Kolbaszos Rakott Krumpli or Hungarian Scalloped Potatoes (Repost)

I know I’m doing a lot of Hungarian recipes lately but it turns out my Yugoslav-Romanian mom cooked several dishes which have both Romanian and Hungarian versions. This Polish sausage, hard boiled egg and potato casserole dish is a re-post of one from the early days of my LiveJournal, because it’s unlikely that new visitors (to my blog, to be honest) are going to scroll back through the LJ posts and run across it.

Here’s a screen cap of one of the assembly pictures from that post cause the original pictures are ‘somewhere’ on one of my many archive cd/dvd disks. The raw potatoes sliced much more neatly than the cooked ones I used below.

So, here’s a slightly modified version of “Kolbaszos Rakott Krumpli” or Hungarian Scalloped Potatoes

And a quick and dirty Hungarian language lesson:

Kolbaszos – sausage ie kielbasa or kolbasz
Rakott – pleated or layered
Krumpli – potatoes

Not the prettiest of dishes but you’ll honestly want to finish the entire casserole by yourself. It’s the ultimate comfort dish for an Eastern European. Maybe it will become yours too.

Kolbaszos Rakott Krumpli or Hungarian Scalloped Potatoes – serves 4

4-6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced across
1/2-1 lb kielbasa (or Polish) sausage, skin removed and sliced thinly
4-6 medium potatoes, boiled in the skin until tender, then peeled, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
~1/2 cup sour cream and ~1/2 cup milk **
salt (1 tsp) and pepper (1/2 tsp), to taste

** You can reduce the milk quite a bit if you don’t want to POUR the sour cream, salt and pepper mixture over the casserole but prefer to spoon it over each potato layer for seasoning. Since, my mom used raw sliced potatoes which were cooked in the milk, she had to use enough milk to almost cover the potatoes.

Lightly oil a large casserole dish as the milk really sticks.

Stir together the milk and sour cream until you get a smooth mixture. Add the salt and pepper and mix in as well.

Place an even layer of the potato slices on the bottom of the casserole dish, then add a layer of the sausage and then hard boiled egg slices. Repeat ending with the last of the potato slices. Pour the seasoned milk and sour cream mixture over the potatoes.

Bake tightly covered at 350 deg F for 1 hr. Remove the lid and continue baking until the potatoes on top are golden brown. (I know I should have baked it for another 15 minutes for a better picture … but I just couldn’t wait to dig in.)

Serve with a green salad.

NOTES: Some Hungarians saute one large sliced red onion in oil or butter, cool and mix it in with the sour cream before adding both to the casserole.

You may sprinkle bread crumbs over the bottom of the casserole dish before adding the first layer of potatoes. Hungarian paprika mixed with a bit of sour cream may be spooned over the top before baking. Or another sprinkling of bread crumbs if you like a crunchy top.

Polish sausage can be replaced with any smoked cooked sausage. If I was using a fresh sausage though, I’d put them on top of the casserole so they could cook and render the fat down into the potatoes. If you can get hold of dried Hungarian sausages, spicy or mild, slice and use those instead.

Advertisement

Hamburgers and Salad

Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

If you remember from my last post, I only had one pound of lean ground beef in the freezer. Why, you may ask?

Because those hamburger buns were SO amazing that I quick thawed that other pound of ground beef and made three HUGE burgers to stuff them with. I had a pork chop sandwich on ONE of the buns. But that only whetted my appetite.

For THIS

Each patty was about 1/3 of a pound (175 gm to be precise) before I cooked it and placed it on a buttered and grilled bun.

Best Burgers – 3 x 175 gm burger patty

1 lb lean ground beef
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp bread crumbs
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp salt (optional)

Lightly fork together and form into 3 x 5 inch diameter patties. Dimple the center 1 inch to reduce shrinking.

And, I DID make a salad. Cause I try to eat healthy every once in a while and letting your pricey Romaine go bad in your crisper isn’t a good thing.

Isn’t it pretty? So, green and fresh looking. And healthy.

And then I added some diced cheddar cheese and sunflower seeds … and ‘light’ Caesar salad dressing. Diced hard boiled eggs and raisins are other add-ins I enjoy.

