hungariansnowqueen-blog

[hungariansnowqueen-blog]

Cottage cheese noodles

Túrós csusza (TOO-rosh-CHOO-sah)

HOO boy, I haven’t posted in like a year. Literally.

I’ve been busy busy busy. Wedding, new job, and side hustle jobs out the wazoo: they all leave very little time for cooking. So today’s recipe is all about that. A QUICK (but delicious!) dish that can be made when you’re always on-the-go!

YOU WILL NEED:

1 7.5oz package of Farmer Cheese

4-6 strips of bacon

1 12oz package of egg noodles

2 tbsp sour cream

My mom always lamented that “cottage cheese” wasn’t the same in America as in Hungary: the consistency of American cottage cheese is too runny. So she always insisted that Friendship Farmer Cheese was as close as you could get to real Hungarian “túrós.” And I have to say—it ain’t half bad!

DIRECTIONS:

Start boiling the water for the noodles, and add the noodles when its boiling. Follow the packaging for cooking time.

As the water begins to heat up, start cooking the bacon strips in a large frying pan on low heat.

When the bacon is done, set it aside to cool. The noodles should also be done, so add them to the large frying pan with the remaining bacon grease, still on low heat, and add the Farmer Cheese to the noodles.**BONUS points if you can spot the kitty in the below pic!!)**

Mix the cottage cheese in with the noodles, add the sour cream, and continue mixing.

Crumble the bacon, sprinkle over the top, mix and serve!

[hungariansnowqueen-blog]

Layered potatoes

Rakott krumpli (RAH-koht-KROOM-plee)

Layered potatoes—the ultimate comfort food, was always another favorite. The smells that emanate from the oven while this bakes make me desperately homesick. Though not exactly healthy (what Hungarian entree is?), it is CERTAINLY delicious. It’s also very easy to make; the trickiest part is probably obtaining the right sausage.

YOU WILL NEED: 

1 pair Hungarian gyulai kolbasz (sausage). If there’s a “Russian” or “Polish” grocery store in your area, you can usually find it there. Otherwise, it can be mail-ordered from Bende

8 medium-sized Yellow potatoes 

6 Eggs 

3/4 a cup of Salted butter (one and a half sticks)

Breadcrumbs

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees with your casserole dish inside.

Wash the potatoes and cook them with the skin on. When they’re done, rinse with cold water and let cool.

Cook the eggs until they are hard boiled, and let them cool when finished.

While the potatoes and eggs cook, you can start thinly slicing the sausage. You will only use one piece of the pair. (My mom always insisted on using half so we could save the second piece to make the dish again!) While slicing, you will no doubt find yourself popping a few pieces of sausage in your mouth: “Oh, this one wasn’t cut right; guess I’ll have to sacrifice and eat it!” The sausage alone is heaven, but combined with the rest of the dish, it’s ambrosia. Be sure to peel the skin off before slicing. 

When the oven is warm, pull out the hot baking dish (with an oven mitt of course!) and rub the stick of butter along the bottom and sides of the dish to coat it with melted butter. 

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on the bottom and sides of the dish.

Heat the remainder of the butter so it’s all melted.

Start peeling and slicing the potatoes and put the first layer on the bottom.

Pour a layer of melted butter over the bottom layer of potatoes.

The sliced eggs are next (made easier by this nifty egg slicer!) Peeled first, of course :)

Once sliced, add a layer of eggs on top of the potatoes, and top with another layer of melted butter. 

Next comes a layer of the sliced sausage, topped with another layer of (you guessed it!) melted butter! —I told you it wasn’t healthy :)

Repeat the layers as long as your ingredients last. 

Each layer should have butter in between, and try your best to have potatoes be the top layer.

Bake for about an hour and a half, or until you see the top layers sizzling and crispy.

Serve warm and enjoy!

