Bejgli { Hungarian walnut / poppy seeds roll }

The real thing doesn't look anything like what I took out from the oven haha!!
My pastry was flaky unlike the traditional Christmas treat. Whatever it is, I am happy with the taste! Also, surpsingly, I enjoyed the poppy seeds filling this time ; which normally is not my first choice .

see step by step instructions here

My poppy seed fillings , mix together:-

100g poppy seeds, grounded
50g honey
50g water, heat and add to honey before combing with other ingredients
a bunch of dried cranberries or raisins - soaked in water
some grated lemon peel

mixture should not be too watery and should just be easily spread on dough easily.

Potato stew { Krumplifőzelék }

I can't say I'm ever excited about any kind of stews until this recipe. Living in a seasonal country, stews are winter warmer and keep your tummy full during the winter months. In Hungary we have a kind of stew called főzelek which is made of either vegetables or grains. I've cooked this potato stew based on ingredients listed on desszert.eu and did not follow the steps.

Potato Stew ( Krumplifőzelék )Ingredients
Potato, peeled and cubed
onion
garlic
smoked paprika powder, to taste
majorom, a pinch
bay leaves, few leaves
sour cream
flour
water, enough to cover potatoes
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Sauté onion in a little oil until soften, next add in garlic and cook for a bit (not browned). Then add smoked paprika powder, stir for a bit until fragrant (not too long or it will be bitter) . Pour a little water to not over heat paprika and followed by cubed potatoes. Add water again enough to cover cubed potatoes. Season with pinch of majorom, bay leaves, salt and pepper and let it boil and simmer until potatoes is soft.
3. Mix together sour cream and flour. Spoon out some of the stew and combine with sour cream mixture, next add this to the stew and cook until boil point and again. Remove from heat and it is ready to serve.

Optional
you can sprinkle with some vinegar.

Creamy Masala Chicken

This taste rather authentic considering the simple list of ingredients, a definite new favourite curry recipe for me. I used the left-over for samosa and wow, its just lovely!

Creamy masala chicken
Recipe from BBC Good Food

Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts , cubed
3cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
2 garlic clove , chopped
1 tsp mild chilli powder
2 tbsp fresh coriander , chopped {replaced with parsley}
juice of 1 lime {replaced with lemon}
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion
1 red chili
1 tsp ground turmeric
284ml carton double cream {replaced with 150ml of coconut milk}
juice of ˝ lemon
basmati rice and naan bread, to serve

additional spice - Hungarian paprika

Method
Put the chicken, ginger, garlic, chilli powder, coriander, lime juice and 1 tbsp of oil in a bowl. Stir, and set aside. Chop the onion, and seed and chop the chilli.
Heat a large shallow pan. Tip in the chicken and marinade and fry for about 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a pan and fry the onion and chilli for 3-4 minutes until just soft. Add the turmeric and stir fry for 1 minute. Lower the heat, pour in the cream and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Add the chicken and simmer for 5 minutes, or until cooked. Season and stir in the lemon juice. Serve with rice and naan bread.


I served the curry with simple Sambal made with

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium-sized Onion
a touch of erős pista (hunagrian ground chilli)
a touch of fish sauce
sugar (to taste)

Chestnut Chocolate Cake (flourless)

A bit rich but definitely yum!
Recipe from here as seen on the F word

Note to self :-
Based on 3 eggs and portion according to this 0.75.
Used sweetened chestnut puree ; hence have reduced sugar to only 50gm.

Apple tart

Perfect for apple season

Fillings recipe from my kitchen snippets ; however, next time I'll cook melt the butter in sauce pan to caramelise the apples with sugar, apricot preserves, with additional cinnamon and raisins.

Crust recipe from nami nami ; I think I'll use this crust's recipe again and agina..Love it !

Basic pasta made into wonton { 雲吞 }

see Basic pasta recipe & learn more about wonton

Obviously I have to roll the pasta thinner next time but I am pretty happy!!

Barley & Sausage

Barley is usually prepared as sweet drink back home, never have I seen it being used in savoury dishes until I came here. I have to say that it took me some time to get used the savoury barley. Then last winter, I came accross this recipe and I am loving the savoury option more and more :)

I've just eliminated potatoes from the original recipe but added zuchinni and roasted pepper (not added yet in the photo). Simple ingredients but full of flavours !