Beef, Bean and Cheese Burritos/ Meat Lover’s Lasagna

I had a pound of lean ground beef in my freezer and, with a bountiful pantry, was torn between various possibilities. The front runners were beef burritos and a meat lasagna as I already had all the ingredients for either one. Including a batch of fresh pasta sitting in the fridge ready to be rolled out.

I decided to make small batches of both starting with a common base.

Ground Beef Base for the Two Dishes

1-2 tsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely diced
2-3 small cloves garlic, finely minced
1 lb/454 gm lean ground beef
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano

In a large saute pan, fry the onions in the vegetable oil over medium heat until they become translucent and start picking up some colour on the edges. Add the garlic and continue frying for another minute or so, until the garlic is translucent as well.

Crumble the beef into the pan and fry until no longer pink, breaking up the meat into crumbles. Sprinkle the salt and dried oregano over the top of the meat, stir through and continue cooking for another few minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat, drain off the excess fat and transfer half the mixture to another container. Reserve for the meat lasagna.

Unfortunately, my home made flour tortillas weren’t large enough to fold into burritos, especially with anything else inside other than a generous tablespoon of Beef, Bean and Cheese Burrito filling, so I settled for burrito ‘wraps’.

Beef, Bean and Cheese Burritos – enough filling for 8 burritos, 4 servings at 2 burritos per servings

1/2 of the Ground Beef Base from above
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp smoked paprika
1/8 tsp Spanish paprika
1/4 cup salsa (mild, medium or hot) **
1/2 lb/ 227 gm canned re-fried beans
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Optional toppings or fillings
sour cream
guacamole
shredded lettuce
additional salsa
Mexican rice

8 home made sourdough flour tortillas or purchased regular 8 inch tortillas

** I had a package of taco seasoning (from a Taco Bell taco making kit) left in the freezer from the last time I made tacos so I used that instead.

To the ground beef base left in the saute pan, add the herbs and spices (cumin, chili powder, both paprikas) and stir through, cooking for a few minutes. Add the salsa and re-fried beans, mixing well, and continue cooking until the burrito mixture is warmed through. Take the pan off the heat and stir the shredded cheddar cheese through the mixture.

A picture of the ground beef base reserved for the lasagna and the finished beef, bean and cheese burrito filling.

Fill warmed tortillas with a couple of tablespoons of the burrito filling and then the other toppings or fillings.

Serve with salad.

Meat Lover’s Lasagna – enough for 3 to 4 servings

Meat Lover’s Lasagna – makes one 2.2 lb/1 kg lasagna, fills one 8 x 3 7/8 x 2 15/32 inch disposable aluminum baking pan

Meat Filling
1/2 of the Ground Beef Base from above
1/4 lb (2) hot Italian sausages, removed from casings
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 cup jarred tomato sauce

For Assembly
8 sheets commercial or home made pasta sheets, cooked until al dente
1/2 cup jarred tomato sauce, reserve 1/4 cup for topping
bechamel sauce (1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp flour, 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg, 3/4-1 cup milk, salt and pepper to taste)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
~1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large saute pan over medium heat, crumble the sausage meat, frying the meat until it is no longer pink. Drain off any excess fat. Add the reserved half of the ground beef base and the dried basil. Cook for several minutes. Stir in the first 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and set aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 350 deg F.

Reserve half of the 2nd 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.

In the bottom of your baking pan, spread 1-2 tbsp of remaining tomato sauce. Lay a sheet of cooked pasta over the sauce and then spread one quarter (1/4) of the meat mixture over the pasta. Spread another 1-2 tbsp of tomato sauce over the meat. Add another pasta sheet and one third (1/3) of the bechamel on top of that. Sprinkle a generous tablespoon of the grated parmesan over the bechamel and then top with another sheet of pasta. Repeat with the meat sauce/tomato sauce, pasta, bechamel/parmesan, pasta layers until you finish with your last sheet of pasta. You’ll have used up all eight of your pasta sheets.

