Flavorful Hungarian Foods
I traveled to Budapest for the Holidays and explored as many Hungarian foods as I could.
I learned how to make sausage and how to flavor it with many different paprikas and other spices, such as fennel, cardamom, and rosemary. It was fun to do and even better to eat all the different types we made. We sharpened our goulash making skills and made and ate delicious soups.
One thing I love about the Hungarian cuisine is the use of bone marrow. They make a beautiful soup with bone marrow and vegetables, and then they give you the bone, with the marrow in it so you can scoop it out with your knife and spread it on delicious bread and eat it with sliced red onion. Yum!
The Holiday’s are always a great time to travel, because on top of sampling a country’s native cuisine you will see all the special “ comfort” foods that they love and view as their family favorites. Such as stuffed cabbage rolls, pastries filled with poppy seeds, and rich duck liver fried to perfection.
The ultimate street food is called “ Langos “ a plate sized sheet of dough which is fried and covered with sour cream and cheese. It is tender and warm, and melts in your mouth. They also make Palacsinta, which are crepes. The crepes are filled with savory flavors, such as ground meat and fried onion, or sweet filled with ground walnuts, raisins and rum and topped with a dark chocolate sauce.
My grandchildren eat their crepes with homemade jams.
The best street treat I experienced is called Kurtoskalacs or “Chimney Cake”. I look forward to this every year. The vendors make them at the Christmas Market over an open charcoal grill.
It is a sweet spiral pull-apart bread that is baked rotisserie style over the charcoal. Then they roll it in cinnamon, sugar or cocoa, nuts or coconut flakes. I am a cinnamon sugar girl, but we all need choices. You eat it by pulling the spiral apart. It is great to share and heaven on earth.
I have yet to master the art of the “chimney Cake”, but I am well on my way to cooking many of their other delicacies.
On great holiday tradition they have, and that I think we in the US should adopt, is an after Christmas party called “The Crumble Party”. After the family Christmas Parties, there is always a ton of leftover food, so what to do??? A day or so later friends get together at one person’s house and they all bring leftovers from their family celebrations, add in some fresh salad, vegetables and maybe fruit and have another huge party with their friends. What a great way to share all their family’s favorites with their friends! And, another reason to have another party!!
Traveling and learning about foods from other cultures, has always been a passion, and something we integrate into our catering with love and a twist of wonderment.
Food always tells a story of our lives and one we can willingly share with others.