1.Cabbage Rolls
Start by cutting out the core of a head of green cabbage and putting it hole side face down in a big pot of salted boiling water with the lid on. Put on high and let boil for about an hour.
Take a pack 500 gram ground meat, (pork, beef or turkey) add 1 cup of rice, an egg, 1 table spoon paprika, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, and a finely chopped onion. Mix by hand.
Once the cabbage leafs are falling apart, take one leaf at a time and fill with meat, roll into pillow shapes with the corners tucked in, and place seem face-down in a deep basting dish (one with a lid). A Dutch oven is perfect, but you can use a roasting pan with aluminum foil on top.
Hungarian Style cabbage rolls have layers with sour kraut and smoked meat in between.
To prepare the sour kraut, first brown one finely chopped onion in oil on medium heat until translucent or golden, add 1-2 crushed garlic and stir until brown, add 1 tablespoon paprika, and add your drained sour kraut, and mix together. It should now have a reddish tinge. In between each layer of cabbage-rolls, add in sour kraut mixture.
Add smoked meat to each layer: sausage, bacon or pork-hocks. Add 2 cups of water and cover pan and place in oven. Bake your cabbage rolls at 400 degrees for about 1&1/2 hours, or until the rice is fully cooked. Take off the lid to brown the top, and serve with sour cream and fresh bread.
The flavors of the smoked meat seep into the cabbage rolls as it cooks. The onions and sauerkraut take on its own flavors. Alfonz loves the sauce or the ‘soft’ on the bottom, and dips his bread in as he eats.
Is you do not like sour kraut you can always make cabbage rolls with tomato sauce.
Eva’s Tip- Add your tomatoe sauce after the cabbage rolls are fully cooked or your rice will not cook through from the acidity from the tomatoes.
Alternatively, try V-8 juice over your sour kraut cabbage rolls the last few minutes of cook time. The cabbage takes on another level of flavour.
The best part, you can also make these on the stovetop and skip the green cabbage all together. If you love sour kraut (Shannon), try making the meat into balls and placing in a large stovetop pot, and simmer with smoked meat in between sour kraut layers. Total cook time is 1 hour for this one, and your prep time is substantially less.
2.Palacsinta or Hungarian Style Crepes
Start with 2 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl; add 2 eggs, a little salt, a splash of vanilla, and 2 1/2 cups of milk and mix until smooth. So exactly like watered down pancake mix! In a hot oiled skillet, ladle 1 full scoop of mixture and lift the pan up and quickly slant the pan so the mix goes to all the edges, tilt so the surface is evenly covered. Brown both side.
Eva’s Tip– I use my bread knife to flip the palacsinta in the pan. It is the perfect length!
Stack each crepe on top on each other on a plate, until the mix is completely gone and the stack is high. I personally like to let my friends fill their own palacsinta with whatever they want. Put one on your plate and spoon in your filling of choice, roll jelly roll style, place between your fingers so the mixture doesn’t fall out and voila! Apricot jam and cottage cheese are the traditional Hungarian standards. Try Nutella or cocoa and sugar for a dessert and sprinkled with icing sugar when serving! Yummy
Eva Tip- left over paprika chicken can be deboned and the meat put in the middle of a palacsinta tuck into a square pillow and the paprika’s chicken sauce served over top! It is one of my favorite rare Hungarian treats!
3.Cabbage Noodles
A nutritious and easy recipe! Shred a green cabbage, salt and put into the fridge, covered for 1/2 an hour. In this time I usually cook my favourite pasta. Take cabbage; squeeze the water out as you place into a hot skillet to brown. This takes a while to get golden brown, but once done salt and pepper and mix in the noodles!! Extra pepper on mine please!
Eva’s Tip- add a spoonful of sugar and the kids will eat it up!!
4.Cottage Cheese Noodles
Fry chopped bacon in a pan, mix in your cooked favourite shaped noodles and add cottage cheese to your plated pasta, add salt and pepper to taste.This is so easy and tastes great!
5.Potato noodles
Fry diced onions until golden and add small cubes of potatoes. Salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon paprika. Add a little water and cover until potatoes are cooked through stirring occasionally. Mix in your favourite shaped pasta! Simple, easy and good!
Eva’s Tip – delicious with European wieners cut in and cooked when the potatoes are almost done.
6.Homemade Chicken Soup – just like mamma used to make!
I made this today! I bought turkey necks from the butcher, (you can use chicken necks or backs, beef brisket or any boney meat with a little fat) and put them in 3 liters of water, with 1 celery root, 1 white carrot, 2 carrots, one giant onion, all peeled and whole into the pot, 2 tablespoons salt, a little pepper, a few garlic cloves, a few stems of parsley and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, skim top and simmer for 2 hours.
Eva’s Tip-Do not simmer broth too hard or your soup broth will be foggy. You want clear soup.
Once finished, take out meat and boiled bits of veggies to a plate and strain broth. I like to add 2 more carrots, 1 white carrot cut into pretty slices and quartered yellow beans.
Eva’s Tip – Add a little vegeta (chicken soup flavouring) when adding veggies to give it more flavour, especially if the meat isn’t fatty enough or not enough meat in soup. It is a good way to save a soup from disaster.
Bring to a boil, add veggies and approximately 15 minutes until the veggies are cooked, still firm but not mushy; I serve with angel hair pasta.
Sometimes I’ll add a cauliflower but only after everything else is cooked or it will fall apart. Never put the pasta into the soup. Your soup will turn sour over night.
Eva’s Tip- Take the bits of meat off the bones and add back to the soup for a full meal. Our family eats soup each day before our main course. A great way to get the veggies into the kids!:)
That’s Hamori!
