or Hungarian pancakes stuffed with chicken meat stew
It mixed from two different dishes, the pancake and the Pörkölt. It is usually a starter dish but for me not... if it is on a menu it is enough for me just bring me some more!
One of my childhood favourite was "Lottie and Lisa" from Erich Kästner. Lisa lives with her father in Vienna and she just loves stuffed pancakes:
"-And you'll have some wonderful meals at the Imperial. Daddy's always so pleased when I eat a lot.
-What a pity stuffed pancakes are your favorite dish, complained Lottie. Well, it can't be helped. But I'd much rather have veal cutlet or goulash."
-If you eat three pancakes the first day, or four or five, you can say you've had enough to last you the rest of your life, suggested Lisa.
-Yes, I might do that, answered her sister. But the very thought of five pancakes made her stomach turn over."
I think I just never have this feeling. Haha
Because of paprika this dish is also very well known among the national ones, although it's only about a 60 years old recipe. The title is false too, the dish never "saw" the Hortobágy at all [Hungarian Great Plain]. On the Brussels World's Fair in 1958 a Hungarian shef made this dish for the first time as a marketing trick. I think he just didn't know yet what wonder he created.
The other version of the legend that it is made for the first time in The Grand Hotel Aranybika [golden bull] at Debrecen. [1]
[1] Hungarian Electronic Library
The other version of the legend that it is made for the first time in The Grand Hotel Aranybika [golden bull] at Debrecen. [1]
[1] Hungarian Electronic Library
Hungarian Thin Pancakes [as I make it]
You Will Need
290 g flour
290 g flour
2 eggs
5 dl milk
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
a glug sunflower oil
oil for frying
5 dl milk
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
a glug sunflower oil
oil for frying
Mix the ingredients in a bowl and whisk it to a smooth butter. Heat a medium - nonstick - skillet [or crêpes pan] over medium heat, lightly brush with oil. Add 2 small ladles of batter, swirl the skillet to coat the bottom with a
thin layer of the batter. Cook until set on top and lightly browned
around the edge. Gently lift and flip the pancake
with a rubber spatula, cook until just browned on the other side. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining
batter... It makes about 8-9 pancakes.
My filling is a basic Hungarian chicken meat stew or Chicken Pörkölt [family version]
My filling is a basic Hungarian chicken meat stew or Chicken Pörkölt [family version]
You will need
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion [peeled and diced]
2 tablespoons ground Hungarian paprika [Hot or not it's up to your taste. We have many variations from hot to sweet paprika and we usually mark them by strongness: strong/hottest=csípős or erős, mild hot and sweet=csípős csemege, semi sweet=csemege, Noble sweet="Édesnemes" labels on the packages. Best is the Kalocsai and Szegedi brands.] [2]
about 30 dkg chicken breast meat [cut into small, bite-size pieces]
a pinch of salt
a pinch of pepper
1 tomato [cut into circles]
1 yellow bell pepper [cut into circles]
1-2 cloves of garlic [pressed]
1-2 cloves of garlic [pressed]
about 5 dl cold water [2]
3/4 teaspoon of salt [to the stew] [2]
1/4 teaspoon ground caraway seed
Method to make it
3/4 teaspoon of salt [to the stew] [2]
1/4 teaspoon ground caraway seed
Method to make it
In a medium-sized pot
warm the oil on low heat and saute the onion until it soft and
translucent. Add the meat and
sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir it frequently and braise it until it pale white.
Add the ground paprika and a sprinkle of water as well,
because paprika can burn easily so stir it continuosly! Then add the tomato, the yellow bell pepper, the pressed garlic, the ground caraway seed, the salt and the water. Stir it a little. Don't put the lid on and cook the stew on low heat about 50 minutes or till the meat is tender enough. It can be a little bit overcooked due to this time this will be the pancake filling.
[2] Traditionally this Pörkölt recipe requires only about 3 dl water, lesser salt and 1 tablespoon paprika, but in this case the sauce of the Pörkölt will be the sauce of the Hortobágy Pancakes.
[2] Traditionally this Pörkölt recipe requires only about 3 dl water, lesser salt and 1 tablespoon paprika, but in this case the sauce of the Pörkölt will be the sauce of the Hortobágy Pancakes.
Hortobágy Pancakes [family version]
After the stew is ready separate the meat+vegetables from the pot [only sauce remains in the pot] into a bowl with a slotted spoon. Then mix to smooth with the helping of an imersion blender. Set aside.
