Hungary -- Rhapsodic recipes

I provided some Hungarian Jewish recipes to go with my JTA story last week on Jewish eating in Budapest. They include my friend Antonia Szenthe's spinach and fish casserole and Andras Singer's recipe for solet (cholent), as served at his restaurant Fulemule.

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

BUDAPEST -- Antonia Szenthe likes to read Jewish cookbooks such as "Spicy Eszter" Bodrogi's "Spice and Soul: Jewish Cooking Here and Now" and adapt the recipes to her family's taste. She also enjoys experimenting to adapt pork-laden traditional Hungarian recipes to kosher style.

"Instead of bacon or smoked pork, I'll use smoked goose leg," she says.

One of Szenthe's favorite main dishes is baked fish and spinach. She varies the quantities to taste.

BAKED FISH AND SPINACH

Ingredients:

Fillets of cod, or some other saltwater fish (enough for 4 people)

Just over 1 pound frozen spinach (or better, fresh spinach leaves)

About 10 ounces fresh mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic

About 1 1/2 tablespoons) butter for the sauce, plus butter to saute the mushrooms

1 cup and a bit milk -- or cream, if you do not mind the calories

2 tablespoons flour

Half a lemon

Grated Parmesan cheese

Grated nutmeg

Vegetable stock cube or powder, without MSG

Freshly ground pepper (preferably 4 colored peppercorns)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or "moderate"). Arrange the fish fillets in an oven-proof, buttered pan, grind pepper and squeeze half a lemon on them. Thaw the spinach, or wash the fresh spinach and simmer it on a slow flame until soft. Wash and chop the mushrooms, saute them on high flame in butter.

Prepare the sauce: Melt the butter, mix it with the flour and add the cold milk. Season with plenty of ground pepper, vegetable stock or soup powder, ground nutmeg and mashed garlic. Cook it on slow flame, constantly stirring with a whisk, until it thickens. The sauce should be overly seasoned, as the spinach, the mushrooms and the fish absorb a lot of flavor.

Layer the spinach and the mushrooms on the fish fillets, pour on the sauce and grate plenty of Parmesan cheese on the top.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until the cheese on top becomes a nice golden brown.

SOLET

Everyone has his or her own solet (cholent) recipe, and family recipes are passed down from generation to generation. Some folks like dark beans, some like white beans and others, like me, prefer to mix them. All agree that for a good solet you need both smoked and regular meat.

Classic solet is baked for hours in an oven. Traditionally it was put in a sealed oven Friday before Shabbat fell to be ready to eat on

Saturday. But you can also prepare it on top of the stove.

For Facebook users, there is a solet interest group, which includes a recipe that uses four types of meat -- including ham! See www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132617699568&v=info.

Andras Singer serves six types of solet at his Fulemule restaurant: solet served with eggs, with goose leg, with smoked meat and eggs, with goose liver and onion, with mixed meats and a non-traditional-sounding Mexican solet with chili.

He provided this basic recipe, which of course can be varied to suit individual taste.

Ingredients:

About 2 cups dried beans (Singer prefers dark beans)

1 large onion, chopped

4 tablespoons goose, duck or chicken fat (schmaltz is recommended, but you can substitute cooking oil if you wish a lighter taste)

Meat:

Singer's basic recipe calls for 1 1/2 pounds smoked beef brisket plus poultry legs -- 1 or 2 turkey legs, or 2 goose or duck

legs. But you can vary this to taste. Just make sure that you use at least 2 types of meat, and that one of them is smoked -- in Hungary it is easy to get smoked turkey or goose legs.

6 eggs in their shells, washed (Note: make sure that the eggs are fresh, as one bad egg could ruin the dish. Some people recommend cooking the eggs separately; others leave them out entirely.)

1 cup pearl barley, washed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic, or to taste

About 2 teaspoons powdered mild Hungarian paprika (or to taste)

Preparation:

Rinse the beans and soak them overnight. Preheat the oven to 275. While the oven is heating, saute the onions in 2 tablespoons of the fat until they become soft, using a very large flameproof baking dish, casserole or oven-proof pot. Stir about half of the drained beans into the onions. Add the meat, the eggs in their shell (see note above) and the barley. Cover with the remaining half of beans. Add salt, pepper, garlic and paprika, to taste, plus the remaining 2 tablespoons of fat or oil. Cover everything with water.

Cover the casserole tightly, place in the oven, and cook for 6 to 7 hours until the beans are very tender. (Check the solet after 4 or 5 hours and, if needed, add hot water.) When the solet is done, turn off the heat, but leave the solet in the cooling oven for another 2 or 3 hours. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

To serve, shell the eggs and quarter them. (Some people prefer to leave them whole or slice them.) Slice the brisket and remove the poultry meat from the bones. (Some people prefer to leave the poultry legs intact.)

