Holiday Menu

It's unbelievable how a year can passes so fast. Especially for me who is born in January… times go too fast… Anyway it's Christmas time again and although nowadays my current my mood is rather 'halloween' I like this and that about Christmas. First of all I would be very ungrateful to my parents if I would say I don't care about at all. In my childhood we lived a very modest life [not but that I would have a tonnes of money now…]; but despite the everyday financial problems we always had delicious things on the holiday table, a beautiful tree, presents I dreamed of and a small but - at least - a normal and loving family around me. I mean normal: dad and mom and that was all; we never invited relatives onto Christmas due to almost all my relatives are a big#@&f.$… . Better to not write down my honest opinion about them… and they wonder why am I not into the family matters... ~bah humbug There are some nice and normal people in the family but of course they are living too far to meet them or some live outside of Hungary like my French cousin with my adorable nephews whom I can only see once a year although they are the only ones I could see everyday... :((((((

When I was a child magic could find me anywhere around Christmas, now if I want a little magic in my life I have to search for it. Adulthood…
So, what I like about Christmas is of course the Main Course… besides I like some albums and movies, but - I'm sorry - but definitely not the typical kitchy American 'Santa+elf+hohoho+Vince Vaughn+other odd funny faces' comedies what gives me the creeps... I rather prefer the T.Nightmare B.C. or other classic animations or a family movie with adorable animals and beautiful Winter landscapes. Or last year I saw the Krampus movie and liked it, what is not a very festive movie either Haha but at least was funny to me…
As a Winter-born girl "I'm just dreaming of a white Christmas just like the ones I used to know" when I was a child, but thanks to climate-change this will remain a dream in the future too. We are happy if we see some snow till April… but not in April as four years ago on Easter…

As in every family we also have our own holiday menu; leastwise we had the same in the past 10 years for sure. I really can't remember what was on the table before, except one, Fisherman's soup, due to Hungarians usually eat something fishy on Christmas, so we always had this great soup. If you missed the last year's post, here you can read about the soup and other things around a Hungarian Christmas.

With my father's death I changed this or that on the family traditions, because almost everything reminded me for the old – and happy - Christmases what was a torture to endure on the first Holiday without him. So I bought new ornaments for the family tree and put the old ones in a box and I took down in the cellar for good...

The only thing I couldn't change at all [I didn't have the heart], the menu of the Evening; what usually is:
1. Fisherman's soup á la Szeged [or á la Dad, because I have his recipe version, what is more than great!]
2. My thing the Breaded Turkey-breast with smoked cheese and dried plum
3. Dessert A: My mom's best, the Habtekercs, what is a meringue roll, half part baked meringue and half part sweet pastry with walnut and much confectionery sugar [we use powdered birch sugar now] on top ~Yummy

4. Dessert B: Sweet Chestnut Puree [Gesztenyepüré] with preserved cherry, rum and whipped cream on top
5. Homemade mulled wine [with cardamom, allspice, orange zest and black peppercorn]

On the third day of the holiday [26. I call it third day, because Hungarian Christmas starts with the evening of 24, I mean presents and everything] we usually have stuffed chicken with apples and other goodies, but in this year I want to try out something else, but also something traditional Hungarian. I thought about making Harcsapaprikás [Catfish Paprikash] what they usually serve with Túrós Csusza [Hungarian pasta dish with túró/cottage cheese, sour cream and fried bacon on top]. Not another Hungarian 'low-calorie meal' for sure… but once or twice a year I don't care. I eat vegetable dishes and live mostly meatless on the average weekdays anyway so I have the balance. :)

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Here is my turkey recipe, if you are interested in or I don't know, just for. Last year I posted the Fisherman's soup so I thought I will post this dish this time, what is not traditional Hungarian but nevermind... Haha

Breaded Turkey-breast Rolls With Smoked Cheese And Dried Plum

You'll need
3/4 pack dried plums [1 pack=200 g]
one big pinch of ground cloves
3 dl good quality sweet red wine [of your taste]
grated smoked cheese [in Hungary the best choice is the Karaván Sajt]
6 turkey breast fillets
salt
ground pepper
wheat flour
3 eggs
bread crumbs
about 3 dl sunflower oil for frying

Method to make it
Tenderize the turkey fillets with a mallet. Salt and pepper them then put aside.

