and before I chopped them into a mush, but now they don't choke on the skin anymore :D..
There are aspects where life gets a bit easier with teenagers :D.

Ingredients (serves 10-12)
Filling
1.5 pounds (600gr) ground beef, preferably organic
1.5 pound (600gr) rice (we like it with LOT of rice. You can reduce the rice to about 1/2 of the quantity of the meat if you favor more meaty meals)
12 medium green bell peppers
2 medium eggs
1 large, or two smaller onions
vegetable oil (3-4 tsp)
1 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp black pepper1 tsp dried basil or celery leaves
1-1.5 tsp salt (salt to taste) (optional: you can add a tsp of Vegeta (dried veggie, salt, spice mix) but if you choose to add this, make sure you reduce the salt, as this is very salty)

Sauce
1 - 1.5  can tomato puree 15 oz (420 g) ( I like it sourer, so I usually add at least 1.5)
2-3 celery or fresh basil leaves

Roux (rántás):
to thicken the sauce of the bell peppers, you can make a rough. I don't as I tried to avoid unnecessary thickeners, but it can enrich the taste of the sauce.

Serving
sour cream (1 tsp for serving)
fresh bread if desired (as we prepare with lots of rice, only a few family members go for the bread)

Cut around the stem of the bell peppers, and remove the seeds completely. If you have time, do this few hours before and sprinkle some salt inside the peppers, shake to cover the sides with salt, and let them soften a bit. It helps to fit the peppers easier in the pot.
If you don't have time, just remove the seeds and go ahead to fill them.
Prepare a large pot that has wide enough circumference to fit all the paprika's in one layer, or high enough to fit two layers of them. I tend to use my 15-liter pot and have only one layer, but really doesn't make a difference.

Rince the rice well.
In a small pan heat the vegetable oil, and saute the onions, and when they are golden. Remove from the heat, and mix in the paprika powder.
In a larger bowl mix the meat, spices, rice and onions, and eggs until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Fill the peppers halfway ONLY!!, as the rice cooks, it will fill the peppers till the top.
Place them in the pot and add enough water to cover the peppers.
Cook on low/medium heat for 1 hour.
Add the tomato puree to the pot and refill with water to cover the peppers, plus about 1 inch, 2-3 cm.
Simmer for additional 30 minutes on low heat. At the end, add the rough, and simmer for 5 more minutes. 

Bon appétit!

Squash pottage

Uhh, one of the strengths of the Hungarian kitchen are the various kinds of vegetable pottages, called főzelék, which can be compared to a VERY thick American style vegetable soup.
It is usually served as a side dish with some meat stew, ribs, schnitzel, but it makes a very tasty vegetarian or diet dish as well with small twists.

Today I made some spaghetti squash pottage, but it can be made from zucchini as well, is equally tasty and probably faster, I just didn't have any home. If you use zucchini cooking time might be shorter than for the spaghetti squash.

Ingredients (serves 3)
1 larger spaghetti squash or equal amount of zucchini
1 small onion
1 branch of fresh thyme
1 tsp fresh dill
salt
black pepper
1 flat tsp Hungarian powder paprika
4 tsp all purpose flour
3-4 tbsp oil
vinegar to taste
125 ml (1-2 cup) half-half

Cut the spaghetti squash in two and microwave for 10 minutes with cut side down, or bake for 30 minutes if you prefer baking. Scoop out the content into a bowl.
If you use zucchini, grate the zucchinis.

In a medium pot heat the 4 tbsp of oil, and add the chopped onions, and sauté until lightly transparent.
Add the powder paprika, mix with the oil and immediately add a dash of water to prevent the burning of the paprika powder as it becomes bitter.
Add the squash/zucchini and let sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add water until it covers the squash.
Add salt, pepper, thyme and dill, and under a lid simmer for 10 minutes, or until you like the crunchiness.
Mix the half-half with 3 tbsp of flour, and after the 10 minutes add it to the squash. Let it simmer for 5 more minutes. If you feel it too runny, sift in the additional tbsp of flour.
Remove from heat, let it cool slightly, and add 2-3 tbsp of vinegar, or more if you are a vinegar addict as we are.
Serve as a side dish, or just eat it as is.
Goes very well with smoked and barbecued or oven fried ribs or steak.
This time we served with the pork ribs we prepared earlier. The minor change on the rib prep was that I exchanged part of the ajvar with minced chili peppers, known in Hungary as Erős Pista.

Bon appétit!

Kocsonya - aspic

Not even sure if this food is still eaten nowadays that often, but it was typical winter food back in my childhood. It was something made by grandparents, I don't remember even my parents ever making it when I was a kid, but they are doing it now :).

The reason why it is only prepared during the coldest months of the winter is the cold that makes it jelly without a fridge, and because it was the season when the pigs reached their full size and were butchered to provide the families with meat just in time before the holidays.

I wanted to make it as a surprise appetizer for New Year's Eve, but not just some appetizer... a real, traditional, Hungarian appetizer. And.. I spiced up the presentation a bit by serving it in transparent plastic cups, adding small stripes of carrot, parsnip and parsley leaves.

And here it comes.. 

I bought beef shanks instead of the traditionally used pork feet, and the reason was kinda pathetic: I visited a mainly Arabic store instead of an Asian..

