Vegetable pottage/ Spenótfőzelék

People ate a lot of pottage throughout the ages, since they had first made cooking pots that would withstand heat. In Tudor times, it was still the main part of an ordinary person's diet. It is basically a vegetable soup, flavoured with herbs and thickened with oats. 

The ordinary people would not have been able to afford much meat, so would rely on this soup as their staple diet with bread and cheese. Occasionally meat bones or fish would be added when available.

The pottage would have been made with whatever vegetables were in season. However, dried vegetables such as peas and beans were often served in Lent; by which time the winter food stocks were very low. This helped people survive until early spring produce (nettle tips, ground elder and spring greens) began to grow.

In the past, it was considered that the thicker the soup, the better the quality of the pottage.

But in Hungary pottage (főzelék) is a type of thick Hungarian vegetable dish, not quite a soup, but neither is it a stew, and usually not served in restaurants, as it is considered to be a home made dish, however you can find them in any little family place (büfé) or in self service restaurants.

My favourite one is the spinach one, which has also a funny sign, as children used not to eat it happily, so it was always almost a hero act to have eaten in the kinder garden. In the Popeye movies Popeye is the one who eats a lot of spinach in order to get his power.

A "spenótfőzelék" receipt:

Ingredients

• 1 garlic
• spinach
• herbs from the garden (eg parsley, rosemary and thyme)
• oil
• flour
• seasoning (salt and peppercorns)
• sour cream 
• eggs to boil

Equipment

• Large cooking pot
• Knife for peeling and chopping the vegetables
• Chopping board
• Wooden spoons for stirring and serving

 Making and cooking it

• Peel the garlic
• Roughly chop some spinach
• Warm a pot by the fire
• Add some oil and flour
• Allow to soften for a few minutes
• Add the spinach
• Allow to cook  until the vegetables are ready
• Leave for a few minutes, add the seasoning (salt and peppercorns), add the sour cream, just to whitening and then remove the pot from the hearth and serve
• You can serve it also with boiled eggs

Gesztenyepüré/Chestnut purée

Gesztenyepüré is something for all the year, although it is thought only for wintertime.

In my childhood my grandma used to give extra pocket money  to go to the closest patisserie and order this sweet. Sweet chestnuts are a seasonal fruit,

eaten mainly in the winter, but whenever and where ever you enter in a cafés sure beside "somlói galuska" you can find also gesztenyepüré.
In Hungary it is puréed,  topped with whipped cream. It's so popular that almost everyone have fond memories of eating gesztenyepüré from footed glass dessert cups in local cafés. We think as about lot of things because of it's popularity it would be our desert, although the first recorded chestnut purée recipe can be found in an Italian cookbook printed in Florence in 1475. The French later copied the recipe and chestnut purée became a popular, seasonal French dessert named Mont Blanc, because of its resemblance to the snow covered mountain top. Hungarians fell in love with gesztenyepüré in the 18th century.

One of the recipes, it is not easy to prepair, but everyone can try. I still recommend to try it in one of our fantastic patisseries in order to be able to wonder also the beauty of the traditional places.


The ingredients:

1 kg (2.2 pound) chestnut, for about 700 g (1.5 pound) of chestnut purée
3.5 dl (1 1/2 cup) water
3.5 dl (1 1/2 cup) milk
50 g (1/4 cup) sugar + 1 dl (1/2 cup) water
1 vanilla pod
1/2 tea spoon salt
50 g (1/4 cup) butter (unsalted, melted)
1.5 dl (3/4 cup) cream
rum (optional)
whipped cream

