Or: what to expect if you spend this Christmas in Hungary.
Each nation has its typical dishes that are inevitable part of a holiday. If the theme is Christmas and the country is Hungary, you can count on these dishes.
FISH SOUP
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 500 grams of small fish
- 1-1.2 kg carp
- 1 large onion
- 1 tomato
- One spicy green pepper
- 1 tablespoon of sweet paprika
- Cherry pepper
We recommend you to buy ready to cook fish, otherwise cooking starts with a difficult and disgusting process. Put the half of the small fish, the head and tail of carp into a larger saucepan, add the onion, the captured fish blood (if you bought live fish originally) and then pour enough cold water to cover the fish. Boil this for 1 hour. Meanwhile, peel and chop up the tomatoes and slightly salt small fish. After an hour, filter the soup on a tightly woven sieve, add 1 liter cold water and boil it. Add the red pepper, tomatoes, cherry pepper, and finally the slices of fish, eggs and / or milk fish, and cook it under cover, on moderate heat for 10-15 minutes. Do not stir it, because the fish is fragile, just shake the pan! Usually the soup is served in the cooking utensil.
FRIED CARP
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 8 slices cleaned carp
- salt
Fort the breadcrumbs coat:
- flour
- egg
- bread crumbs
Fort the frying:
- plenty of oil
For the sauce:
- 50 grams of mushrooms
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 apple
- 1 bottle of mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine
- 4 tablespoons cream
- 1 teaspoon onion cream
- 2 tsps. ground white pepper
- 1 tsp caster sugar
Wash and slightly cut the carp, salt it and let stand. Clean the mushrooms and cut into small cubes. Mix a little lemon juice with water and put the mushroom in it. Peel the apples, cut into small cubes. For the sauce: simmer the mushrooms in lemon water, filter it, and allow to cool. Mix the mayonnaise with the wine and cream. Add the onion cream, apples, mushrooms, ground pepper, a little caster sugar and remaining lemon juice. Rotate the fish in flour, egg and breadcrumbs two times then fry it golden brown. Offer it with the sauce and boiled potatoes.
STUFFED CABBAGE
Ingredients for 6 people:
- 600 g pickled cabbage, chopped
- 6 pickled cabbage leaves
- 2 medium onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 100 grams of bacon
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons red pepper
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon hot pepper cream
- 200 g smoked meat
- 400 grams of minced pork
- 80 grams of rice, steamed
- 1 egg
- 1 coffee spoon of powdered marjoram
- 1 cup of sour cream
- 1 tablespoon chopped dill
- 20 g flour
Preparation: wash the cabbage leaves, cut out thick vein of the leaves. Peel and chop the onion and garlic, cut the bacon into small cubes.
Heat up the oil, thaw the bacon in it and add the onion. If the onion is fried perfectly, remove the half of it. Sprinkle the other half with pepper and add 50 ml water. Add garlic, bay leaves and pepper-cream. Add the cabbage „fibers” (the chopped leaves) and smoked meat. Mix and salt lightly.
For the filling: mix the minced meat, boiled rice, eggs, remaining red peppers, bacon and fried onions, salt, pepper, paprika, marjoram and 1 tbsp. sour cream. Put this stuffing on the prepared leaves, wrap it and tuck the ends. Put these stuffed cabbages on the top of the chopped leaves in the pan. Water shouldn’t cower the rolls, only reach their bottom. Sprinkle with the half of the dill, cover and cook for 70-80 minutes, sometimes gently shake. Replace the water if needed. When the cabbage is cooked, remove the stuffed ones, mix flour with a little water and the residual cream and add this to the sliced cabbage in the pan. Sprinkle with the remaining dill, and boil for further 5 to 10 min. Serve with the „dumplings”.
Sounds too much? But it’s not over yet! If you tried all the main courses, get ready: walnut and poppy seed flavored beigli, poppy seed dough and gingerbread are coming... Good luck!
We’ll be back!