It actually turned out to be a really good choice, the smell was significantly better while cooking, imho, and the end result did not suffer a bit, in contrary.
You might find all sorts of recipes using gelatin.. While I believe that is perfectly acceptable way to spice up one's appetizer offering, don't be fooled: it has nothing to do with the traditional aspic, which definitely didn't have any other gelatin than the one from the boiled bones.

Ingredients (2.5 - 3 quarts including the bones)

3 pounds, 1.5 kg beef shanks

1 whole garlic head

whole black pepper

salt 

optional: small pinch of caraway seeds

3 carrots

1 small celery root

1 parsnip

1/2 bunch of Italian parsley
4-5 pink peppers

Serving
soup plates
powder paprika

lemon

Prepare a 6 quart pot, to make sure it comfortable fits your bones and veggies.

Add the bones, add enough water to fully cover the bones and bit extra, and turn on the heat at higher power at the beginning, but as it bubbles reduce it to low-medium, it was the power 4 out of 9 on my induction cook.

Add a humpy tsp of salt, add about 25 pieces of whole black pepper, and add the cleaned garlic cloves.

Let it boil for about 15-20 minutes, and remove any foam that forms on top. Repeat as many time needed, and make sure you remove the foam carefully enough not to mix it back in the juice.

The patience game starts, and you'll have the juice boil for 5-6 hours. 

Even at its very low boiling point the aspic needs to be checked regularly, any foam removed, and evaporated water refilled. I always add boiling water not cold, just 'cause I was told it make a meat soup clearer :).

Mine boiled for about 7 before I added the veggies, and boiled it again for 30-35 minutes until the veggies cooked. 

Remove the veggies as soon as they are soft, but still crunchy. For a traditional aspic leave the veggies out from your serving, but if you like them just put them in the plates.

I discarded all the bones and almost all the cartilage except small bites. Doggie was rather happy about my decision :).

Normally you'd place the skin and whatever falls off from the bones in plates and poor the juice over.

If you wanted a "high en" aspic, you'd also add some beef tail with its soft meat, and place the meat in the plates.

Pour the juice over the meat, let it cool overnight at room, or some colder temperature. 

By the time is cooled to room temperature it should have already a softish, but jelly consistency.

When fully cooled place them in the fridge, and let it for about 4 hours.

Serve with fresh toast, lemon and powder paprika.

Bonn appétit!

Húsgombóc leves - meatball soup

Yeah, that's another favorite after the Hungarian gulyas and stuffed cabbage, and it is actually a kinda combination of the two :).

Lots of veggies enriched with meat&rice balls.. 

The apropo of this dish was the organic mince beef I purchased from Costco for the stuffed cabbage. 

Business as usual, it is sold in big quantities, and while I was pulling apart the remaining two packages I teared open one of them. Well, I suppose it would've stored just as well teared, too, but I though I will use it asap instead, I need to cook a lot anyway.

So, off to purchase some carrots, parley root (I usually end up settling with some parsnip instead) and celery roots (another rare find in local shops).

Ingredients (for a 6 quart pot, and it will be VERY thick, or an 8 quart pot nice soup)

1 pound, 500 g minced meat (again, I prefer the 50-50 pork-beef, but I usually get the Costco organic minced beef). For a lighter soup reduce the meat amount

0.5 pound (250g) rice

1 egg

salt, black pepper

1 tsp paprika powder

1 pinch caraway seeds 

8 large carrots

2 large parsnips or better parsley roots

1 medium sized celery root

1 tbs minced red pepper (can be left out if you don't have)

1 large tomato

1/2 green pepper

1 small bunch Italian parsley

Serving

sour cream, Knudsen preferably (this time no Costco product hehe.. Daisy's sour cream is pretty nowhere compared to Knudsen's)

some fresh lemon juice, optional, but I think it makes it so much better! Especially if it comes from your ow tree!

Chop the carrots, parsley (parsnip), celery root into small stripes. Not sure why in this soup the shape is not the usual small cubed or slices, but it's not. So I cut the way I've always had it back home.

The parsnip/parsley should be cut in thinner stripes as the taste is stronger, and you don't wanna scare the kids away with it, plus it tends to be harder.

Chop the onions into small cubes and saute until golden brown. Remove from heat, add the paprika powder, pour in some 1/3 cup water, place it back to the heat and let it simmer until the water is reduced. Base on the end result I could've used a bit more paprika, or a more red one.. Next time ;).

Add the chopped veggies and saute them for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water until the pot is half full and bring to boil. Reduce heat to half. Add the tomato cut in 4, and the pepper pieces. As I mentioned I try not to spoil a whole pepper, I used the pepper stub and whatever meat is left around. It is just for the taste.

Meanwhile mix the meat with the rinsed rice, add 1 tsp salt, large pinch of black pepper, minced red pepper, and at the end add the egg. The egg is MANDATORY to hold the meatballs together.

Mix until combined well with the egg.

Scoop small walnut size pieces of meat form, slightly roll them in you palm into perfect :) balls and drop them in the soup. Add the whole amount of meat and pour in more water until the ingredients are all well covered by water.

EDITED!!!

Sooo, I was told the walnut size balls are too big. :) Next, shape just half walnut size balls, and they'll grow anyway :). Reduce the cooking time too, though, I guess for smaller balls 30 minutes should be enough. Remove one ball and taste to make sure..