Barley & Sausage
http://80breakfasts.blogspot.hu/2009/03/barley-sausage.html

• 1/2 cup barley, cooked as per package instructions
• 200 grams country sausage, sliced
• 1 medium potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 big white onion, sliced into half moons
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• a pinch dried thyme
• a pinch fennel seeds
• olive oil
• sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

- Cook barley as per package instructions. Set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onions and potatos and sautee for a couple of minutes. Add garlic, dried thyme, and fennel seeds. Toss. Add sausage and sautee until potatoes are soft, onions are slightly golden, and sausage is nice and seared in places.
- Add cooked barley and toss so everything is evenly mixed. Season to taste with salt and pepper and sautee a bit more just to mingle flavors. Take of heat and serve.
- Serves 2.

Coconut yellow split peas "dhal" with flat breads

I've always dreaded making bread; however, this recipe is so easy I know it will be featured frequently on our dinner table. The breads were to accompany the coconut dhal (recipe below) but we had some left over of which we sandwiched the flat bread by spreading cucumber tzatziki and baked beans .... simply yummy!

Flat breads
adapted from BBC Good Food
Serves 8

Ingredients
140g plain flour
140g bread flour
1 tbsp vegetable oil
200ml water

Method
1) Put the flours and 1 tsp salt into a large bowl and mix. Stir 1 tbsp vegetable oil into 200ml water into , then mix this into the flour, stir until you have a smooth dough. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 mins, then return to the bowl, cover and leave in a warm place to rest for 20 minutes.

2) Divide the dough into 8 balls. Roll out each ball on a lightly floured surface to a rough 18cm circle the thickness of a 10p coin. Prick each one well with a fork to stop them rising. To cook on a barbecue: put the breads on the centre of the grill. Cook for a few mins, then turn and cook the other side.

3) Brush the breads with more melted butter. Reheat the griddle between batches and stack them on top of each other to keep warm

Coconut Yellow Split Peas "Dhal"

Receipe from BBC Good Food

I've substitute red lentils with yellow split peas which works fine. This recipe is also a keeper :)

Hungarian Milk Custard { Tejes Pite }

photo credit : Puszta.com (my shot just turned out crappy...)

When I saw the photo above at the mentioned site, I knew I have to make this dessert. It looked delicious plus I haven't tasted one before :) Another reason I like this recipe is that the ingredients could be easily available in one's pantry.

So, yesterday I woke up early morning (4.30am) to make this custard cake in order for it to cool in time to bring along with us when we visit my M&FIL.

The recipe has been scaled down based on 2 eggs instead of five. Just do simple math to get the approriate portion of each ingredients. Also, the baking time needs to be shorten in view of lesser liquid involved.

Verdict
It was indeed an easy dessert to whip up but with satisfying result. In fact, my MIL loved it! She told us that it brought back some childhood memories when her mom used to bake it for her. We found out that she doesn't have the recipe (No wonder she hasn't baked this for us!) So, I'll be printing the Hungarian version of this recipe for her to try out.

For full recipe visit:-
Puszta.com


Update: I've copy and pasted the original recipe here for my own archive

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks
30 g vanilla sugar
150 g sugar
100 g margarine
250 g flour
1 liter milk
5 egg whites
salt
zest of 1 lemon
margarine to grease baking pan
breadcrumbs


Preparation time: 1.5 hours


Difficulty: ☺


Preparation:

In a large bowl mix egg yolks, vanilla sugar, sugar, pinch of salt. Add margarine and the lemon zest. Add flour and milk gradually to sugar mixture, beating to a thin smooth batter.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, until stiff peaks form, then add it carefully to the pancake dough.

Coat the bottom of a 26 cm baking pan with margarine, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and pour the dough into it. Sprinkle the top with small pieces of margarine. Put into a cold oven, then turn on the heat to 150 ºC and bake it for 1 hour.

When the pie is done, cool for a few minutes, then cut into 8-10 bars. Serve it with apricot jam, but it tastes delicious by itself as well.


Hint:

• Use hand mixer to get a smooth batter.
• Do not add baking powder or baking soda.
• Cool the egg whites before beating.
• Add a pinch of salt or a few drops of lemon juice to the egg whites, to make it easier to beat.
• Mix only half of the beaten egg whites to the dough, then carefully fold in the other half, without breaking it up much.

Hungarian sweet bread { kalács } with cinnamon fillings

This is a result from stumbling upon this link How to make kalács (Hungarian sweet bread) http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Kalacs-%28Hungarian-Sweet-Bread%29

Kalács is usually braided ; but I have simply rolled it to form a huge piece of sticky bun.

