Christmas in Hungary is not the same without the traditional festive menu

Christmas in Hungary is not the same without the traditional festive menu.

On the Budapestbylocals.com website, a writer has detailed how on Christmas Eve Hungarians usually have fish soup made from carp, stuffed cabbage then a pastry roll filled with poppy seed or walnut – a beigli.

Here, the website has put together the famous recipes to help you join in the festivities.

1) Hungarian Fishermen’s Soup (Halászlé)

Ingredients for about 6 portions

• 1000 g different type of small fish (freshwater fish)

• 1500 g carp (whole or fillets)

• 2 tablespoons lard

• 2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika powder

• 2 large onion

• 1 green pepper

• 1 big potato, peeled

• salt and ground black pepper to taste

• 1 tomato, peeled and diced

• 1 egg and flour for the noodles

Preparations

• 1. Clean the fish.

• 2. Remove its teeth, tail, fins and scales with a sharp knife.

• 3. Wash it with cold water.

• 4. Open up the carp at its belly and remove the chitterlings.

• 5. Slice it up for 2 cm thick slices and salt them.

• 6. Cut out the eyes from the head.

• 7. Peel the onions and dice them.

• 8. Peel the potato.

• 9. Dice the tomato.

Instructions

• 1. First of all, we make a fish stock from the small fish and the head of the carp.

• 2. Heat up the lard in a large pan and braise the diced onions.

• 3. Sprinkle the onion with paprika and pour immediately about 3 L water into the pan to prevent paprika from getting burnt.

• 4. Put the small fish, the head of the carp, the diced tomato and salt in the pan and cook it until the meat comes of the fish bone.

• 5. Sieve the stock and bring in to the boil.

• 6. If you find it a bit thick, add some water.

• 7. Put the salted carp slices in the fish stock, add slices of hot, green pepper, some salt if necessary and bring it to the boil.

• 8. Grate the potato and add it to the soup. Cook it for 1-2 minutes.

• 9. Beat up an egg add 1-2 tablespoons of flour and mix it until you get a batter. It should not be neither too thick nor too thin.

• 10. Salt it a bit and cut nice ball shapes into the boiling soup with the help of a spoon. Cook it for 2-3 minutes.

Hungarian fish soup is a substantial meal, especially this version with noodles and grated potato.

2) Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients

• 6-8 sauerkraut leaves

• 1000 g chopped sauerkraut

• 100 g (2 cups) pearl barley or rice

• 400 g minced pork

• 1-2 onions

• 1 clove of garlic

• 1-2 tbs lard or oil

• 2 teaspoons Hungarian paprika powder

• ground black pepper

• 1-2 bay leaves

• salt

• 200 ml sour cream

Instructions

Make the stuffing:

• 1. Braise half the diced onions in lard, add the minced pork, the pearl barley (rice) and sprinkle it with 1 teaspoon paprika.

• 2. Add the mashed clove of garlic, some salt, ground black pepper and stir well.

• 3. Place some stuffing on the sauerkraut leaves and make nice rolls.

• 4. Braise the remained onion in oil.

• 5. Remove the pan from the heat, add 1 teaspoon paprika powder, half of the chopped sauerkraut and the bay leaves.

• 6. Place the stuffed rolls on it and cover it with the other half of the sauerkraut.

• 7. Add some water and cook it until the cabbage and the stuffing is tender (approx. 1,5-2 hours).

• 8. Remove the stuffed rolls.

• 9. Mix sour cream with 1-2 tablespoons of flour and add to the sauerkraut and cook it for 1-2 minutes, dilute it with some water if necessary. The name of this last process is habarás in Hungarian and it thickens the meal.

• 10. Place the cabbage rolls back in the pan.

• 11. We have this dish with sour cream and slices of white bread.

3) Beigli – Pastry Rolls with Walnut or Poppy Seed Stuffing

A traditional Hungarian Christmas Eve dinner is not complete without beigli.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 500 g flour

• 150 ml sour cream

• 250 g butter

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 20 g fresh yeast

• 1 egg

• 50 g castor sugar

• a pinch of salt

For the poppy seed stuffing

• 200 g ground poppy seed

• 150 g castor sugar mixed in 100 ml water

• 1 sachet (10g) of vanilla sugar

• 50 g raisins soaked in 50 ml rum

• grated rind of a well-washed lemon and lemon juice

• 1 coffee-spoon ground cinnamon

• 1 coffee-spoon ground cloves

Prepare the poppy seed filling

• 1. Bring the water with the sugar in it to the boil.

• 2. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour onto the ground poppy seed.

• 3. Mix in the drained raisins, the vanilla sugar and ground cinnamon and cloves.

• 4. Add grated rind of a lemon and 1 tablespoon of its juice.

For the walnut stuffing

• 1. Bring the water with the sugar in it to th

• 400 g ground walnuts

• 250 g castor sugar mixed in about 1 dl milk

• 50 g raisins soaked in rum

• grated rind of a well-washed orange

• 1 sachet (10g) vanilla sugar

Prepare the walnut filling

• 1. Bring the milk with the sugar in it to the boil.

• 2. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour onto the ground walnuts.

• 3. Mix in the drained raisins, the vanilla sugar and grated rind of an orange.

Prepare the dough

• 1. Warm the sour cream a bit. It should be lukewarm.

• 2. Add the egg to the sour cream and mix it.

• 3. Crumble yeast in the mixture.

• 4. Add diced butter to the flour, sprinkle it with 50 g castor sugar and a pinch of salt.

• 5. Mix in sour cream with the yeast in it and knead a dough.

• 6. Make 4 loaves, wrap them up in cling film and let them rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours (even better, if you leave it there for a whole night).

• 7. Knead the loaves a bit.

• 8. Roll them out into a 1/2 cm thick rectangle on a floured board.

• 9. Spread filling onto the dough, leave out a 2-3 cm strip at the longer side.

• 10. Fold back a 2-3 cm strip at the shorter sides (prevents the stuffing from coming out).

• 11. Roll the dough up and place them in buttered oven dish.

• 12. Brush the top of the rolls with slightly beaten egg yolk and let them rest for 30 minutes.

• 13. Spread the rolls with egg white, it gives a nice glaze.

• 14. Let rolls rest for another half an hour.

• 15. Prick the top and the sides of the rolls with a fork, it prevents cracking.

• 16. Bake the beigli in preheated oven at 180 °C for about 40 minutes until the top gets a nice brown colour. In the first 20 minutes do not open the oven.

• 17. Let pastry cool in the oven dish. Cut the rolls into slices if you want to serve them immediately.

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