Tuck any excess portions of your pasta sheet down into the pan so that it doesn’t poke up. Spread your reserved 1/4 cup of tomato sauce over the pasta and sprinkle a generous handful of the grated mozzarella cheese over the tomato sauce.

Place your baking pan onto a large baking sheet, in case of over flow during cooking, and bake for 40-45 minutes in your pre-heated oven. If you like a browned top, you can turn on the broiler and brown the cheese … a BIT. Be careful. You don’t want a black cheese topping, especially after all the time you’ve invested in assembling this delicious dish.

Serve with salad.

Homemade Hamburger Buns

ETA (07/28/2017): An earlier post of the hamburger bun recipe was found at “She Makes and Bakes”.

You can never have enough hamburger bun recipes … or maybe that’s just me. 🙂

I saw a picture of these big, fluffy beauties posted on a FB Bread Baking group recently and the next day I made a batch.

The obligatory “crumb” shot

Unfortunately, I can’t let you taste them. Buttery and just a bit sweet even though only a modest amount of butter and sugar are used.

There’s nothing really NEW about the recipe. It’s the technique that makes them stand out. After the dough is bulk proofed and shaped into balls (about 105-110 gm each) they’re allowed to rest for 10 minutes. Then, a rolling pin is gently run over the top of each rounding sphere to flatten it a bit.

They’re transferred to a prepared baking sheet and covered, with an oiled sheet of food wrap or with a dry towel, in my case. Let them continue to proof for 40 minutes.

It was warm in my kitchen (78 deg F) so after only 30 minutes, I uncovered the buns and brushed them with an egg wash and sprinkled some sesame seeds over the top. The buns went into a moderate (360 deg F) oven though the recipe I found on line at “Your Homebased Mom” uses a hot (400 deg F) oven. It doesn’t matter, you just bake them for a shorter time, if using the hotter oven.

Sourdough Starter Green Onion/Scallion Pancake

ETA: Compare these to the ‘classic’ green onion/scallion pancakes here.

As a resource, YouTube is amazing. (And a huge way to fritter away a lot of free time … but that’s something we each have to deal with in our own way.)

Recently, I ran across an intriguingly titled video, “Never Ever Throw Away Your Sourdough Starter!” on Brothers Green Eats‘ channel and followed it to find one of the easiest SD recipes I’ve ever tried. And, it’s pretty tasty too.

Green Onion/Scallion Sourdough Pancake

 

Dipping Sauce for the Pancake – I use this same sauce for my pot stickers.

Dipping Sauce

1 teaspoon Asian chili sauce, Sriracha or sambal oelek**
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoon sesame oil (reduced to 1/2 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

** What I used

Mix together until sugar dissolves. Sprinkle some sliced green onions and/sesame seeds on top just to make it look pretty. 🙂

Steamed Chinese BBQ’d Pork Buns

I first tasted these steamed buns in a Chinese restaurant more than 20 years ago and was determined to make them … ONE DAY.

That day has finally come.

I started out wanting to try the Mantou (Chinese steamed bun) recipe on the “Sprinkles and Sprouts” blog, but then I decided that if I was going to make the steamed dough, I might as well go all the way and make the steamed bbq’d pork buns. Yesterday, I made a batch of Chinese bbq’d pork (char siu), FINALLY cleaned and prepped my brand new bamboo steamer and tested the steamer set-up. And, this morning, after two cups of coffee and a green scallion pancake with sourdough starter to fortify me and put me in the mood for cooking Chinese food, I made these beauties.

Be sure to remove and cut open one of the buns to make sure your particular steaming temp/time has cooked them through

I’d probably make two changes if/when I make these again. First, I’d add a bit more sugar to the dough (25 g / 2 tbsp, increase to 37.5 g/ 3 tbsp) as the ones I’m familiar with have a sweeter taste. And, second, I’d make them a bit smaller (70-75 g, reduce to 50 g) cause they crowded my steamer when done. I don’t know if that’s why they also took longer to steam than expected. The finished buns were about 9 cm/ 3 1/2 inches in diameter.