Hungarian sweet roll (Kalács)
Ingredients
3-1/2 Cups Flour
1 Package Active dry yeast ( I used 7g packet)
1-1/4 Cups Milk
1/4 Cup Butter
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Egg

Preparation

1. Combine 2 cups flour and the yeast in a large mixing bowl.
2. Heat milk, butter, sugar, salt in a pan until the butter is melted (about 115°F).
3. Add the milk mixture to the flour and yeast. Mix well, add the egg and beat well.
4. Add remainder of flour. Knead, if you wish, or don't knead, just make sure that everything is well mixed.
5. Transfer to a greased bowl. Cover and put in warm place to rise for 1 hour to 1-1/2 hrs. The size of the dough should about double.
6. While the dough is rising, prepare filling (if you make it from scratch, see recipe below, but if you have the sweetened chestnut puree already, then it's easy)
7. After dough has risen, put it out onto a floured bread board and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes.
8. Divide the dough into two halves.
9. Pat out or roll out each half with a rolling pin to about 1/4 inch thickness.
10. Spread half the filling on the dough and roll the dough up like a jelly roll. Tuck the ends over to close the loaf. Repeat with the second half of the dough and the rest of the filling.
11. Place each loaf in a greased loaf pan and let rise about 30 minutes. Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes until lightly browned.

*Note - Please check link provided above to see ingredients for fillings. As I have altered the filling to an easier alternative - sprinkle of melted butter, followed by sprinkle of brown sugar , next spread cinnamon all over and finished off with raisins.

Swiss Roll

Swiss roll is one of my favourite cakes. The humble eggy and light sponge cake filled with whipped cream and fruits can be very satisfying! I've used the following recipe many times with more failures than successes . Often it is due to the high room temperature the egg whites just didn't want to stiff as it should be; of which resulted in a heavy as rock cake :s

But last weekend all the failures were wiped out from memory as my swiss roll turned out fluffy and light ..even after two days!

Swiss Roll
source : Hungarian cookery

Ingredients

For sponge cake
90gm flour
4 eggs, separated
salt
120gm sugar
1tsp baking powder
1 sachet vanilla sugar

For fillings - as you wish ...but in this case
250ml whipped cream with 2-3 tsp powdered suger, or to taste
Apricot jam
Apricot fruit


Method
To make sponge cake
1. Pre-heat oven to 180°c.

2. Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until it become stiff foam. Set aside

3. In a bowl combine together dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar. In another bowl beat egg yolks with sugar until creamy. When eggs mixture is creamy, add in the dry ingredients and combine well.

4. Fold egg white into egg yolk mixture carefully.

5. Prepare baking dish by lining it with parchment paper. Pour in the cake mixture and bake for 15 min.

6. Remove cake from oven. Let it cool for a while ; but roll up cake when it is still hot. When cake is cooled completely, unrolled it and spread with your favourite jam or whipped cream.

Crunchy Peanut Slaw

Yummy new recipe from here !

Alterations :-
1) I didn't follow the quantity exactly but based the quantity on my own preference. For example, I dislike using too much of sesame oil which I've reduced to only a few drops.
2) Replaced rice wine vinegar with white vinegar
3) Replaced corriander with parsley. Not available in the shops near me* sigh* ..with corriander the taste would have been more interesting for sure.

Baked sausage on a bed of sauerkraut

The magazine where I saw an appetising photo of Káposztaágyon sült kolbász (meaning as per title) didn't accompany a recipe with it. So, I literally just put

a bed of sauerkraut (rinsed and drained water) on a lightly oiled baking dish,
season to taste
sugar, salt, freshly milled black pepper and
a few bay leaves,
top with Hungarian sausage.

Bake it at 140°c (gas mark 1) for 30 mins. turning the sausage once. You may add a little water if it is dry.

The juice from the sausage will soak in the sauerkraut giving it a wonderful flavour!

Red onion relish

We just had this very simple and refreshing relish for the past 2 days.. with our hamburgers. Yeah I know it is not a healthy diet but I was thinking about this relish so much that I had to make the hamburger again for dinner tonight. Of course you can accompany it with other meat dishes but hamburger was the easy way for me ;)

I tweaked the ingredients a little based on what I have in the fridge. Here's the recipe

Red Onion Relish
adapted from BBC Good Food

Ingredients
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 pickle red chillies (an asian brand-vietnamese specifically) , slice finely
small handful flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 small red onion, cut into wafer-thin slices
a few dashes of fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
freshly milled black pepper

just toss all ingredients together and top it on the hamburger!