Set a small cooking pot and pour the wine into it. Add the dried plum and start to boil it. When the wine is boiling turn the heat to the lowest. Add the cloves. Cook the plums till they soaked up all the wine and became soft. If the wine gone but the plums are not soft enough add some more wine.
Take a meat. Pour grated cheese on its surface, then grease it with the spicy plums. Carefully roll up the meat, then bind it with a string or use toothpicks to secure the roll. Repeat this with the other 5 fillets.

Set 3 deep plates. Pour flour into the first, break 3 eggs into the second [and scrumbled them with a fork] and finally pour bread crumbs into the last plate.
Carefully take a meat roll with your hands and dip it into the flour, then in the egg and finally the breadcrumb. Cover the meat rolls well.

In a deeper frying pan heat the oil. When its hot enough turn the heat to the lowest. Fry the meat rolls on every side till the breadcrumb is golden brown.

Then dip the rolls well with a paper towel. Serve the rolls cut into half and with mashed potato [seasoned with ground mace].

I know I know I eat evertyhing with mashed potato, but that is my weakness!

Enjoy it!/Jó étvágyat!

[There are many nice covers on this guy's site]

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Oh and I placed the links of my websites below [end of the blog], so you can watch all my works if you are interested in and have some time!

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I wish to you Happy Holidays [or at least have peaceful days]!/Kellemes Ünnepeket! ✌

Hungarian Easter: The Saturday Dinner And Symbols

The today known Easter celebrated since the III. century, in Hungary we celebrate since the XI. century, punctually since 1092, about 30 years after the death of our first king Stephen I. 

Although the Church and the religious people gave Christian meanings to almost every Easter symbols, most of them came from ancient pagan cultures anyway, because the celebration of the beginning of Spring [celebrating Spring equinox] is more ancient than Christianity. The following Sunday after the first full moon after Spring equinox was the celebration of Ostara, goddess of the Spring in the ancient German culture. The name 'Easter' also came from the German word 'Ostern' after the Goddess Ostara/Ostra.

She was the goddess of fertility, always imaged with Spring flowers, tendrils, eggs in her hand, bunnies at her feet, birds around her and floral tribute on her head. She symbolized the revival of nature and men.

We call this holiday Húsvét. The word 'húsvét' is a mosaic-word and has liturgical meaning only.
In the Hungarian folklore too the main symbols are the egg and the bunnies. Beside these there are baby chicks and the barka/gosling. We still decorate our Easter table with gosling and painted eggs, well leastwise the tradition keepers.

The egg 

The most ancient symbol of fertility. It symbolizes the mother womb or the universe, the mystery of lifeless become living. The main symbol of Easter. Long tradition is to paint and decorate eggs. The most popular is the red egg. The red as color is also a magical symbol. They believed the red is some protecting color. Someones believed it symbolizes Christ's blood or like the red egg Christ's heart [in cubist form... Hahaha Sorry.].

The egg painting as tradition remained in Eastern-Europe firstly. It's a very common tradition still today. I painted eggs too when I was a kid. I loved it. I don't make nowadays because we have some folk eggs for the occasion to decorate with. We bought them in Tihany, where old ladies in folk dresses make the most beautiful ones.

In Hungary every ethnical group has its own egg decoration technic and pattern.
The most popular one is drawing the pattern with candle wax on the egg, then paint the egg with color you want and the wax drawing just appear. This technic is called tojásírás/eggwriting [above, the last green one]. The fully decorated egg called hímestojás [above, the first one for example]. 

