Meat, thick sauces and a spicy taste dominate Hungarian cuisine - uncharacteristic of neighboring and European peoples. This is due to the established habits of the ancestors of the Hungarians - the nomad tribe of the Magyars. They depended entirely on hunted game and stores of dried meat due to their constant migration.
It is precisely as a result of these nomadic traditions that the most famous Hungarian dishes were born, which today are a synonym of local cuisine, such as goulash, pörkölt, tokany and paprikash.
Goulash
Ingredients: 2 lb beef, 5 potatoes, 4 peppers, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 onion heads, 2 bay leaves, 3.5 oz of tomatoes (canned), 2 carrots, 2 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp paprika, 3 1/3 tbsp lard, black pepper, salt.
Preparation: Dice the meat. Fry the finely chopped onions in the lard. Add in the pieces of meat, season with salt and fry for a few more minutes. Add in the flour and paprika. Fry for 1 - 2 more minutes.
Cut the peppers and carrots into round slices and the potatoes into large pieces. Add the peppers and carrots to the meat and pour in about 4 1/5 cups (1 L) of water. Throw in the bay leaves and finely chopped garlic. Boil until the meat softens, then add the potatoes. Once they are half cooked as well, add in the tomatoes and boil for another 15 min.
Besides meat dishes, Hungarians eat a lot of vegetables nowadays. A national specialty in this regard is lecsó. It is made with tomatoes and peppers with rice.
Lecsó
Ingredients: 21 oz of tomatoes, 3.5 lb green peppers, 2 onion heads, 1/3 cup lard, 1 tbsp sweet paprika, salt, 2/5 cup rice, oil.
Preparation: Cut the peppers into pieces. Drop the tomatoes for a few minutes in boiling water. Take them out carefully, remove the skins and cut them into quarters. Cut the onions into crescents.
Melt the lard in a large pot and fry the onions in it until golden. Add the paprika, peppers and tomatoes. Stew with the lid off on high heat, until part of the liquid evaporates. Once this happens, lower the temperature, put the lid on and let it boil.
Fry the rice separately in a little oil. Add it to the lecsó a bit before it's ready, along with a little water. Once the rice cooks, the dish is ready.
Hungarians are also famous throughout the world for their desserts. The most popular is Dobosh cake, made with chocolate cream and a glazing of caramel and nuts.
Dobosh cake
Ingredients: 6 eggs, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, 1/2 cup flour, butter for spreading, flour for sprinkling, 2/3 cup of sugar.
For the cream: 5 eggs, 2 oz chocolate, 1 cup powdered sugar, 4/5 cup butter, vanilla sugar, nuts.
Preparation:
Cream: Beat the powdered sugar, chocolate and eggs in a water bath until thickened. Set the cream aside and let it cool, stirring it from time to time. Add the cooled mixture to the beaten butter in portions. Add the vanilla sugar and beat until you get a light cream.
Cake: Whisk the egg yolks with the powdered sugar into a light foam. Gradually add the egg whites that have been beaten to hard snow and the sifted flour. Lay out the dough in a buttered tray that has been sprinkled with flour. Form 6 equally sized thin circles and bake.
Smear the cream on 5 of them and arrange them on top of one another. Pour a golden brown caramel over the 6th (prepared from the melting of the sugar in the pan), as well as the nuts. Cut the cake using a buttered knife. Serve the next day.
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