My Hungarian Kitchen

The other day I really wanted to try making croissant because I have never done it before. I made the regular shopping list and add chocolate on it for my baking later. My better half understood it like I wanted to chocolate so he brought my favourite one which is Scandinavian specialty called Daim. It is a milk chocolate bar with crunchy caramel inside - it is a piece of heaven, trust me :D So I thought I could make something nice from it.

This version is more Hungarian then French because dough is not that layered and airy but rather soft and nice to bite in.  If in your country you cannot buy Daim, you can just easily make a caramel-chocolate cream and use that one instead. It can be nicely freeze and heat it up later in the microwave. 

When autumn comes I like to switch on the oven more often while I just have a cup of tea and watching how what I made is growing in there :) This is one of my simpliest recipe but it tastes so good at the same time. I usually make a big portion and just freeze and put it into the microwave when I feel like to treat myself. You can basically use any kind of marmalade but I think with plum one is the best. 

Marmalade - choco snails - for 2 big oven tray

550 g flour

2,5 dl milk

3 tbs sugar

An egg

2 dkg yeast

6 dkg melt butter

Salt

Unsweeted cocoa powder

Caster sugar

Marmalade of your choice

Half mug of milk

Vanilia

As usual you need to mix yeast with lukwarm milk and 1 cube of sugar. Let it work for 10 minutes in a warm place. Mix flour with a pinch of salt, and sugar. When yeast is ready mix everything together and knead it until you get a nice fluffy texture. Let it double its size which takes about 1 hour. 

Stretch the dough for 1 inch thick rectangle shaped and cover it first with a thick layer of marmalade. Then add a thick layer of cocoa powder and caster sugar. Fold two shorter sides and roll it up from the longer side. Cut them into 2 inches thick snails and let them rest for 20 minutes  on a tray with baking paper. Finally you can preheat the oven for 180 degrees. They will be ready in 20 minutes. 

As a final touch mix hot milk with vanilia (sugar or bean) and water the snails with that. Thats how they will be soft and juice just like the beloved middle part :)

This recipe is coming from one of my favorite Hungarian food blogger who is having an amazing cooking show everyday on TV. Her original recipe was with eggplant, but somehow I have always hated that vegetable. Therefore I subtituted with zuccini which has such an amazin fresh flavour.

Spicy zuccini sticks - 2-4 servings

500 g minced meat

1 tsp paprika powder

1 diced onion

2 grated garlic

2 tsp crushed cummin

1 tsp salt

pepper

oil

2 zuccini

6-7 bamboo sticks

First of all soak bamboo sticks into water for 15 mins avoiding burning. Preheat the oven for 200 degrees Mix meat, garlic, onion, all the spices together and little bit oil. Peel off one stripe from the zuccini then skip one and peel again. Then cut zuccini to quite thick slices and put meatballs and zuccini slices alternately on the sticks. Bake them for 30-40 mins. You can serve it with grilled veggies and pita or just steam yasmine rice :)

In Denmark dinner is the main meal of the day because that time family can be together and they sometimes invite guests too. That's why they traditionally have a cold lunch which is between a snack and meal I think. They eat heavy black bread (called Rugbrød which I still can not pronounce correct :D) with cold cuts and sauces (mayo, bernaise, etc). This ball is a lighter version of that bread what I learnt from my lovely (future) mother in-law. I bake it nearly every week and then freeze it for the rest of the week :)

I have been living in Denmark for 1 year now and I totally got sweet-tooth. Maybe because that is the only way to survive this "lovely" weather (Ok, I know this summer has been quit fine) Koldskal is one of the most beloved summer dessert. Even though summer is over this is still my favorite quick dessert after a long workday. I love how sweet and sour mixing together as well as crunchy and soft. You can spicy it up with crunchy  vanilla  cookies as Danes do or with some fresh berries as I do :)

Koldskal - 4 servings

1 liter buttermilk

5 egg yolks

6 tbs sugar or the same amount in sweetener

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Half  vanilla  bean

Crunchy cookie, fruit or what ever you like in it :)

Take a big bowl and mix egg yolks, sugar, vanilla together then add buttermilk, lemon. Finally put some toppins of your choice.

Velbekommen - Good apetite in Danish:)

Autumn weather is massivly around the corner when I like to treat myself with healthy comfort food :)  This is on my favourite because it is so easy to make but has a lot of favour in it. It goes really well with roasted duck or ham too.

Spicy red cabbage with apple and chicken drumsticks - 4 servings

Half red cabbage 

1 big sliced onion

2 tbs sugar

2 diced sour apple

3 bayleaves

3 tsp cummin

1 dl rose champagne or wine

0,4 dl vinegar
water

8 chicken drumstick

salt, pepper

olaj

Preheat the oven for 200 degrees, season chicken drumsticks with salt, pepper, put some oil on top and cover it. Bake it for 40 mins then remove the top and grill it until it is ready.  First heat up a big saucepan with oil then add sugar and let it caramelize. After that add onion and sauté it until it is nice and soft. Add sliced cabbage to the mix and a little bit of water to avoid burning on the bottom. Let it shimmer for 20 mins then add apple, cummin, bayleaves, sugar, salt, pepper, champagne. Cook it until it feels soft and finish it by adding vinegar. Serve it immeadietly or cold how my boyfriend likes it :)

My better half just suprised me with this nice potterry what I saw on a shopping tour in a mall :) I love working with these kind of things because I just need to prepair a little bit but pot does the real work. It is perfect for beginners because no matter what you put in it always turns out with amazing flavour. If you don't have  that of course you can use a heatproof bowl just skip the first part and put it into hot oven.

Pork Pot - 4 servings

80 dkg sliced chuck meat (or any little bit fatter part of the pig)

20 dkg grated cheese

2 big sliced onion

10 dkg sliced ham

1 sliced red bell pepper

1,5 dl double cream

salt and pepper

3 tbs ketchup

marjoram

oil

First of all if you are working with pottery you need to soak it in cold water for 15 minutes. It helps to not damage it later in the oven. When it is done with its little bath put some oil (or lard) on the bottom of the pottery then add meat. Put ham, onion and cheese on top then layered them until you have nothing left. Mix double cream, ketchup, salt, pepper and marjoram. Pour this mix on top of the layered veggies-meat. Put the lid on top. Put the pottery in cold oven and turn immeadiatly it to 180 C. It is done in 1 hour and 30 mins then take the lid off and grill the top for 15 minutes. You serve it with jacket potato and fresh salad. 

Good appetite :)