Sometimes it is really hard to choose what to make when I decide on a country, and sometimes the answer comes easily once I start looking into a country's traditional cuisine. This weekend, I had decided to do Hungary, and I was really torn about what to choose. The first thoughts that came to mind were goulash, or chicken paprikas. After a bit of research, I discovered that Hungary's national dish is actually pörkölt, a stew, and not either of my first two ideas. Well, that clearly had to be on my menu. I also wanted to choose a salad to accompany the meal, so I made an uborka salata, a cucumber salad. Once again, our local MLCC offered a selection of beverages from my chosen country, and I selected a dry red, Szekszárdi Vörös Kékfrankos.
Comments and observations - I found the stew to be a very simple dish, with a milder flavour than I had expected. The cucumber salad was quite similar to a dish I have grown up with (and one that I love), consisting essentially of sliced cucumbers in vinegar. The wine was pleasant enough, but I think I wasn't completely satisfied with it because I didn't have much time to choose (my own fault for going to the liquor store on a Saturday afternoon a week before christmas).
One thing that I have noticed is that many of the national dishes are simple dishes, hearty meals with basic, commonplace ingredients. Makes sense, really, when you think about it - for a dish to become synonymous with a country, it would generally be made by a majority of the population or as a regular staple. so the ingredients would need to be readily available and the recipe not too complex or time-consuming. Also, in Europe certainly, there are many similarities between recipes and it is sometimes hard to find a recipe from the country of origin for a particular dish. Again, not surprising, but simply an observation about what I am encountering on my cooking tour of the world.
Jó étvágyat kivánok
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