SPICY ESZTER

"Spicy Eszter" Bodrogi is an influential Jewish food writer whose cookbook "Spice and Soul: Jewish Cooking Here and Now" and blog fuszereslelek.hu/ have had a powerful impact on the Jewish culinary lifestyle of today's younger generation of Jews in Hungary.

Her recipes, all kosher or kosher style, center on fresh ingredients and are elegant and often simple to prepare. Both her blog and her book also provide recipes for traditional foods and holiday fare, such as hamentaschen and matza balls. Hungarian speakers will find a treasure trove of gastronomic delight. Unfortunately, neither the blog nor the book is (yet) translated into English.

Poland -- Warsaw Jewish Book Fair coming up

The Jewish festival season is at hand..... most of my readers will know about the "big one" -- the Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow, at the end of June/beginning of July, which celebrates its 20th edition this year  -- but there are many other festivals throughout the spring and summer months. I continue to add dates to the list that I post in the sidebar of this blog - click HERE.

Coming up at May 23-26 is the 13th annual "Days of Jewish Books" in Poland, sponsored by Midrasz, the Polish Jewish monthly.

Meanwhile, here's a link to the program of the Krakow Festival of Jewish Culture.

Budapest -- Eating Jewish

 Flodni advertised at Cafe Noe. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Here's a repost of an article I've written on  trends in Jewish eating in Budapest -- mentioning old classics (like the Fulemule restaurant and its six types of solet) as well as nouvelle places such as Koleves and Spinoza.

By Ruth Ellen Gruber (May 12, 2010)

BUDAPEST (JTA) -- Rahel Raj calls herself a 21st-century Yiddishe mama. The daughter of a rabbi and mother of a toddler, she and her family run a pair of popular Budapest bake shops that specialize in Jewish pastries such as flodni, a calorific confection of layered nuts, apple and poppy seeds that is one of the symbols of local Jewish cuisine.

"A modern Yiddishe mama is not someone who sits in a chair and says, 'Eat!,'" said Raj, a slim 29-year-old with long, dark hair. "I like to dress up, I have a profession, I have a baby -- but on Shabbat I serve a four-course Friday-night meal."

Raj is part of a burgeoning Jewish food scene in Budapest that’s making an impact on restaurant menus in the city and on the way Hungarian Jews eat at home. In addition to her pastry business, Raj writes a column for a local Jewish magazine and two years ago anchored a 10-part Jewish cooking series on a Hungarian TV food channel. On the show, Raj prepared dishes with several local Jewish cooks to demonstrate how old-style traditions now coexist with new forms of culinary practice, as Jews use food both to connect with their roots and reflect a contemporary Jewish lifestyle.

One of her guests was Andras Singer, whose award-winning Fulemule restaurant goes heavy on cholesterol-laden recipes handed down from his mother and grandmother. They include stuffed goose neck, chopped liver, spiced goose fat and six types of solet -- the Hungarian version of cholent, the slow-baked dish of beans and meat traditionally served on Shabbat.

But Raj also featured a young Jewish working mom who prefers to feed her family salads and Israeli favorites such as hummus and pita, which have become popular and easily available in Budapest in recent years thanks in part to an Israeli-run chain of hummus bars downtown.

Another guest was the influential Jewish food writer Eszter Bodrogi, who goes by the pen name Spicy Eszter. Bodrogi, who is in her late 30s, has helped spark new trends in Jewish at-home eating with a popular food blog and lavishly illustrated cookbook, "Spice and Soul."
Her message is that contemporary kosher (or kosher style) cooking can be elegant, easy, healthy and fun.
"Things are really different today," Raj said. "We want modern, lighter, quicker versions of the old traditional recipes -- using olive oil, for example, instead of goose fat. Or making gefilte fish with salmon, flavored with orange. Or instead of solet, maybe serving a barley risotto with smoked duck."
 [...]

Read Full Article at JTA web site

The items selling in this shop are Not for us! Chai Leng Park, Butterworth - Penang.

I accidentally discovered this shop during the Qing Ming Festival at Chai Leng Park, Butterworth. Too bad, forgot to take down the shop name...only remember the street name as 'Lebuh Kurau 3'.

It attracted me to stop our car and got down to snap some photos! Because whatever it sell from here are NOT for us! It is for the peoples who pass away!! Yes, "Spirits" exactly!

The shop at Chai Leng Park

Look carefully each item in the photo, most of them made by paper! Haha! It's meant for Chinese praying ceremony.

This is the local culture, they believe 'burn' all these items (during the praying session) to their Love one or relatives who passed away, the 'other side' will receive and they will be Bless. (yeah, I mean from 'Hell') Do you think so? You tell me...

Paper made Heineken Beer

LV Ladies bag

The culture existed since I was a kid. But I never expect you can burn the 'Heineken Beer' and even the 'LV' ladies handbag now! Wah! That must be A drunkard or A person who Loves LV very much before!

I'm really admire their Innovative mindset of business. What do you think?! :)

Beautiful dress for women, but not for us!

