If you are on a diet and eating only raw vegetables, you should not try hungarian cuisine because its food is not dietary. They eat large portions, tasty desserts and fine wines, which supplement the body. This cuisine is not for those, who are trying to lose weight because hungarian people keep fit by means of swimming in warm mineral water as well as long walks around the picturesque outskirts.

 

The history of Hungary involves at least 3 millennia of conquests, unsettled times and migration, which brought them from a nomad to a settled way of life and the basis for cattle breeding and farming. Nomadic tribes of the Magyars used to prepare their fantastic ragout with dried beef, mushrooms, fish and herbs in their homes. In the 18^th century, Hungarian chefs started to use paprika, which arrived there with people from Turkey. In such a manner, Hungarian dishes started to vary. 

 

A chef from the Hungarian city of Hévíz, Istvan Plotar will be preparing national food in the traditional way beginning from those of the shepherds of nomadic tribes, which gradually adopted elements of Turkey cuisine which appeared after the Turkish conquest in the 16^th century and finishing with 300 years as part of the Austro-Hungary empire. Such an unusual cocktail of culture produced an unusuak cuisine, where dinner begins with simple goulash and ends with a refined desert.

 

ISTVAN PLOTAR, CHEF

-I would like to prepare the most common national Hungarian food. First of all, I will cook such a hot dish as goose liver with baked apples and fried onion served on dark bread with nuts.  Pörkölt with pork, which will be our main course today, is a true national Hungarian dish. It is served with dumplings. And finally, sweet dumplings will be for dessert. 

I’m going to start with Pörkölt with pork because it requires a lot of time. Hungarian cuisine is famous for the wide range of its national dishes. I hope that you will visit Hungary to try our national cuisine.

 

Pörkölt is a varient of the famous hungarian stew. Pörkölt means “to fry”. It is the main course, which is thicker than stew, which is the main national soup and hungarian people prefer to refer to it as the soup-stew notion because it is awkward to say soup twice.

 

ISTVAN PLOTAR, CHEF

-First, we need to heat some vegetable oil. Then we need to fry the onions to a golden colour. In order to accelerate the preparation process, we need to add some salt. When the onion is fried, we can add some meat. I have chopped it into small pieces. We also need to add dark bread, ground pepper, ground caraway and two garlic cloves. When the meat is ready, we can add paprika, which is the main Hungarian spice.

 

Istvar doesn’t understand how people can cook without paprika. Hungarian food is quite spicy compared with other european cuisines. This is because of the nomadic way of life. When nomadic tribes of maguars travelled, they took meat with them and the different spices helped to preserve it. Since that time, people have said that meat without pepper is like flushing money down the drain.

 

ISTVAN PLOTAR, CHEF

-When meat is fried with paprika, we need to add some water. When our meat is almost ready, we add some mushrooms and pepper. If people like more spicy food, they can add some spicy paprika to it to gain a richer flavor.

 

We stew the meat on a low heat for about an hour. While the main course is cooking, Istvan will cook other things.

 

ISTVAN PLOTAR, CHEF

-We need to add vegetable oil to the hot frying pan. Then we need to add some to the goose liver. After that, it is necessary to fry the goose liver, apples and onion.

 

Goose liver is the favourite snack of gourmets. In hungary, people force feed geese and that is why they have engorged livers. It is tasty either cold or hot. But i would like to warn those, who taste this delicacy for the first time that there is no need to hurry and it is better to eat small portions.

 

ISTVAN PLOTAR, CHEF

-Returning to Pörköl, I would like to say that we need not cover it while stewing because it is the main specialty of this dish. All liquid should vaporize and the meat will be served in a thick sauce. We will fry the goose liver with apples and onion for about five minutes. It is a very interesting combination. Goose liver with sweet and sour apples and spicy onion is a national peculiarity of Hungarian cuisine. During five minutes, the liver will become juicy, the apples will be soft and the onion will gain a golden colour.

 

Istvan said that if you try to prepare something from Hungarian cuisine but make slight changes in the recipe or technology of preparing, you will get a dish, which will be far from the traditional taste of the national dishes.

 

ISTVAN PLOTAR, CHEF

-Our liver is ready and we are serving it with dark bread and nuts. This dish is served with Tokai wine. Let’s return to our Pörkölt. Now our time has passed and the meat is ready, since it has become soft and the sauce has become thick. The Pörkölt with pork is served with pasta but I advise you to try the Hungarian variant of carbohydrate which is dumplings. They are easy to cook. You need to take eggs, flour and some salt, mix it, make balls from it and boil them. Our Pörkölt is ready. It is one of the most traditional Hungarian dishes.

 

Istvan Plotar said that a person, who has excellent taste pays a lot of attention not just to the quantity but also to the quality of the food. A good taste has it it’s features just like colour or sound.

 

ISTVAN PLOTAR, CHEF

I suggest that you prepare a biscuit and chocolate dessert with whipped cream. It is a very simple desert. It is necessary to bake vanilla and chocolate biscuits and add some vanilla and chocolate sauce. Then you need to saturate the biscuits with the sauce and put them on a plate using a spoon. Finally, it is necessary to sprinkle them with cognac, add nuts and whipped cream.

 

Hungarian people believe that it is necessary to eat tasty and hearty meals. Hungarian people have always valued high quality food. You have been watching the national cuisine programme.

 

RECIPE:

700 gr. of pork

250 gr. of onions

Red paprika to taste

160 gr. of sweet pepper

120 gr. of tomatoes

15 gr. of garlic

½ glass of water

Caraway to taste

Salt to taste