Custard cake

I knew baking this perfect custard cake would be a minor challenge with my novice baking skills. Sure enough the egg white didn't turn out right! Hence, when pouring the cake mixture on to the custard mix, the cake mixture sank right to the bottom... I proceeded to baking it nonetheless.

After 25 minutes (shorter time due to reducing of custard topping), the cake came out nice and brown. It appeared ok after all ! We enjoyed this cake very much and sure that it will be a regular for special occasions :)

Thanks Pinoy Cook for sharing!

Velvety broccoli and feta pasta

This has to be one of the best new recipes I'Ve tested in a long time. So simple yet surprisingly pleasing :)

Here I've used Hungarian curly pasta and halved the lemon instead of whole and it works fine :)

Read recipe here

Chinese Radish Cake (萝卜糕)

After whatching this episode of vacsoracsata ( a local tv celebs cooking challenge show) and based on the reviews , I had wanted to try the retek salátá (radish salad). I bought a small radish since winter is the best season for radish but after a week of constant searching for the recipe online, I couldn't find the recipe used on the show! (until after i've cooked it , of course). Then I decided to make this chinese dim sum radish cake. My version is without any meat, mushrooms or dried shrimps as most of the recipes would use. Still it tasted fine and I love it as light diner :)....Read more on Wiki

Chinese Radish rice Cake
recipe from here (the link doesn't seem to work...)

Ingredients
2 c radish
4 tsp salt
4 tsp oil
8-10 strips bacon or ham **omitted**
1 1/2 c rice powder
2 c chicken broth or water

Serve with
Hoisin sauce
Shreded carrots
Chopped spring onions

Method
Shred radish; add salt. Heat oil, add radish and cook until half done. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and pour mixture into a round or square baking pan. Steam for 40 minutes.

My alteration :
1) After steaming , I deep fried the cake until golden brown.
2) The texture of my radish cake (see close up below)is different. As I have coated it with rice flour before deep frying it.

Baked fish with spicy stuffing

Seafood is rather expensive here as Hungary is a landlock country. On top of that the current economy only result in even higher prices for "fresh" sea fish. So I've opted for frozen fish from the hyper mart to sooth my craving for sea fish. Last week, I tried this "HEKK" brand and it tasted fine; unlike some of the frozen fish on sale, this doesn't smell and taste too fishy. Sorry I couldn't recognise and name the type of fish that I ate (!) because I just realised that it only says tengeri hal (sea fish) on the packet ... hmm..

If you can find fresh mackerel in your market, this recipe would work well with it! If not, you can always trial on other fish available to you.

Baked fish with spicy "salsa" stuffing
Serves : 2

Ingredients
450gm Fish, washed and cleaned
salt & white pepper, to taste
rice flour (or plain flour) , for coating
oil for frying

Spicy "salsa" stuffing
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 tomato, chopped
parsley, chopped
salt & pepper, to taste
soya sauce, to taste
sugar, to taste
erős pista (or sambal oelek), to taste

1) Pre-heat oven
2) Blend together ingredients for salsa.
3) Pat dry fish after washing and cleaning. Slit the top part of fish for stuffing.
4) With high heat, heat oil in a non-stick pan or wok. *oil must be hot otherwise fish will soaked up oil*
5) Season fish with salt and white pepper to taste
6) Stuff the salsa into the slit, keeping aside some for topping *do not over stuffed as it would result in stuffing spill out during frying*
7) Lightly coat fish with rice flour (or plain flour)
8) When oil is hot, carefully place fish in pan/wok and fry until lightly golden
7) Remove lightly golden fish from frying pan/wok, drain away access oil and place fish in baking dish. Top remaining salsa on fish. Bake until salsa is browned and crispy.
8) Serve immediately with rice.

** You can also grill fish in banana leaf. Even more YUMMY!

Easy Chicken Curry

For the cold winter days, I think curry is a good additon to the daily dinner aside from the traditional főzelék (a type of Hungarian vegetable stew) .

The following recipe doesn't require as many spices as other Indian curry recipes yet still manage to satisfy my curry cravings! It goes well with this roti (Indian bread) recipe :)

Chicken curry

Recipe from BBC Good Food

serves 4

Ingredients

4-6 medium tomatoes

1 medium onion

4 tbsp vegetable oil

3cm/1in piece root ginger

2 garlic cloves

1-2 mild green chillies

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground turmeric

salt and freshly ground black pepper

100ml/31fl oz water

1 free-range chicken, jointed into 8 pieces, or 8 thighs and/or drumsticks - replaced with chicken breast meat instead

2 tbsp yoghurt

1 lime (or lemon)

a small bunch of coriander leaves

cooked rice, to serve

Added frozen peas, carrots and potatoes for colour and nutritions .