I just cannot imagine that...if someone walk in and said : "Boss, why you sell fake or imitation LV bags here??" or maybe someone who drunk and walk in at night : "Boss, give me 6 cans of Heineken!!" That might bring them a tour to Hell for free! Haha!

Poland -- tombstones recovered

The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland reports that more than 60 Jewish tombstones used during the World War II to pave a courtyard of the Gestapo prison in the town of Mogielnica, south of Warsaw, have been discovered, unearthed and secured. After the renovation of the Jewish cemetery in Mogielnica, the stones will be returned to the cemetery grounds

Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat Restaurant at Butterworth, Penang.

Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat Restaurant (N5 26.334 E100 23.200) is located along Jalan Raja Uda of Butterworth. The shop is opposite the Appollo Hawker Center of Jalan Raja Uda. I believe this restaurant is started business not too long ago, it's quite new...

We were having our dinner here on the Qing Ming trip back to Penang.

The restaurant serve two type of steamboat (included the fish), 'Fried Fish Steamboat' and 'Grouper Fish Steamboat'. We took the Grouper Fish Steamboat...

I was surprised when I look into the milky soup! And we Love the tasty soup Very Much!!

Zi Wei Yuan Charcoal Steamboat

Only about 3 minutes, our table was filled with seafood dishes. But still have to wait for about 5 minutes to let the soup heat up...(that's the advantage of having steamboat! Haha!)

Cutterfish

Scallops

Big prawns

Squids (Sotong)

Pork ball

Beside the dishes above, there were some pork intestines, vegetables and noodles too...and the special chili sauce was great!

The homemade chili sauce

I  like the DIY small fan power by Rechargeable Battery that continuously blow from the bottom...it last till we finish everything on the table.

The special DIY small fan

Once we started to taste the delicious seafood steamboat, we cannot stop until everything finish! :)

We were satisfied with the foods especially the 'Soup'! It was bit sweet and spicy, this was the first time I ever taste such a nice soup!

The Damage - MYR145.00 for 4 adults and 1 child (Included A jug of Chinese Herbal Tea). Reasonable price and we will be back again on our next Penang trip!

Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat Restaurant

6525, Jalan Raja Uda,

Butterworth.

Tel : +604-3312736   Mobile : +6012-4524741
(Close on every Wednesday)

Location map of Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat Restaurant

View Larger Map

Qing Ming Festival 2010 at Penang

Origin Of Ching Ming (Qingming)
Qinming Festival originated from Hanshi Day (寒食节, literally, Day with cold food only), a memorial day for Jie Zitui (介子推, or Jie Zhitui, 介子推). Jie Zitui died in 636 BC in the Spring and Autumn Period. He was one of many followers of Duke Wen of Jin before he became a duke. Once, during Wen's 19 years of exile, they had no food and Jie prepared some meat soup for Wen. Wen enjoyed it a lot and wondered where Jie had obtained the soup. It turned out Jie had cut a piece of meat from his own thigh to make the soup. Wen was so moved he promised to reward him one day. However, Jie was not the type of person who sought rewards. Instead, he just wanted to help Wen to return to Jin to become duke. Once Wen became duke, Jie resigned and stayed away from him. Duke Wen rewarded the people who helped him in the decades, but for some reason he forgot to reward Jie, who by then had moved into the forest with his mother. Duke Wen went to the forest, but could not find Jie. Heeding suggestions from his officials, Duke Wen ordered men to set the forest on fire to force out Jie. However, Jie died in the fire. Feeling remorseful, Duke Wen ordered three days without fire to honour Jie's memory. The county where Jie died is still called Jiexiu (介休, literally "the place Jie rests forever"). Source from Wiki.

My parents ashes were kept at the columbarium (N5 24.790 E100 17.648) between Penang United Hokkien Cemetery and Batu Gantong Crematorium. There are thousand and thousand ashes urn are kept it tidy in the building.

We went to pay respect and the normal ceremony to my parents in the early morning. And the area was packed of peoples, that is normal for every year 5th of April.

Inside the building

I meet one old lady who come every year. She told us that she do the praying for her son...sad stories are everywhere...

Beside the building is the Penang United Hokkien Cemetery

The Qing (Ching) Ming season is meant for the everyone to remember their 'Anchestors', but today...most of the peoples I know, they are mostly mean for themself! Example, you pray and follow the ceremony, you are bless! Or else...you will in troubles! My goodness! Almost nobody remember who are their 'Ancestors' anymore...many of the local youngsters also quite superstitious...

Every time during Qing Ming Festival, it's always make me recall the Chinese poem from Du Mu :-

"清明時節雨紛紛,路上行人欲斷魂,借問酒家何處有,牧童遙指杏花村."

"A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day; the mourner's heart is breaking on his way. Where can a winehouse be found to drown his sadness? A cowherd points to Almond Flower (Xing Hua) Village in the distance."

If you wanna read more about Qing Ming Festival, please click here.

The map location for above building

View Larger Map