Palacsinta, Pancake perfection

I do love a bit of alliteration but I am being slightly disingenuous in translating palacsinta as pancake, as it’s much closer to a crepe. Having said that, it is also similar to the British style of thin pancake rather than the thicker American version. Whatever you compare it to, the palacsinta is a thing of delicate lacy beauty eaten as a both savoury and sweet in Hungarian cuisine. Rolled, stuffed, folded or stacked. The palacsinta is a perfect vehicle for all sorts of deliciousness: walnuts, chocolate & rum? Curd cheese, lemon and raisins? Veal with paprika cream sauce? Minced ham and sour cream? Oh yes. All of those and more. Slightly sweetened cabbage? Yup. (not as weird as it sounds, we put similar sweetened cabbage into rétes – strudel – too).

Of course, and I’m going to cause murder with this statement, Hungarians do not have the monopoly on the elegant palacsinta. There’s the Romanian clătite, the Czech (and Slovak) palačinky, the French crepe and the Austrian palatschinken amongst others, not to mention the diasporic Jewish blintz, whose delicious curd filling has definitely influenced the túrós palacsinta which is a personal favourite. (Recipe to follow). I love that George Lang writes in his The Cuisine of Hungary, that each nation has enough folklore, recipe or history to definitively “prove” the origin as invented by a Frenchman, a Czech, an Hungarian etc. He even suggests a Pancake Olympics, which I have to say sounds splendid, and one I’d be up for judging, but concludes that Romania probably has the edge on the historical origins of these thin pancakes via their Roman legionnaire ancestors back in the day when they invaded and conquered the province of Dacia which later developed into Romania. George further postulates that the pancake actually came via Egypt – but it was the Empire building Romans who spread the recipe around. I do like the idea of Cleopatra tossing pancakes to enthrall her Roman lovers. In any case, the thin pancake is a staple across Central Europe. It’s really not just for Shrove Tuesday.

Back to the Hungarian version. I’ve mentioned that I have a stack of handwritten recipes from my paternal grandmother, and that one summer I transcribed & translated them with the help of my father. A rather delicious dish she used to make was Csúsztatott palacsinta, which we translated as sliding pancakes. Thin palacsinta are cooked then layered up with minced ham and sour cream before baking and slicing like a cake. That’s the savoury version. The sweet version is also known as Gundel – after the famed chef Karoly Gundel who developed it – is a variation on the Rakott Palacsinta where 16 wafer thin pancakes are stacked up with sweet fillings. The Gundel version involves a filling of ground walnuts and raisins, flavoured with orange zest and rum. Then once stacked up into a cake, a chocolate rum sabayon sauce is poured over the top. Decadent. Utterly.

Palacsinta recipe (my grandmother’s) Makes 8 -12 dependent upon your pan and skill!

40g melted butter

3 eggs, separated

6 tbsp plain flour

150 ml milk

100 ml soda or sparkling water

pinch of salt

Whisk egg yolks and flour together to make a thick paste. Add melted butter, and then slowly add the milk and water. Heat a flat frying pan (7-8 inch diameter) on the stove. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold into the batter. Melt 1 tsp of lard in the pan (you can of course use veg oil or clarified butter), and when it’s good and hot, pour a ladle of the batter into the pan, letting it roll round to form a very thin layer. It cooks incredibly fast. Typically it is only cooked on one side. Attempts to turn over will result in tears (both the cook’s and the pancakes…).

Csúsztatott palacsinta

Palacsinta recipe as above.

150 g ham, minced or chopped very finely.

150 ml sour cream

Cook palacsinta and layer on an oven proof dish with a spoon of minced ham over the surface, topped with the same of sour cream. A grind of black pepper and continue until the last palacsinta, which you place cooked side down. An extra spoon of sour cream and black pepper over the top, then pop in the oven, heated to GM5 or 170C for 15 minutes. Slice into quarters and eat.

Túrós Palascinta

Palacsinta recipe as before.

125g ricotta (or you can use cottage cheese but drain it in a sieve to remove excess liquid)

50g raisins

25g sugar

2 tbsp rum

lemon zest

Put raisins to soak in the rum and plump up. Make palacsinta. Mix cheese, lemon zest, sugar and raisins. Divide mixture amongst palacsinta and roll up. Put in an oven proof dish, sprinkle with extra sugar and a little dusting of cinnamon if liked. Heat through for 15 minutes at GM5/ 170C.

A la Gundel (a slightly smaller version)

Palacsinta as before.

Walnut filling

125g walnuts, ground

60g sugar

60 ml double cream

30g raisins, chopped

1 tbsp rum

1 tsp orange zest, grated

Bring cream to a simmer in a saucepan, then add sugar, rum, walnuts, raisins and orange zest. Reduce heat right down and simmer for 1 minute until thickened – you may need to add more ground walnuts or cream – you want a spreadable paste.

Chocolate rum sauce

200g dark chocolate, grated or chopped

1 egg yolk

60 ml double cream

1 tbsp rum

1 tbsp sugar

Heat cream, and add chocolate over a low heat. Stir until the chocolate is all melted, then take off the heat. Whisk the egg yolk, rum and sugar together, then add to the chocolate cream mixture. Stir very well over a low heat to thicken. If too thick, use a little milk to let it down to pouring consistency.

Make palacsinta. You can layer up as a cake, spread with the walnut mix or simply fold each one in 4. Drizzle over the warm chocolate sauce. Lick the plate afterwards, no one will be watching.