The how-to:
Using a sharp knife make an incision, in the form of an X, on the rounded side of each chestnut shell. Try not to cut into the flesh of the nut. If you are a pro, you may even have a chestnutter.
Preheat the oven to 120C (250F). Place the chestnuts on a baking pan. Sprinkle them with some water (the steam will help with the tedious process of peeling the chestnuts). Bake for about 40 minutes.
Now comes the hard part, peeling the roasted chestnuts. The outer skin should come off easily, but the inner skin is the real challenge. Once peeled, place the chestnuts in a saucepan. Add the water, the milk and the seeds from the vanilla pod and cook covered on low heat for about 40 minutes or until soft.
Prepare the sugar syrup. Bring 1 dl of water with 50 g of sugar to a boil and cook for a few minutes. Drain the softened chestnuts, add the sugar syrup, salt, melted butter, cream and (optional) some rum. Puree in a mixer and let it cool for a few hours in the fridge.
To serve, run the puree through a potato-press and into a footed glass bowl and cover with whipped cream. Consider adding some whipped cream to the bottom of the bowl as well.

Gourmet Festival Budapest 7-10th June

Gourmet Festival is a gastro-cultural festival which brings together the best wineries, pálinka distillers, restaurants, confectioners and gourmet stores creating a market place for producers to show their homemade cheese, ham, salami, sausage, jam, honey, chocolate and other delicacies offering them for tasting.

Myself, as a gourmet of sweets of course would recommend among the many exhibitors the Gerbaud coffee house and its sweets and of course not only at the Gourmet Festival, as you just to have walk into this wonderful coffee, is worth to make a visit to Budapest! The silk-carpeted walls, the crystal chandeliers, gilded tables exuded style that drew people from the highest social stratas in 19th-century Budapest and still nowadays.

Henrik Kugler established the coffee house in 1858. 

Since Kugler didn't have an heir he sold the cafe to Emil Gerbeaud descendant of a talented Swiss confectioner family.

Gerbeaud expanded the cafe and developed it into one of Europe's finest coffee house and pastry shop.
He added new cakes to the menu and introduced modern confectionery techniques.
Gerbeaud even founded a small chocolate factory where the legendary pralines
and other sweets were made.

Everyone who counted at that time visited the place including the Habsburg royal family and many foreigners. Sissi, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph and Queen of Hungary always dropped in the Gerbeaud cafe when she was in Budapest. Unfortunately the two world wars ruined the coffee house culture including the Gerbeaud. After Emil Gerbeaud died in 1919,  his wife managed the establishment until her death 1940.

The two son-in-laws inherited the business  left the country in 1945. The state took over the ownership of the cafe during the communist era and renamed it Vörösmarty Cafe after the square where it stands. 

After the II. World War the Gerbeaud cafe continued to be the most exclusive coffee house and confectionery in Budapest though lost some of its old grandeur.

In 1984 the Gerbeaud family managed to buy back the cafe and its original name. 

By 1990 the Gerbeaud cafe regained its lustre and it was again the place not to miss by foreign visitors coming to Budapest.
During its renovation in 1997 the cafe received fine wood panelling, lavish brocade wall covers, marble tables that enhance the nostalgia and refined elegance of the place but still managed to maintain a relaxing atmosphere.

Gerbeaud's specialties include famous cakes, such as Dobos cakes,

which is one of my favourite, as well as all kinds of cream cakes, extravagant bakery goods and exquisite ice-creams, not to forget the real Gerbaud, the cake!

The wide selection of handmade bonbons in decorative wooden boxes can be wonderful presents to anyone with a sweet tooth.

This year the showplace of the Gourmet Festival is the Millenáris Park in the Buda side of city. 
Venue: Millenáris Park, trams 4, 6, M2 metro Széll Kálmán tér stop - cc. 5 minute walk from there
Entrance fee: daily ticket: 2 900 HUF/day, the ticket price includes a tasting glass

Country cake of Hungary 2011

In 2011, special confectionary masterpieces competed for the fifth consecutive year to be presented for the celebration of statehood on August 20th. Based on the decision of the Jury of the Hungarian Confectionery Artisans' National Industry Body, the winning confectioner was again master confectioner László Zila who came up this time with the apricot millet cake of Kecskemét.

As the pastry chef said, the idea of ​​using this fruit was inspired by a letter from a housewife in Karcag, eastern Hungary. She wrote her feelings were hurt by the fact that the Pánd cherries and Szabolcs county plums were already featured in the cake, while the Kecskemét apricot has fallen behind in this series. The millet cake was designed by modifying the basic recipe found in the letter.