Add the parsley (half of it chopped if you like), leaving some leaves for serving. Add another tspof salt, pinch of black pepper and the pinch of caraway seeds.

Bring to boil and at medium/low heat (barely bubbling) let it boil for 45-60 minutes. Taste, and if the meatballs are cooked remove from heat.

Serve with fresh white or whole wheat bread, lemon slices and sour cream (not mandatory).

It would go very well with some extra spiciness, so if you have Erős Pista don't hesitate to use it! :)

Bon appetite!

PS.
1) Caraway seeds: don't worry if you don't have, just leave them out, but don't use the Cumin instead even if in Hungarian the caraway is called kömény, the taste of the two is VERY different.
2) For the half pepper I usually use the leftover ends from breakfast, and prefer the ones that have strong taste not the watery bell pepper). This time I used Poblano peppers, and even though it should be chili, if you leave the stem and seeds out it is not. We have it on sandwich when in season. 

Töltött káposzta - Hungarian cabbage rolls

Ooooooooo...
This is a GEM. IMHO the best Hungarian food after the meat soup.
If you can bare the smell of cooking sour cabbage (cabbage in general) in your house, at the end you'll have a gorgeous meal.

It is the kids' and hubby's favorite, so the quantities below are according to their appetite, if you wanna save some time cut the portions in half.

Ingredients (it yields about 80 pieces)
1 portion of the three Costco organic ground beef, approx. 1.2 pounds, or 50-50 pork-beef
round small grain rice, same amount as the meat, eg. for 1 pound meet 1 pound rice
salt, black pepper
1 large onion (medium US size is enough, large here is about the size of my head :D)
2-3 tbsp oil (if you use only beef, you need a bit more oil because the meat is dry)
2 generous pinch of savory (summer savory) / pound of meat, csomord or borsikafu in Hungarian.
4 branches of dill / pound of meat
powder paprika
1 tbsp minced red pepper
(whole, linked my favorite I found here in North Park Produce)
1 tbsp minced red pepper, store bought or prepare your own. If you use store bought don't forget that it is salted!

1 bottle of sour cabbage leaves / 0.5 pound of meat, so I needed 2 bottles 
You will need a 4-5 quart pot for the HALF portion, for the full portion I'd recommend a 7-8 quart pot.

Optionally you can add smoked and air dried pork ribs at the bottom of the pot.

Here comes the first, not so funny part. Remove all the leaves from the bottles, carefully flatten them out in your palm and remove the thick vein from the middle. Tear the leaves in two or four, depending in their size, by pulling them from the top

Chop the onions in small pieces, sauté them in the oil. When light brown remove from the heat, and mix in 1 tsp red paprika powder.
Rinse the rice until the water is clear, drain completely. Add the meat, sautéed onion, salt, black pepper, minced red pepper, sprinkle a small pinch of savory. Mix until the ingredients are homogeneously mixed.
Fill small, about walnut size pieces of filling into each cabbage leave pre-shaped into cone, close the thicker end with the overhanging leave piece.
While filling the leaves, throw the ripped ones to the bottom of the pot, to cover the whole area. Add the smoked ribs for extra flavor and calories :).
Place the cabbage rolls tight in circle in the pot and cover the top with some leftover leaves..
Place the dill branches on top of the rolls. 
Place a smaller lid to keep the cabbages sank all the time under water. That's how I learned from my grandma, and that's how I'll do it for ever :).

Fill with water until the lit is covered with water, throw some extra savory and pinch of salt or any of the spices added to the filling.
Cook at low heat, with the water barely bubbling, for about 2 hours.
Serve with sour cream and fresh bread.. Preferably home made! Yuheee!

Bon appétit!

Creamy squash - or - zucchini soup

I am rarely raging about something when it comes to food 'cause I've been spoiled with fresh, home made food.
Squash is however the best ever vegetable I can think of (zucchini will do as well), and the fresh zucchini season just started at our local food store.

We had this soup on a regular bases as soon as the squash was rape in our garden, and it is a pleasure to have on hot summer days as it can be consumed both cold or warm.
The way grandma made was lighter, but when my hubby found this recipe we all fell in love with it, and adopted it to fit our ways of cooking.

Ingredients
3 pounds of squash or zicchini
2-3 carrots
2-3 parsley roots (if you can't find any use parsnip, though not quite the same)
1 middle sized onion
vinegar to taste(start with 1-2 tbsp, we usually add at least 4-5 tbsp)
salt
pepper
     powder paprika (optional!!)
2 small bunches of fresh dill
fresh savory or small pinch of crumbled dry savory (borsikafu avagy csombord)
1-3 tbsp olive (preferably non tasty one, I use sunflower oil)
2 dl sour cream
3 egg yolks