In the old times they used various vegetables or herbs to get paint. They cooked the herbs or vegetables till they let out all their colors, then cooked the egg in that painted water till the egg became the current colored:
Beetroot - Reddish purple
Red onion-skin - Purple
Onion-skin – Reddish brown
Coffee bean – Deep brown
Black tea – Deep brown
Red cabbage – Blue
Turmeric – Yellow
Orange and lemon – Light yellow
Rosehip – Pink
Spinach – Green
Ground paprika – Orange

After Winter the first eggs meant the coming of Spring, so probably that was the reason to decorate eggs out of happyness.
They also used eggs to perdict the future. They poured an egg in a glass full of water on Good Friday and the figure shown the next year's crops. [I can't imagine how they could see something else than a strange surreal blob in a water…] Girls put the egg-shells onto the doorstep to dream that night what will be their future husbands' occupation [another mystery…].

Rabbits 

The bunny wo brings painted eggs is a more complicated symbol and absolute has nothing to do with Christianity. Bunnies always symbolized fertility. Since they are nocturnal animals, they often refer them with the moon, which is also the symbol of fertility, not to mention the strange rabbit figure on the surface of the moon.
The connection between the rabbit and the egg is origined from the German mythology. Goddess Ostara has a magical bird once, who layed colored eggs. One day the goddess out of anger/or in other stories to amuse the children she turned the bird into rabbit... So the big secret revealed!

The barka/gosling [but not that odd Ryan guy…]
It has many names. Some cultures call it kitty-cat because of the fluffy round crops. We call it leányfűz/maiden-willows or pálmafűz/palm-willows or simply gosling-tree.
In the old times people ascribed to the gosling healing power. If they spread that into the family fireplace they believed that would protect the house from troubles and grief. Or they used to eat it as medicine against sore throat.

In Christianity it connects to Palm Sunday [When Jesus arrived into Jerusalem the people greeted him with palm-branches.]. But instead of palm [due to we haven't any here.. Haha], Hungarians replaced it with gosling as the symbol of the first crops of the early Spring.

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As I wrote about the traditional Hungarian Christmas dinner table, our Easter dinner table is the same, we have particular dishes to this occasion as well.
The two most basic foods are the Húsvéti sonka/Easter ham, which is a special marinated, smoked whole pork leg and the Fonott kalács/Twisted bun, which is a kind of sweet bread. Twisted bun is very common, so you can buy it through the year. I love it either with marmalade or as sandwich with butter and salami...
The beliefs of Easter ham are rather magical than sacralic, but despite this the most significant Easter food for a very long time. Always was the main dish among agricultural people along the centuries...

The Eastern basket
This used to be a popular tradition in the countyside.
They put every symbolic Easter foods tastily in a big basket and after the Easter mass the priest blessed it. Then the family went home and ate the blessed Easter meal together. You can see some beautiful hand-embroidered tablecloths in the Ethnographic Museum at Budapest. They used those tablecloths to cover the baskets. 

The content of the baskets were variant by ethnical regions and groups, but the ham, egg and twisted bun were usually there.
It was a habit to hang the blessed ham onto a fruit tree, to bring them good crops and fruits, and they fed the hens with leftover breadcrumbs to lay much eggs.

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My dad used to buy Easter ham, but since he passed we don't buy, because we are not very into porky things [except bacon...]. I don't know how it made. But they usually eat the ham with horseradish cream/or the Hungarian version is more like some kind of chutney.
I never make Twisted bun neither, I buy it. Next to our house there is a very good bakery, they never use additives or other sh♥♥♥y things and their buns are very tasty, I wouldn't make better at home. 

Beside these usually there are boiled eggs, pogácsas and various fresh vegetables on the tables, such as radish, horseradish, yellow pepper, leek, red onion, spring onion.. etc.
Some modern Easter dishes are Stuffed egg [with sausage, boiled egg yolk and herbs or with ham and horseradish], Carrot cake, Cottage cheese cake, Bear leek and ham filled sweet bun/bread, Ham broth, Lamb pörkölt… etc.

Sadly or not we broke the tradition too.
Our Easter dinner is usually homemade duck liver pate with radish, apple, mango chutney, baguette and fresh corn salad.

Happy Easter!/Kellemes Húsvétot! ✌