Mix 1 tablespoons of tejföl/sour cream, 2 level tablespoons of flour and 3-4 tablespoons of Pörkölt sauce in a small bowl with a hand whisker. Need a smooth texture. Put the pot back to the stove on low heat and bring the sauce to boil again. Then with the hand whisker stir the soup; with your other hand pour this sour cream mixture into the sauce little by little, but stir it constantly! [This method is the 'habarás'.] At the end you need to get a smooth texture without clotty flour parts. Now... mine is always clotty of course, so after I whisk together the mixture and the sauce I just pour all in the immersion blender bowl and mix it to smooth[er]. If the minced meat is saltless to you then salt it to your taste and do the same with the sauce as well.
Finally fill the pancakes with the meat mince and roll up or shape a triangle like I do and put them on a plate. Pour some sauce onto the pancakes and a few drops of sour cream as well for decoration.
After the stew is ready separate the meat+vegetables from the pot [only sauce remains in the pot] into a bowl with a slotted spoon. Then mix to smooth with the helping of an imersion blender. Set aside.
Mix 1 tablespoons of tejföl/sour cream, 2 level tablespoons of flour and 3-4 tablespoons of Pörkölt sauce in a small bowl with a hand whisker. Need a smooth texture. Put the pot back to the stove on low heat and bring the sauce to boil again. Then with the hand whisker stir the soup; with your other hand pour this sour cream mixture into the sauce little by little, but stir it constantly! [This method is the 'habarás'.] At the end you need to get a smooth texture without clotty flour parts. Now... mine is always clotty of course, so after I whisk together the mixture and the sauce I just pour all in the immersion blender bowl and mix it to smooth[er]. If the minced meat is saltless to you then salt it to your taste and do the same with the sauce as well.
Finally fill the pancakes with the meat mince and roll up or shape a triangle like I do and put them on a plate. Pour some sauce onto the pancakes and a few drops of sour cream as well for decoration.
Instead of chicken breast use 35-40 dkg ground pork meat, but the rest of the ingredients and all the method is the same.
In restaurants they usually use pork meat, but I rearly eat pork so I usually make Hortobágyi from chicken.
Shortly about Pörkölt
The dish got the name after a meat roasting method we use, the 'pörkölés', a special kind of roasting so the meat will have a unique taste. It is an ancient cooking method what our ancestors used as well. The dish - along with Goulash - was also a common food among herdsmen in the Hungarian Great Plain since the 17th century.
Enjoy it!/Jó étvágyat! ✌
Yesterday was our biggest celebration, the St. Stephen's Day or the celebration of the Foundation of the Hungarian State [which was not on this very day of course, it's just symbolical]. From all the national holidays this is the only one I can be happy. The others are very sad commemorations about political executions, lost battles, lost freedom... etc. Our history was more or less tragic. We had some victorius battles but we've just got too many invaders and political pressures along the centuries. And that is that. But 20th August is about being proud of what we are after more than 1000 years and it's also the official jubilee of the canonization of our first king Stephen I.
I usually I spend this holiday at Budapest, where all the national museums are free to visit, there are gastronomic fairs, concerts [We have great rock opera to this occasion.], historic performances not to mention the big firework punctually at 9 p.m. But this year I just celebrated at home with my little Aquamarine but I just wanted to cook something delicious. I think this dish was the best choice for the day with a little "force" of course...
About the rock opera, if you want to watch it, here is with English subtitle. It was performed for the first time at Királydomb, Budapest on 20th August in 1983 [900th jubilee of Stephen's canonization]. It is about the enthronement of Stephen and the political problems of his early rulership, the founding of the state with the "helping" of the Roman Church, the executions of his pagan enemies and so on. Really good music and its lyrics is always current at every era [politically]: "Was, will be, above, but beneath, for all ages have a system, but his [the human] system yes. Feeble the man watches where may get it better away himself... Feeble the man onto everything capable for the comfort..."
I usually I spend this holiday at Budapest, where all the national museums are free to visit, there are gastronomic fairs, concerts [We have great rock opera to this occasion.], historic performances not to mention the big firework punctually at 9 p.m. But this year I just celebrated at home with my little Aquamarine but I just wanted to cook something delicious. I think this dish was the best choice for the day with a little "force" of course...
Now, as once well said: "Vive the Hungarian Freedom and Nation!"
Cheers to the ancestors! ✌
[The song is the main point, not the video. It mixed from a new folk style song by Zoltán Kodály and old soldier songs from the XIX. century where we had to fight for our freedom
against the Habsburg Monarchy ones and for all. We lost of course...]
against the Habsburg Monarchy ones and for all. We lost of course...]
Our most well known folk song [even Freddy Mercury sang it once!]
We lost our freedom many times along the centuries
so most of our folk song is about a freely flying little bird...