Before you start the next step, you have to decide how you like your soup. I you like it very smooth, and creamy, start grating your ingredients on the larger side of the grater. (you can use a food processor as well, but don't overdo it).
If you like your soup more chunky, cut the carrots and parsley root into thin slices, as well as the squash/zucchini.
Cut the dill as well into tiny pieces, leave some for garnish.
1. In a large pot (I'd choose a minimum 3 quart pot) heat the oil, and stir in the onion.
2. When they are getting "glassy" add the carrot and parsley slices. Saute together shortly, 1-2 minutes, than add 2 liters (2.2 quarts) of water.
3. Add the savory, salt and pepper (2 generous pinches) to taste, and  boil them together for 5 minutes.
4. Now add the squash/zucchini and the fresh dill cut into small pieces. Adjust saltiness, add and boil for additional 15 minutes.
5. Mix the egg yolks with the sour cream and the vinegar in a 1-2 quart bowl. Add one ladle of the hot soup, lightly stir, add one more ladle of hot soup, stir again, and now add the mixture back to the boiling soup. Wait for 1-2 minutes until you see the first VERY SMALL bubbles as a sign of boiling, and remove immediately from heat.
Do NOT boil it again, or the egg will make your soup look like a too liquid omelet...
It is delicious both warm and cold, and it is a veggie in season, so enjoy! 


Garnish with additional dill, and enjoy!

Bon appétit!

Túrósbukta - cottage cheese buns

Long time since I baked the last yeast based goodie, so I decided today is the day when I should bake some.
No better choice for a fresh start than the cottage cheese buns. We just looove them!
As a bonus I found a new way to fold them at "Bucataresele vesele"... This provokes action!

I didn't use the recipe from "Bucataresele vesele" this time for many reasons, mainly because I wasn't sure how the dough with 3 eggs will look like, so I stick to my well working yeast dough. Next, when I have some inclination for experimenting I will try.

Ingredients
600 g flour
1/2 tsp salt
350 ml milk (maybe less is enough, you can try starting with 320, but with my Costco bread flour I have to add the 350 ml)
3 humpy tbps sugar 
1.5 tsp dry yeast 
1 egg
1/2 lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract
60 g melted butter or 50 ml oil 
1/2 tsp cardamom, optional

Filling

500 g cottage cheese (in US you'll need to place the cottage cheese in a gauze and squeeze the liquid out of it as much as you can you'll get a too runny filling to work with)
100 g sugar

2-3 egg yolks
1/2 lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract
3 tbsp grits
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

1 egg for brushing

Warm up the milk a little bit, sprinkle the yeast to the top, spread a good pinch of sugar on the yeast and sprinkle some flour. Let it trot for 10 minutes.

Start mixing in the remaining sugar, dash of vanilla extract, salt, egg, lemon zest and flour. Work the dough together for about 10 minutes with a food processor or with hands.

Melt the butter, and last mix it in the dough. When the dough is elastic, leave it for 60+ minutes to grow to about double.
Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract, and add it to the cottage cheese. Mix in the grits, and let it sit covered in the fridge until the dough is ready.
When the dough had risen nicely, cut it into two parts, and let it sit for 15 more minutes.
Heat up the oven to 400 F, 200 C and line two large trays with parchment paper.
Cut each half into 8 equal parts, and form the buns either in the traditional way (squares folded like an envelope) or in roses.

For the traditional shapes roll out the dough into squares, place a humpy tbsp filling in the middle and fold up the corners, pinch them together tightly, and place the buns on a tray lined with parchment paper.
For the roses, roll out the dough into circles and follow the image instructions from  "Bucataresele vesele". Again, place the buns on the tray, and let them sit covered for 5 minutes. Meanwhile whip the egg lightly with some water for the egg wash.
Brush the buns with the egg and bake them on the middle shelve for 17 minutes.
Let them cool on a rack covered with a kitchen towel for 10-15 minutes, and they are ready to enjoy!
Bon appétit!

Original Dobos tort - Dobostorta

 

Birthday… Huhh… My daughter turned 14! Can you believe that? I hardly can..

I have a young lady in the house instead of a kid. Scary, and it gets only worse... They will soon fly out of the nest before we notice! :(

For this special occasion I decided to bake 6 small “torts” rather than 1 big, we don’t eat more anyway. Well, I made a lot of head ache for myself with it, especially spreading the caramelized sugar on top. I find it so much easier to spread the caramel on a single cake layer rather than 6 small tort tops. 
The recipe below is the original recipe from Dobos C. József from 1885 and it is one of the most well known Hungarian delicacy's world wide. Though they say in the Wiki that the caramel layer keeps the tort from drying out, well, that's just simple b..it. If you put the caramel top on the cake long before serving, it will start soaking in the humidity from the cake layers and it will become porous, losing its shine and crunchy texture. So I advice you to assemble the cake in advance, even a day before, coated nicely with the cream, but put the top caramel layer on the tort only max couple of hours hours before serving.
Now that being said, I just kept the left over of the tort for a day, and the caramel looked great even after a day. However, I didn't put the torts in the fridge. Humidity will "kill" it for sure, but it seems without the extra humidity from the fridge will lasts perfectly.
Makes 16 medium slices of tort, 20 cm diameter (8 in).

Sponge-sheet recipe, makes six 20cm sponge cake layers

Ingredients
6 medium eggs (60g each)
100g sugar (makes about 1 humpy tbspoon/egg)
100g flour (makes about 1 humpy tbspoon/egg)
36g melted butter

The cream
Ingredients
4 medium eggs
200g powered sugar
235g unsalted butter
17g vanilla sugar
35g cocoa mass
35g cocoa butter
200g dark chocolate (60-65% cocoa)

I don't have either cocoa mass nor cocoa butter, so I just added an extra 50 g of extra dark chocolate (85%). For kids you might want to stick to the 65% cocoa chocolate, at least mine start complaining if it is too dark and bitter.
 