[hungariansnowqueen-blog]

Cucumber salad

Uborkasaláta (OO-bohr-kuh-shuh-LAH-tuh)

Cucumber salad was always a favorite, and it turned out to be the last dish I would ever make with my mom watching over. We made it for our Christmas 2015 dinner, a few days before she passed. As such, I figured it would be a fitting first recipe post for my blog. I had helped make it several times before, but never all the way from start to finish. Turns out...it's pretty easy!

YOU WILL NEED:

4-6 large cucumbers (I could only find small ones, so I used more)

2 tbsp salt

Juice from 1 lemon

1 garlic clove

4 tsp brown sugar

4 tbsp luke warm water

1 tbsp white vinegar

Hungarian paprika (I use Bascom's)

DIRECTIONS:

Peel and slice the cucumbers in a large mixing bowl. It's best if you use a mandoline (a vegetable slicer like the one pictured below) to get super thin slices, but if you're good with a knife and can slice thinly, that works too.

Sprinkle two tablespoons of salt on sliced cucumbers. Marinate in the fridge for 45 minutes.

While the sliced cucumbers marinate, you can start making the dressing. The most difficult part for me is mincing the garlic. My mom had a garlic mincing technique that could rival any Food Network star; I never could quite figure it out. When I was making it at Christmas, I took the easy way out and used store-bought minced garlic in a jar. My mom urged me not to (“It won’t make a difference,” I thought, “garlic is sticky and hard to mince!”) but boy was she right! While this kind of garlic is perfectly fine if being cooked down for a sauce, the nature of how its stored and soaked makes the flavor profile much different: it ruined the entire thing. I took one taste of the dressing and spat it out, then had to start over from scratch with fresh garlic (which I minced to the best of my ability).

FOR THE DRESSING:

Squeeze the juice from 1 lemon into a small bowl.

Mince 1 clove of fresh garlic and add to lemon juice in small bowl.

I ended up doing pretty well with the mincing this time around, though it took forever! Anyone wanna get me a garlic press?

Add the sugar, luke warm water, and vinegar to the small bowl and stir the dressing vigorously.

After 45 minutes, pull the sliced cucumbers out of the fridge and grab a second large mixing bowl. Squeeze the excess water out of the cucumbers in handfuls, transferring them over to the new bowl. Pour the dressing over and sprinkle with paprika. Leave in fridge until meal, and stir right before serving. 

It’s customary to top with a dollop of sour cream, but it's fine without it as well!

The longer it marinates, the better! Make this in the morning if you plan to serve for dinner....Enjoy! :)

[hungariansnowqueen-blog]

Putting the pieces together

My mother Agnes was born in Hungary in 1953, in the height of the Communist Era. When she met my American father in Hungary during her late 20s, her life changed forever. Not only did she fall in love, but she had found a way to escape Communism and begin her life anew in America. They were married in 1980, and she became a citizen five years later; but she never forgot her Hungarian past—especially when it came to food!

Hungarian food was a staple of my childhood. I would come home after a long day at school and/or rehearsals to the most glorious smells wafting from the kitchen. There were soups, salads, stews, casseroles, and even desserts. My mother loved to cook and share the tastes of her home country with me and my father. When I was in middle school, I started helping my mom in the kitchen and would watch her work her magic. She knew the recipes by heart; I was only there to help peel, slice, etc. As I got older, I realized that I should probably learn the recipes myself, but the moment I did something wrong she would say “No, no, you’re doing it all wrong, let me take over from here!”

I’m starting this blog as a way to recreate and compile the Hungarian recipes of my mother, who passed away in late 2015. It will require hands on “trial-and-error” research (actually making the food, and seeing if it tastes like I remember), as well as some creative translating and guesswork from her old and tattered Hungarian cookbook and old emails (I am certain she improvised with the printed recipes!). It is partly a cookbook, and partly a journey through our memories in the kitchen.

I intend to make the recipes as easy to follow as I possibly can, while sharing joys and memories along the way!

Here is a picture of my mom circa 1985 in her favorite apron.