Stories and recipes from my Hungarian family and the history of food in Hungary
“The fire of love’s altar might die down, but the seduction of the stove is eternal. Every plate is the declaration of love, or its opposite: a quiet divorce.” – a fantastic quote from 19th C Hungarian romantic novelist Mór Jókai. Much admired by Queen Victoria, who was also someone who both loved and ate […]
Read More Seduction By StoveI 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 […]
Read More Palacsinta, Pancake perfectionI’ve been recuperating from a major abdominal operation for most of January. This has meant not cooking, which is akin to inhumane treatment in my case because I use cookery as therapy. It soothes me. Stress melts away when I potter in the kitchen. But a moratorium on standing too long and lifting heavy pans […]
Read More Ice Cream DreamsIt is absolute brass monkeys here in Liverpool today. Proper snow and ice on the ground of the type that my Hungarian relatives deal with each winter. Except for them it lasts for months, not two days. Hungarian weather is not dissimilar to Tuscany. Long hot summers, perfect for ripening grapes and soft fruits, and […]
Read More Rakött – the Art of the Bake part 2My Hungarian grandfather or nagypapa was a bread head. He loved carbs and would, as the family saying went, eat bread with bread. No meal was complete without bread to mop sauces, dip in soups, or even form the main meal spread with dripping and paprika, and topped with sliced onion. It’s a love I […]
Read More Bread with breadThere is a basic triumvirate of Hungarian cookery. The fözelék, the pörkölt and the paprikás. Each method can be altered slightly to suit the main ingredient you have in abundance. The fözelék is vegetable or pulse based – I’ve written about it on here – and doesn’t really translate other than as a vegetable pottage, […]
Read More PaprikásWhen I was born, my father had just received his British citizenship and thus was able, after 10 long years, to return to Hungary to see his family. As is the way, I arrived and my grandfather Aladár departed, in the same month of August so I didn’t get to meet my paternal grandfather or […]
Read More NagymamaCake. It’s a marvellous thing. Cheers and consoles in equal measure. Cake has a central role in Hungarian cuisine. Cafes abound in every town, serving sumptious patisserie, to be eaten with delicate precision by older ladies dressed in the purples, greys and blacks of their widowhood. No visit back to Hungary during my childhood was […]
Read More Afternoon delight‘Comfort me with apples” has always seemed a strange one to me. Although it is for the lovesick swain in the Song of Solomon, rather than a person grieving loss, apples are not my go to for comfort food in any circumstance requiring succour. At a pinch I’d allow apple pie or cake but the […]
Read More Comfort food“Happy birthday, happy birthday” – my teen era is defined by Altered Images and Claire Grogran chirruping her way through this the year I turned 13. I’m an August baby. Much of my family is too – my maternal grandfather, paternal grandmother, aunt, cousins and niece all have August as their start date. Even my […]
Read More Birthday Cake
Finom - the food of Hungary 