Sponge cake layers

Beat the egg yolks with about half of the icing sugar.
Melt the butter.
Mix the egg whites with the rest of the powered sugar and beat a not very hard foam. If you over-beat it will collapse before you can nicely spread it on the tray.
Carefully mix the two beaten egg yolks in the egg white foam, then lightly fold in the flour and last the melted butter.
Divided the batter into six parts and make 20 cm diameter circles on top of trays covered with parchment paper, or on buttered & floured trays (on they back!).
In a preheated oven to 210 C (410 F) bake for 10 min until light brown. Don't bake it too long or they will be too dry!
Place a 20cm template circle made from parchment paper on top and adjust them to perfect round if needed.

If you don’t have a large enough oven to bake them all at a time, which most of the people don't, I would advice to make the batter in three batches and bake only 2 cake layers at a time. While one batch is baking prepare the batter for the next. That's what I actually did..

When the cake layers are ready cover with a cloth, and prepare the cream.

Cream

Melt the chocolate over a steam bath, carefully not to spill water in the chocolate. Water is the worst enemy of the melted chocolate! Let it cool, but not harden. 

Meanwhile mix the butter with the vanilla sugar (or vanilla bean) until foamy. Set aside.

Lightly beat the 4 eggs, add the 200g sugar and warm it up, without boiling!, to about 85C. That's about when it is so hot that it feels burning for you finger if you stick it in the mixture, but as I said, it is not yet boiling. 

Turn off the heat, whisk the mixture until completely cool. Takes about 5-10 min.

Mix the egg-cream into the butter, adding small quantities at a time.

It will look like the cream "collapses", separates, but don't worry.

When smooth fold in the melted chocolate and you are ready to put your cake together.

Divide the cream into 6 portions, 5 will go in between the layers, and with the 6th you will cover the side of the tort. Don't assemble only 5!!! of the 6 layers.
Assemble the cake soon after you finish the cream, the soft, lightly warm cream will moisten the cake layers and make the cake more delicious. It is anyway a not so moist tort already, you don't wanna make it drier.

For the 6th layer you'll prepare caramelized sugar to coat.

Melt the sugar, only until very light brown. Pour in the middle of the cake layer, and with a knife or long and flat spatula spread the caramelized sugar evenly. If it hardens without you being happy with the smoothness, just put it in the oven at 100C and it will soften so you can adjust more.

With the back of the knife draw the lines where you will cut the caramel top making light grooves. You should make 8 to 16 slices. With the sharp edge of the knife cut the caramel layer into 16 slices, and cut the excess sugar off from the edges.

Decorate the side of the cake with ground almond or hazelnuts (however the original is undecorated, lightly coated with the chocolate buttercream), and place the top layer (caramelized) pieces nicely tight together to cover the tort. Enjoy!

OBS. Lessons I learned from my experience: don't over-bake the cake layers or it will be too dry, and you can start baking new ones :).

If you make smaller torts like I did, don't use the whole cream :), it will be too heavy. I think 2/3rds of the cream I added to the tort would have made a more harmonized flavor. Less is more..

Csirkepaprikás - chicken stew

A very typical Hungarian meal, and after preparing the basic version one can turn it into a variety of meals. Though it looks soupy on the pic in reality it wasn't. It looked so full of sauce because it was still boiling. When it cooled down the sauce settled, and was just enough to have a nice sauce.

Well, this is the BEST if has all parts of the chicken, not only meat but also bony parts like the wings, breast, etc. So, if you want THE best csirkepaprikás, take the effort and purchase a whole chicken, cut it into peaces, and use all the parts that have some reasonable amount of meat. We usually use the wings, tights, drumsticks, breast for the paprikás and leave out the most bony parts (neck, legs) to be used in a light vegetable soup, like kohlrabi, or the typical Hungarian meat soup.
I was a lazy bastard, so I chose the boneless organic chicken tights this time.

Ingredients
600 g boneless chicken tights, about 1 / person
200 g onion (2 smaller ones, or one huge - the only type that can be found :) here)
2 small, 1 larger yellow pepper, or 1 large tsp of minced paprika (use less salt!!)
1 large tomato
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
paprika powder, 1.5 - 2 flat tsp
2-3 bay leaves, depend on the size
1 bunch of fresh Italian flat parsley
4 tsp sunflower oil
Suggestions: you can leave out the bay leaves and add other spices. Just some to consider - caraway seeds, or few basil leaves (works perfect with chicken) or 1-1 whole cloves, or replace the parsley with celery leaves.. You can also add a tsp or two of Ajvar. 
Play with the tastes, cooking is a game of fantasy and not pharmacy :). 