Method

1. To skin the tomatoes, nick the skin of each tomato with the point of a sharp knife, then put the tomatoes in a bowl next to the sink and pour over some very hot water from the kettle to cover. Count to 20, then carefully pour away the water. When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, peel away the skin, halve the tomatoes, squeeze out most of the pips and juice into an empty bowl, and discard. Chop the flesh roughly and put it down on a plate to one side.

2. Peel and finely chop the onion. Fry the onion in the vegetable oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over low to medium heat for about ten minutes, stirring from time to time so that it turns an even golden brown. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn't burn.

3. Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the ginger and the garlic.

4. Slit the chilli using a sharp knife. Slice the flesh away from the cluster of seeds in the middle. Avoid touching any part of the chilli with your fingers if you can, as it is very easy to get chilli in your eyes, and that will sting. You can use a fork to hold the chilli down or wear rubber gloves. Chop the chilli finely.

5. Measure the ground spices into a teacup. Add the ginger, garlic and chilli to the pan, stir them around and fry for another minute or so. If you want your curry to be hot as well as spicy, include some or all of the chilli seeds. Then add the spices in the cup into the onions. Fry the spices for a minute or two, stirring all the time so that they do not stick. Add some salt and freshly ground black pepper.

6. Pour in the water and the tomatoes, bring to the boil, turn down the heat a little and let the sauce simmer for 5-10 minutes.

7. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and stir them around so they are covered with the sauce. Put the lid on the pan, turn the heat down and let the chicken cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Chicken thighs will take longer to cook than breast pieces.

8. Now add the yoghurt to the chicken and stir it in. When the sauce is gently bubbling again, scoop up a little in a teaspoon, blow it cool and taste it. The sauce will probably taste quite sweet because of the tomatoes. Cut the lime in half and squeeze its juice into the sauce. Stir and taste again, and decide whether you want to add the second half.

9. Finally, chop the fresh coriander leaves and sprinkle them on to the curry just before you serve it with the rice.

My first Guacamole

And my first purchase of avocado!
The last time I had mexican food was about eight years ago (I think..). Although it was a nice experience , it didn't inspire me to cook it at home (also because I hardly cook those days!). Tortilla chips during movie sessions don't count ;)

The recipe for the dip is from Recipezaar. It was good! However, I'll probably leave out the onion the next time. It's just too overpowering for my taste.

Easy Guacamole

Ingredients
3 ripe avocados (ripe as in really dark in color and super soft when squeezed)
1 small onion, finely diced
1 medium tomato, diced
sour cream *optional
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1Take avocados and cut into the avocado until you come to the large seed inside.
2Cut around the circumference of the seed.
3With both hands twist the two halves in opposite directions and pull apart.
4Now if your avocados are ripe enough they will separate easily.
5Now carve out each half with a tablespoon.
6Place avocados into a medium bowl and mash and stir until moderately creamy.
7Some people like the avocados more chunky than others-- either way it tastes great.
8Add diced onion and tomatoes to the avocados.
9Add your preference of salt and pepper and taste to see if salty enough.
10In a separate small bowl put in 2 tablespoons of the dip.
11Add 1 tbsp of sour cream and salt again.
12Taste it.
13And decide if you prefer your guacamole with or without sour cream.
14If you like with sour cream add 4 tablespoons or more to the avocado mixture and salt again.
15If not, do nothing and leave it like it is.
16You can do the same with the Tabasco sauce if you like Tabasco sauce.
17Serve chilled with chips or add a little to your taco salad.

Madártej (Hungarian floating islands) again!

Ági posted on my previous post on madártej :

My mom and grandma also prepares very good and creamy madártej, but they never put salt and flour at all. Egg whites they simply beat with about 1 tablespoon sugar.They boil ALL the milk, cook the eggwhite foam in it the same way as you did. Once the foam is done, they put the vanilla sugar or vanilla in it. In between they mix the egg yolk with sugar and little bit of milk, then they pour this into the boiling milk, then cook it on low flame, until it's bit thicker. As I realized, if you keep it in fridge for more time, it will get more and more creamy.

After reading her comment, I retried the same recipe (the next day!) but eliminated the salt and prepared according to Ági's directions. I'm happy with the results. Many thanks Ági! :)