The basis of the cake, made, of course, with the patented Zila cake pan, is millet cooked soft in flavored milk. Whipped cream mixed with cooked millet is also put on top of the cake whose cavity is filled with slightly cooked and blended apricot pulp. A little chocolate plate half a peach is placed on the top.

Körözöttes szendvics

The general "körözött" is made of traditional sheep's cheese and curd cheese mixture, but  you can use whatever cheese and even cream cheese! The following recipe for the traditional version.

Ingredients

     20 ounces cottage cheese
     5 ounces butter
     1 tsp red pepper
     1 tsp cumin seeds
     1 onion
     Salt and pepper

Preparation

Chop the onion very small pieces. Mix the butter with a mini hand-held whisk, whip and mix the cottage cheese. Add the spices and mix. You can eat it straight, but it would be more pleasant to keep it for a few hours in the fridge to rest!

Pogácsa - Hungarian pork crackling scones

Pogacsa is very popular in Hungary and Eastern Euope, best served with goulash soup or eaten as a snack.
Its history goes back as far as the Conquest of Hungary, when it was "in the ash cake".
Ingredients
1 package (8 grams) of active dry yeast
1/4 cup (60 ml) warm milk
8 tablespoons (113 grams) of unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, plus 1 egg, beaten and mixed with 50 ml of cold water for glaze
1/2 cup (120 ml) sour cream
8 bacon slices, fried and finely cut into small bits or 20 oz (250 grams) of pork cracklings
4 – 4 1/2 cups (500 grams) all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Directions
To prepair it you can use your hands to knead the dough.
Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup of warm milk and let it stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Combine the melted butter, eggs, sour cream, and bits of bacon or pork cracklings. Knead until incorporated.
In a separate large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture into the yeast mixture 1 cup at a time while mixing on low speed. Continue kneading the dough until smooth and elastic about 5 -7 minutes. If dough is too sticky, add more flour.
Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a large bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise until it doubles in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
Place dough onto a clean floured work surface and punch down. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C) and line a standard baking sheet with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll dough until it is 3-inches thick. Cut into rounds using a cookie cutter and make a criss-cross pattern on top with a sharp knife. Let the scones rest for 30 minutes.
Brush the tops of the scones with the egg mixture.
Bake for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown on top.

Lángos

Lángos is a hungarian speciality, during summertime almost so populare as just like hake, a deep fried flat bread made of a dough with flour, yeast, salt and water.

Traditionally lángos was baked in the front of the brick oven, close to the flames. It was made from bread dough and was served as breakfast on the days when new bread was baked. Now that people no longer have brick ovens and do not bake bread at home, lángos is virtually always fried in oil.

The word láng itself means in hungarian language flame, as panis focacius ( focaccia nowadays?) was already used also in the ancient Rome for flatbread baked in the ashes of the fireplace.

It is eaten fresh and warm, topped with sour cream and grated cheese.

Ingredients.........for 4 persons....

• 1 large potato, boiled, peeled, mashed and kept warm
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (not rapid rise)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cloves garlic, cut in half

Preparation:

1. Place the ingredients in the order given, except the garlic, in a mixing bowl. Using the paddle attachment, combine the ingredients until well moistened.
   
   
2. Switch to the dough hook and knead for 5 to 7 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Transfer to a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled.
   
   
3. Separate dough into 4 portions, shape into a round and place on a lightly floured board. Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
   
   
4. In a large skillet, heat 1 inch canola oil to 350 degrees. Flatten and stretch dough to about an 8-inch diameter. Fry one at a time about 2 minutes per side or until golden. Drain on paper towels.
   
   
5. Serve hot rubbed with garlic clove and sprinkled with salt. Variations include topping with sour cream and chopped dill or shredded Emmenthaler or Gruyere cheese. Or, for a sweet version, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or confectioners' sugar.