Chop the onions and yellow peppers. In a 3 quart pot heat the oil, when hot add the onions and yellow paprika, let them fry until "glassy". I work with high heat at the beginning as it is faster, but don't go away from the pot, stir continuously.
Remove from heat, add the powder paprika, about 1 tsp / 250-300 g meet. (See below at OBS.)
Mix well, add some water, about 50ml, and put it back to boil until the the water evaporates and the sauce is reduced back to basically oil only (almost).
Add the meat, lower the heat immediately to about half. Stir until the pieces of meat will whiten, and it releases some juice.
Let it saute for about 30 minutes. In theory (and practice, too) the meat should release just enough juice not to need any water added, but keep an eye on it.
Peal the tomato, cut into small 1 cm (0.5 inch) cubes, and add to the chicken.
Saute for additional 15 min. Add half of the bunch of parsley leaves, preferably tied together with a thin, clean thread. Add 0.5-1 small glass of water if needed. You most probably won't, but who knows.
Saute for additional 15 min. Check the amount of sauce. Don't me mislead, even if it looks much, or enough, when it stops boiling it will be much less. If you like it saucy, add the half a glass of water.
Boil it together for 5 min.
Remove from heat and it is ready to serve.
Bon appetite!

The recipe above is for the basic paprikás version and I'm going to post some variations of it later..

OBS
Depends how you like it, or where you live, you might add a flat tsp or a humpy tsp. In Transylvania we used less parpika powder, in Hungary it is typical to add generously. I became used to the Hungarian "generous" version, as you can see in the picture :), but it doesn't mean this is any better then the other. In contrary. I had friends complaining about my generosity when it comes to paprika, so try first, and then decide. This is not a spice though which can be added easily later if found insufficient, and reason is that it needs to be soaked up in the oil to make the best combination.  The only way to add, if needed, is to remove some spoons of oil from the stew, mix it with the paprika, and add it back.

Csöröge - "rattling" donut

This time I wanted to make the csöröge, or forgácsfánk, for the children's carnival in the House of Hungary.
This is the REAL csöröge, without yeast, and the easiest way is to go to Varga Gábor's recipe and try it out. Well, mine is almost as his recipe, (I don't have my Grandma's and I use this one as it works very well), but it is only almost his recipe because we've always made it with a bit of rum, or rum essence.
Today I missed to add the rum, well, I could listen to my daughters endless complains.. and I deserved it, agree... I sprinkled them in exchange with a tiny bit of cinnamon while rolling out, but it just generated even more complains.. See, hard work and good intention always pays off :D.

It is very easy to make and, for those who don't speak Hungarian, here is the English version. I had to steel temporarily Gabor's picture because, in the heat of frying the csöröge and the fánk for the kids, I forgot to take any picture of the ready pastries.. Shame, shame..
We had double portion and they looked at least as good as these ones, if not better (yeah, I know, I'm very modest :D), but next time..

Ingredients
250 g pastry flour
150 gr sour cream
50 gr butter
1-2 tsp icing sugar (depending how sweet you like it, it's gonna be sprinkled with icing sugar as well)
1 pinch salt
3 egg yolks
1 tsp rum (essence)
(optionally you can also add a bit of grated lemon peel or cinnamon) 

~ 1 l sun flour oil for frying

Serving
icing sugar
jams (apricot, raspberry, anything you like, basically) 

In a bowl mix the flour with the salt, then crumble it with the butter. Start mixing in the rum, egg yolks, the sour cream and the icing sugar.
Knead it very well together, not just little bit, it has to be a sooth dough. If it is smooth enough, when you fry them it will kinda form layers like a puff pastry, though not so nicely separated.
The dough should be kinda "hard", though I still consider it quite soft compared to a home made pasta dough (now see, that IS hard). Anyway, should be hard enough to be very easy to roll out with little flouring. If it sticks to the table you might want to work in some more flour, but it shouldn't be needed.
Put some oil to heat, quite hot like you would make French fries.
Roll out the dough very thin, maybe 3 mm thick, maximum.
Cover some plates with kitchen paper.

In the hot oil fry the csöröge for just ~30-40 seconds each side.
They should be light golden brown, not too well fried because they are very thin. If you fry them for too long they will become dry and hard.

Remove the ready csöröge to the plates, the paper will absorb the excess oil.
Sprinkle with icing sugar while still warm, serve as is, fresh, or with apricot or raspberry jam, and a tea, or better infusion. Yummii.

Non plus ultra - tea linzer

Don't ask me where the name comes from, I just decided to rehabilitate Grandma's recipes and this is how she called them. I remembered that they melt in mouth and are just a bite each.. :)
It has again a linzer like pastry, with meringue on top, and I decided to adjust the sugar portion in the dough to make it less sweet, as originally had 150 g sugar. Huhh.. That would have been a real torture for me..
Even with the adjusted recipe is still VERY sweet however, so you want to have a sour jam inside to balance the flavor. Mine were very sweet, both the apricot and raspberry, but I was lucky to find the blackcurrant marmalade and they became edible sweet :). The kids preferred the ones with raspberry, so it is really up to your own preferences.
I also think with smaller scoops of meringue the sweetness was more tolerable (just a personal taste) than with large scoops, and when you ate them they really fit in your mouth in just one bite.
Large scoops looked better though :), if you like sweet cookies just go ahead and place a nice meringue scoop that covers the cookie, but be prepared that if you don't finish them in one bite when you eat the meringue will fall apart and make a mess :D.
Makes at least ~70 cookies (some halves were eaten unglued and uncounted..)

