What is the good in the Summer?
For me not much. I have serious allergy,
my skin is too sensitive and I prefer pale skin more, I hate tanning. I rarely
go to the Lake Balaton because I feel myself unconfortable in swimsuit and my
allergy at the beach is more annoying than in town. And I rarely travel,
especially to abroad because of money…
There are only two good things in Summer
for me. First my dear French cousin comes to Hungary in every July with her adorable
family and we rejoice and we eat and we rejoice and go to the Balaton to eat [and
swim if we have time] for a month. The second is the typical Summer dishes with
various fresh salads…
I always envied those who has even just
a tiny garden to have a barbecue or grill party with friends. Instead we only
have a tiny kitchen… BUT that doesn't mean I can't make some yumminess in a
simple oven. Only the delicious smoky
taste and the 'listening the birds and watching the mackerel-sky
while the food is roasting' feeling what I miss…
The popular
grill dish, the skewered
meat is very beloved in Hungary as well. But as every other country we like this
in our own way too. We call it saslik, although our is a little bit different
than the Eastern-European or Caucasian 'shashlik'. We use different spices for
the marinade. We like to eat it with dill pickles
or I more prefer
the fresh salad.
Here is my saslik from yesterday
Hungarians usually use pork meat for saslik [rarely
chicken or turkey meat, even more rarely lamb].
I made it from pork leg [I eat very few pork meat, but some Hungarian specialities require pork instead of white or red meat].
The meat was marinated overnight in sunflower oil [just
in a little oil, not swimming in it], rosemary, marjoram, salt and pepper. They use a little vinegar
as well, but I hate the taste and the smell of it. Commonly used spices are the
parsley, thyme, bay leaf and the cumin as well. Paprika only
at the end when the dish is ready, because that can easily burn.
Then I skewered on the stick some Kolozsvári smoked bacon
[Best!], red onion, potato [not pre-cooked] and some garlic too. The smoked bacon would be about 1 cm wide. Other
things what we like on a stick are the cherry tomato, the button mushroom, the yellow
bell pepper, the cucumber, the zucchini even the apple. Or what we
want. Nowadays Hungarians like to use at saslik the olive oil as well as the
classic Mediterranean spices such as the basil and the oregano.
The salad is from iceberg
lettuce, yellow bell pepper and red onion. For the first time I made
the 'Thousand Island' dressing at home by this good recipe.
If you have only bacon and onion at home to grill,
don't worry. This called 'szalonnasütés' [simply means 'bacon roasting'] and it's a common pastime
in Hungary on picnics after hiking or a simple trip in the nearby forest or at the campfire. I
loved it when I was little. ~Mmm sitting on a Summer evening by the fire with bacon and onion on a wooden stick I found in the forest. You are listening the crackling fire,
the sizzling bacon and the owls or other animals [beside the annoying quarrelling members...]. When
the bacon is done you are dripping the grease onto a slice of bread and eat it with the
onion. I dreamed this or it happened once... Nowadays I skip this kind of enjoyment.
I'm not go into the woods at the evening, especially alone... and if I eat only bacon and onion without anything, that cause me painful reflux... ~Yeehaw.
Good day!/Szép napot! ✌
