I never know what will be my inspiration. The last few days my mind has been revolving around food (of course), tables and dishes. It began with looking for the right plate on which to photograph rolls, which snowballed into cleaning out and rearranging all my cabinets. I love dishes and tablewares, I do admit…
Category: Food
Hold the Toast
Instead, take a teeny weeny spoon and take a little bit of concentrated jelly and let it melt under your tongue, let it bloom in your mouth (it’s safe, it’s pure fruit and flavor) let it coat your tongue and swish around in your mouth.
That’s how to experience my jelly.
Food Insecurity
Growing up, our family didn’t have much. We were refugees that left a very successful life behind to build a life in a free country. We would have been very “food insecure” had my father not planted a garden wherever we lived. No matter where that was, the first thing he did was plant fruit…
Collard Greens
Here at Wingspread Farm we grow three varieties. We harvest when young all the way to the full grown, large leathery leaves. There is never any waste, if there are bugs, or worm eaten holes on them, the chickens get them. Win win for all of us.
Cinnamon Vapor
Overnight, this process continues, and then the roll becomes just the way I like it
Hungarian Cabbage Noodles
I remember this meal. It was a favorite of mine. Meat for us was not every day. Too expensive. My father had a garden and that was our mainstay. We had many bread and noodle-based meals, and this was a favorite of mine. Thinking about my growing up Hungarian, I have specific food memories,…
Cinnamon Rolls
Today, I take this very same sweet dough, roll it out into a rectangular shape, then kick it up a few notches, by smearing a generous amount of butter, handfuls brown and white sugar, and a thick dusting of cinnamon bark powder, which then combine together into a thick syrup through the alchemy of heat, and we have our cinnamon roll, the culmination of eight hours of labor.
Pasta Fridays: Mushroom Cream Sauce
This works with any mushroom type, and the texture is wonderfully smooth and creamy and coats the bigger pasta types beautifully.
Pasta Fridays: Green Pea Sauce with Ricotta and Ham
A new tradition in the making that I’m hoping will prevail. I want to explore the Pasta World! Recipe Marcella Hazan:I substituted a small frozen bag of green peas. Having Italian Food may often amount to no more than that, or to a pizza, or a platter of cold cuts, or a rice and chicken salad….
Pasta Fridays: Zucca Pasta with Ham and Asparagus.
A new tradition in the making that I’m hoping will prevail. I want to explore the Pasta World!
Honey
Who doesn’t love warm bread with a dab of butter and a drizzle of pure natural honey?It just seems natural to add honey to a delicious meal of warm bread, fresh eggs, smoked bacon or kolbasz. It really sweetens up the smoky, salty flavor of the meats.Rich dark roast coffee or espresso with warm bread…
Liptauer Cheese or JUHTÚRÓS KÖRÖZÖTT
The basic musts are the sheeps-milk cheese, paprika, onion and caraway seeds. All the other ingredients are optional.
Simple Vegetable Soup “egyszerű zöldségleves”
This is a basic soup my family has made for decades. It’s very paprika forward. Very Hungarian.
It’s simple, nutritious and deceptively full of flavor, in spite of the few humble ingredients.
The key is to add each element at the right time and in the right way. If not, you’ll have a very insipid or bitter soup.
This base vegetable soup lends itself to many variations, all completely delicious.
LECSÓ
First I smell the bacon slowly frying with half rounds of sliced onion, pale yellow, almost white Hungarian peppers, and rich red tomato from the garden. When the meat was just cooked, the onions and peppers just wilted, he slipped the half rounds of tomato and cracked a few fresh eggs on top, making little spaces where the egg whites would run and cook evenly. When it was cooked, he served it with a thick slice of toast and warm tea with lemon in it.
“Nokedli”
Hungarian egg pasta dumplings. Handmade, cut from loose batter into boiling water. Simple ingredients: Flour, eggs, salt. That’s it. But like any pasta, it takes elbow grease, time and a desire to make and clean up a huge mess.
Beaver Dam Pepper
I feel a kinship to a Hungarian Pepper that survived and flourished into a “naturalized American” much like myself. When you take a bite, you get the other flavors first, and then the heat kicks in,
Stuffed Kohlrabi Töltött Karalábé
Hungarians love stuffing vegetables. It’s such a flavorful way to use vegetables and elevate the plating from a boring bowl of stew to an artfully stuffed and carved vegetable, placed majestically in a beautifully contrasting sauce, of which you can eat as little or as much as you like. Many of my favorite childhood foods were stuffed vegetables. Stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage and the sublime and rare stuffed kohlrabi.
Dumplings in Paprika sauce with frankfurters.
Want to whip up something super easy and delicious? This is it! Its a take on Hungarian “paprikas nokedli” One tub precooked rich egg dumplings One large onion coarsely chopped Oil, I used avocado oil 5 frankfurters or hot dogs cut on the bias into small pieces. I tablespoon good quality paprika Sweat down the…
Hidegtál
Hungarians love their cold platters! I have found these creative platters of Magyar smoked meats. These inspire me to think about the holidays to come and to think about designing some of my own.
Honey
Who doesn’t love warm bread with a dab of butter and a drizzle of pure natural honey?It just seems natural to add honey to a delicious meal of warm bread, fresh eggs, smoked bacon or kolbasz. It really sweetens up the smoky, salty flavor of the meats.Rich dark roast coffee or espresso with warm bread…