Ingredients:
300 g pastry flour (10.5 ounce), all-purpose flour is good, but NOT bread flour
200 g butter (7 ounces, 1 3/4 stick) (Grandma had 300 lard in her recipe, but I replaced the lard with butter and also reduced the amount, you can try with 300g if you wanna experiment or find the cookies too chewy)
2 egg yolks
100 g sugar (3.5 ounce)
1 bag vanilla sugar or 1 tsp homemade vanilla sugar

Meringue
2 egg whites, use eggs left at room temperature for ~ a day
130 g sugar
1/2 tsp vinegar (optional)

Serving
a sour jam/marmalade like apricot jam, (raspberry marmalade, blackcurrant marmalade)

Mix all the ingredients, roll it out very thin (~3mm) and cut roughly 3 cm (1.2  inch) circles. The dough can be quite sticky, add some flour if needed, and use flour beneath and on top when rolling them out (or a baking sheet).
Make the meringue from the egg whites with the sugar. If you want a successful egg white, start whipping the eggs and only when starts to thicken add slowly the sugar. Whip it well, until you remove the spoon and the peaks can stand up. Place small tops on each piece of cookie, easier if you use a piping (pastry) bag.
Bake them at 175 C (350 F) for 20 min. I suppose 180 works fine as well, take them out couple of minutes earlier.

Glue two of them together with apricot jam, let the jam soften the cookies overnight in a cold place (not the fridge though). Until the cookie softens and they get glued together the two cookies might slide, so watch how you place them on the plate.
Enjoy.

Looking at my recipes I think if someone would describe the Hungarian cake-cookie delis it would definitely have one of the following: plum marmalade, apricot jam, sour cherry, walnuts or chestnuts :). Exception is maybe the madártej.

Ile flottante - madártej

It is the kids favorite. It was mine too when I was a kid... but I never got the chance to make it with anybody, so I just had to start doing it on my own, without any proper guidelines.
I always thought it must be difficult to make as people were sayin' you should be very cautious about not to over boil the egg yolk, or it will taste like an omelet floating in milk. Yak.. And surely I DID manage to over boil it once, and it did taste like an omelet, but that wasn't the problem, the problem was I always made ~7 litres at once, so there you go, hush, 5 litres of milk, 0.5 kg sugar and 50 eggs going down the toilet. :(
However I learned how not to over boil it ever, anymore.
It became the easiest dessert one can make, the only difficulty we still have is waiting for the cream to cool down. Just takes waaaaay to long (unless one is risking ruining the freezer and puts the cream in it). I call it cream, but it is liquid, like a maple syrup, or something, if you wanna compare the texture in your imagination..
Madártej is "bird milk", suggesting that you have the little white birds sitting in a cup of yellow milk :). In french is "floating island", where the egg white is the island. You call it as you wish..

Ingredients (makes 4-6 portions), preparation time 20 min (+cooling time)
1 litres (4 cups) whole milk
10 eggs yolks (keep the eggs at room temperature for at least 0.5 day)
100-150 g sugar (3.5 - 5.2 ounce), icing if you have, but castor is good too, (I like it less sweet)
1 vanilla bean
1/2 tsp rum aroma (optional) 

For the birds (islands)
~3-4 egg whites
0.5 litre (2 cups) milk 

Edited to add: add about 15-20 g of sugar to the egg white to achieve stiffer meringue

Separate the egg yolks, and save the egg whites...
Whisk the egg yolks well together with the sugar, except ~1 flat tbsp sugar. We will use that to make a harder egg white. Use a bit larger bowl than needed, you'll see why later..
Cut the vanilla bean in two, scratch out the tiny seeds, keep the husk.
Bring the milk in a pot to boil with the vanilla seeds, and the husk. When boiling remove it from the heat (remove the vanilla husks), lower the heat, start pouring slowly! the hot milk into the egg yolk-sugar mix, stirring continuously. When nice and smooth pour the cream back in the pot, put it back to the low heat and let it thicken for ~5 min, stirring continuously. DO NOT BOIL IT anymore.
Yeah, I know, takes a bit of stirring, but not to worry about, is all done in 10 minutes :). DO NOT keep it on the fire until you find it thick enough, it will further thicken while it cools down.
After 5 min remove from heat, add the rum aroma if you chose to add (I don't add 'cause my kids don't like it), and let it cool down, stirring occasionally not to have the skin formed on top.
Meanwhile beat the egg whites with the 1 tbsp sugar (beat them until they look almost good without the sugar first, it will be better, should be a hard whipped egg white), bring the milk to boil, start scooping nice oval shaped egg whites into the boiling milk. As soon as you drop them in the milk let them "cook" for 5 seconds, turn them to the other side, boil for additional 5 sec, remove to a plate with a spoon (with holes, preferably), carefully not to take milk with the "birds" or they will moisten in the plate.
Let them dry on the plate until the cream ("bird milk", the "ocean") is cold enough for serving.
Serve the cold cream (the "bird milk") with one "bird"  floating on top. Enjoy.
Usually one "bird" is not enough to finish the cream, so keep some more on the table..

The French serve the "ocean" with the island floating on top, and pour strains of caramel syrup and roasted almond slices. I ate Ile flottante a la French in Paris, but I didn't like the caramel on top, 'guess one just sticks to what Grandma used to make :).
I have some other optional flavor add-ons instead that I prefer, come and taste my variations in my own kitchen :) or even better, experiment with your own.

