Happy New Year, friends!
As fondly and frequently as we speak about our Dartmap Dining experiences, we realized recently that we had just stopped making the time for it.
Our goal for the first year of this new decade is to attempt a new adventure each month. So far, so good.
We threw our dart, and it landed in Keszthely, Hungary. It's an adorable little town of twenty-thousand residents, right on Lake Balaton. (Explore it here: Keszthely Street View)
Rather than trying to pinpoint something specific to the town, we set our sights on the country's cuisine, in general.
We found this both exciting and intriguing, as, although I have roots from this part of the world only a few generations back, we had no idea what kind of food to expect. Well, goulash... we expected goulash.
What we found, however, is that it was actually a challenge to narrow down the options that Hungary had to offer, because everything sounded so delicious.
Yes, goulash was an option. A good option. But, honestly, it sounded extremely similar to a soup that I already make a few times each year when the weather is cold, so we moved on.
Hungary offers an array of cheese, paprika, and carb-laden delights in their traditional foods - slightly surprising for a country whose soda sales are on the decline due to health concerns, but I suppose one has to indulge from time to time. They often use a special cheese called turo that is like a dry curd cottage cheese. We found that ingredient challenging to find here, so we reluctantly eliminated the noodles piled with bacon and turo.
According to my scant research, Hungarians drink sparkling mineral water or German beer, mostly, and since I abhor sparkling mineral water, we opted for a German Beer: Pauliner Double Bock. It was quite enjoyable.
As fondly and frequently as we speak about our Dartmap Dining experiences, we realized recently that we had just stopped making the time for it.
Our goal for the first year of this new decade is to attempt a new adventure each month. So far, so good.
We threw our dart, and it landed in Keszthely, Hungary. It's an adorable little town of twenty-thousand residents, right on Lake Balaton. (Explore it here: Keszthely Street View)
Rather than trying to pinpoint something specific to the town, we set our sights on the country's cuisine, in general.
We found this both exciting and intriguing, as, although I have roots from this part of the world only a few generations back, we had no idea what kind of food to expect. Well, goulash... we expected goulash.
What we found, however, is that it was actually a challenge to narrow down the options that Hungary had to offer, because everything sounded so delicious.
Yes, goulash was an option. A good option. But, honestly, it sounded extremely similar to a soup that I already make a few times each year when the weather is cold, so we moved on.
Hungary offers an array of cheese, paprika, and carb-laden delights in their traditional foods - slightly surprising for a country whose soda sales are on the decline due to health concerns, but I suppose one has to indulge from time to time. They often use a special cheese called turo that is like a dry curd cottage cheese. We found that ingredient challenging to find here, so we reluctantly eliminated the noodles piled with bacon and turo.
The menu we came up with is doubtfully ever all on a single table, but we wanted to sample a little of everything we could, even if we weren't entirely sure how to pronounce them all:
Pogasca - Flaky, crunchy cheese biscuits - usually an appetizer
Pogasca - Flaky, crunchy cheese biscuits - usually an appetizer
Sour Cherry Soup - a delicious cold soup - a little sweet and a little sour
Langos - Fried dough with garlic, sour cream, and cheese atop
Langos - Fried dough with garlic, sour cream, and cheese atop
Chicken Paprikash with Nokedli - Chicken in a cream sauce with tons of delicious paprika and little homemade dumplings
Dobos Torte - an elegant torte with a crunchy caramel layer that proves both decorative and decadent
We definitely did not know what we were doing, and would do some things differently next time, but I will make note of our learned lessons as I go. It was a lot of work, because we made a lot of food, so buckle up. (Recipes linked above each photo below.)
These were good. But... I am pretty sure we did something wrong. We halved the recipe, and our dough did not rise at all, so ours turned out pretty dense. That said, they were still tasty, and we would make them again, hoping that they are a little lighter if the dough rises as expected.
We have never eaten anything like this, and we 100% will make it again. The kids liked it okay; I think the concept was the biggest block for them, but the adults thought it was divine, and would be a lovely summer dinner with a light salad. We used frozen sour cherries with this, and that worked out just fine. It was easy to make, and since it needs to be chilled, you can, and should, make it ahead of time, then just pull it out of the fridge to serve.
The Langos was the clear favorite of all our Hungarian offerings. I mean - it's fried dough with garlicky sour cream and cheese, so, yeah. Note - There was no recipe for the garlicky sour cream, so I went OVERBOARD on the garlic, and that was a mistake I won't make again. Four cloves of garlic in 8 ounces of sour cream was, well, a mistake.
Do not do.
Turn back.
Probably one clove would do it.
Turn back.
Probably one clove would do it.
The Chicken Paprikash was fine. We would eat it again, but probably only if someone else made it. It wasn't particularly hard, but I think we could get more payoff in other chicken dishes. Of course now, I have this tin of beautiful Hungarian Paprika, so I may be eating my words along with another helping of Chicken Paprikash.
The Nokedli are the one thing we definitely won't make again unless we are assigned to it. The dough was *sticky.* It was practically paste, and although these were somewhat tasty, the stress of trying to get the sticky dough spooned off in little globs into boiling water led to some splashing and yelling and, well, it was a whole scene that we don't necessarily need to repeat. If you DO decide on this particular adventure, two notes: 1. Oil your hands before you work with the dough. Otherwise, it will become part of you - forever. 2. Use a metal spoon when you drop the tiny dumplings into the boiling water, so you can let the water do the work of getting the dough off of it for you.
The Nokedli are the one thing we definitely won't make again unless we are assigned to it. The dough was *sticky.* It was practically paste, and although these were somewhat tasty, the stress of trying to get the sticky dough spooned off in little globs into boiling water led to some splashing and yelling and, well, it was a whole scene that we don't necessarily need to repeat. If you DO decide on this particular adventure, two notes: 1. Oil your hands before you work with the dough. Otherwise, it will become part of you - forever. 2. Use a metal spoon when you drop the tiny dumplings into the boiling water, so you can let the water do the work of getting the dough off of it for you.
This was good, but should have turned out better. Part of the issue was our lack of experience, but we think the recipe was partly to blame. The layers should have been thicker, and there just wasn't enough batter to make the number of layers with the amount of batter suggested per layer. If you make this, double the recipe.
The batter is thick and we would have smoothed them out better, to ensure a prettier slice. Also, I figured out too late to place the buttercream supports for the caramel layer, toward the bottom of the angle, rather than out toward the standing end. I know that should be some basic geometry, but we didn't get to the icing 'til late, so I blame exhaustion.
The presentation is stunning though, and I'd be willing to buy a second springform pan to make this a little easier to make again. Only having one springform made this torte a chore to make, but two would make it a faster, far-less exhausting prospect.
The Caramel layer is quite crunchy, and makes this a bit awkward to eat, but truly, it's worth it.
Note - this recipe does not come with a chocolate buttercream recipe, so we used this one, which will be our new go-to: Chocolate Buttercream
According to my scant research, Hungarians drink sparkling mineral water or German beer, mostly, and since I abhor sparkling mineral water, we opted for a German Beer: Pauliner Double Bock. It was quite enjoyable.
And that's it. It definitely broke our routine, gave us a project, and kept us busy for the weekend. It was an added bonus that we got a little connection to my roots that we hadn't explored before.
Assuming we can stick to our plan, we will be back in February!
Assuming we can stick to our plan, we will be back in February!
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