Suggestion
1. Do not try to boil the whole bunch of egg whites, after scooping several nice birds you'll have some left on the sides of the bowl that can't be so nicely scooped. You choose whether you have some scrambled birds (nothing wrong with the taste), or just stick to the nice ones and wash the leftover egg white away. 
2. You can strain the milk used to boil the birds and use it for a hot chocolate, or if you choose so you can make the birds first, strain the milk and use it for the cream.
I actually never do. I make at once few "birds" only, store the milk (egg whites, and the leftover cream) in the fridge and just reuse it next day to make more birds, as the birds can not be stored for long. They either get hard or collapse, depends how much you cooked them..

PS. Sorry for the poor pic, I just couldn't make any better, the camera was always out of focus Maybe next time..

Csöröge - kinda donut

OK, the ball is very high for my patience to fry proper fánk, so I usually cheat. Just a tiny bit ;).
I make csöröge. It's a relaxed way to enjoy the "szalagos fánk" without the stress of having proper ribbon.
The dough is exactly the same, what differs is the shape in which is cut, folded and fried. As a result the dough gets in contact on a larger surface with the hot oil, which guarantees, that unless you screwed up the leavening, the result will be great. And I don't have to worry about putting the lid, removing the lid... Phew..

The csöröge should be made without yeast, and therefore the name csöröge = csörög(e), (rattling "donut"), but my hubby doesn't like any rattling "rattling donut", so I don't make it. OK, only very rarely, 'cause my daughter likes the rattling csöröge. I probably should fry "rózsafánk" for her, but that's a different story. Now the csöröge.
First make the dough based on the recipe from donut dough.
Roll out the dough ~0.5 cm thick in a round shape. Start cutting the dough in diagonal at about 3 finger distances. Then do the same thing in the other direction, until you get rhombus shaped cuts.
Make a small, 3cm (~1 in), cut in the middle of every rhombus, bring one corner of the rhombus through the cut, a bit "shake it" to get the right shape.
Let them stay for 10-15 minutes under a table cloth.
Fry in hot oil on both sides and remove them on a plate covered with kitchen paper. Serve with icing sugar and/or jam.

1.5 litres oil for frying (the csöröge should not reach the bottom).
Frying pan

Serving (all optional)
~100 g icing sugar
raspberry jam
apricot jam
whatever is you favorite jam :
Last I had them with blackcurrant jam, and hmmmmmm.... Yammi.

Aranygaluska - golden wallnut dumplings

Nah, finally one of the things our family likes the most, yeast based goodies.
I'm cheating a bit with my aranygaluska recipe, traditionally a yeast based, spongy, walnuty Hungarian cake, and here are the reasons...
First of all, I fell in love with the cardamom in the Finnish "pulla" dough, so I add cardamom in my Hungarian aranygaluska, which is very untypical. You can omit it, if you want something more original..
Second, my kids don't like walnuts in cakes, so I replace it with almonds. You can stick to the walnuts.. (Or, if you are allergic to nuts, you can omit both the almonds and walnuts, and just triple the cinnamon portion for stronger taste.)
Third, I add a bit of cinnamon.. Just 'cause I like it :).

Ingredients
25 g icing sugar
250 g all purpose flour 
25 g butter
20 g fresh yeast or 1 tsp dry yeast 
pinch of salt
1 egg
120 ml whole milk
1/2 tsp minced cardamom (optional)
1 lemon peel grated (small lemon, if you have a large one half will be enough)

For rolling
100 g ground almonds or walnuts
70 g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, flat (optional)
100 g butter

Vanilla cream
500 ml whole milk
1 vanilla bean (seeds)
4 egg yolks (if you like it less"eggy" you can add 3) 
70 g sugar
1 tsp flour 
rum aroma

Let the yeast rise for couple of minutes in the hand-warm milk with a large pinch of sugar.
Add the pinch of salt to the flour and crumble with the butter. Add the remaining sugar, egg, yeast and the remaining milk, and work them nicely together in a soft dough.
Let it rise for 30 min.
Pinch from the dough balls of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter, roll them into the melted butter and then in the sugar/almond/cinnamon mix.
Place them evenly in a buttered and floured 26 cm cake form (not too tight, they will grow still..) and let it rise for another 30 minutes.
In many Hungarian recipes the dough portion is double and there are several layers of dough-balls placed on top of each other. I prefer it this way, and rather bake two portions if needed, as I find the final result more fluffy and light.
Before putting them in the oven, sprinkle on top of the dough-balls some additional butter and almond-sugar mixture.

In a 170C (350 F) preheated oven bake them for 30-35 minutes, on the top rack of the oven.
Serve still warm with the cold vanilla cream.

If you prepare your own vanilla cream, while the dough balls are rising in the baking form you can make the cream.
Whisk the flour evenly in 200 ml milk, bring them to slowly boil and cook until it thickens a bit, ~5 min, stirring constantly. Add the remaining milk and bring to boil, for additional 3 min.
Mix well the egg yolks with the icing sugar, and pour it into the boiling milk, and let it thicken for additional ~3 min but DON'T boil it anymore or the egg will cook and it will have a terrible eggy taste, again stirring continuously.
Remove from heat and let it cool.
Serve with the aranygaluska.