Cha-Shu Pork/Char Siu Pork/Chinese BBQ’d Pork

2 lbs boneless center cut pork loin (Boston Butt preferred)**
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp shoyu (soy sauce)
1 1/2 tbsp mirin (rice wine)
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp finely minced garlic (or 1/4 tsp garlic powder)
1/4 tsp dried onion powder (new)
1/2 tsp dried ginger

** I only had about 0.7 lb (320 gm) of pork loin but I used the full recipe of marinade.

Remove most of the fat and gristle from the pork loin and discard. Cut meat with grain into strips about 1 1/2-2 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Combine hoisin sauce, shoyu, mirin, sugar, salt, ketchup, 5-spice powder, ginger, garlic and onion powder in a bowl. Add meat. Coat well. Marinate at least 4 hours, or overnight.

If intending to baste with the marinade you used for the raw pork, pour it into a small saucepan and bring to a boil, cooking 2-3 minutes at a full rolling boil.

Barbecue until just barely done as carry-over cooking time will continue the process or broil in the oven.

Broiler Method:

Turn on the broiler.

Raise the oven rack to the middle of the oven (3 shelves) or to the 2nd level from the top if you have a 4 shelf oven.

Arrange the pork on a rack on a cookie sheet. If you want to reduce the mess, line the cookie sheet with foil (and also put foil on the rack, using a knife to cut through the foil where the openings in the rack are so the juices and marinade can drip through onto the pan). Pour about 1 cup of water into the cookie sheet or broiler pan. It’s not guaranteed to be entirely mess free, but it should reduce the mess significantly.

Prop the door of the oven open with a wooden spoon. Broil for 10-15 minutes per side or until the meat is barely cooked through and the outside edges have charred a bit.

For the filling:

Pour the marinade from the bbq’d pork into a saucepan, bring to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove some to a separate bowl and use it to baste the pork on each side.

Combine the rest of the cooked marinade with the cooled diced pork, a couple of tablespoons of water, 2 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp hoisin sauce, a pinch of white pepper and 2 sliced green onions and cook at medium-low for a couple of minutes. Then cool.

 

Mantou/Bao Dough and Finished Buns

Small Batch No Churn Ice Cream – Deconstructed Ferrero Rocher and Lemon Curd & Limoncello Cheesecake

ETA (07/21/2017): Replaced both the Ferrero Rocher and lemon curd scoop pictures.

For ice cream lovers without an ice cream maker or a large amount of freezer space, and a love for different flavours of ice cream, a small batch of no churn ice cream may be the solution. Especially as this type of ice cream is so VERY rich and a 1/2 cup serving is enough to satisfy most people. I picked two very different flavours of ice cream to cater to different cravings.

For Chocolate Hazelnut/Nutella Lovers – Deconstructed Ferrero Rocher Ice Cream

I wanted to buy some of the actual chocolates, chop them up and stir them into a Nutella flavoured ice cream but they didn’t have any at the grocery store so I was forced to use the elements for a ‘deconstructed’ version.

Deconstructed Ferrero Rocher Ice Cream – makes ~3 cups

3/4 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
50 gm coarsely chopped hazelnuts (filberts), reserve a teaspoon or so of nuts for decorating the top
1/2 cup Nutella
1 tbsp rye whiskey vanilla extract
1/4 cup (or more) fudge sauce** (or Nutella if you don’t have any fudge or chocolate sauce)

** I used Martha Stewart’s recipe

In a large cold bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form.

In a second large bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk with the Nutella until smooth. Stir in the chopped hazelnuts.

Fold the stiff cream into the sweetened condensed milk/Nutella/nut mixture.

Spoon half the ice cream mixture into a freezer safe container. Smooth the surface. Dot several half teaspoons of fudge sauce over the surface of the ice cream. Add the rest of the ice cream mixture. Drizzle some more fudge sauce over the ice cream

Sprinkle the reserved nuts over the top.

NOTE: Next time, I won’t line the container with saran wrap as it fell into the ice cream and got all messy. I was TRYING to keep the container neat.

Cover the container tightly with a lid or a sheet of foil and place into freezer for a minimum of 8 hrs or overnight.

For Citrus Lovers – Lemon Curd & Limoncello Cheesecake Ice Cream

I wanted the bright citrus hit of lemons so I used my home made lemon curd to flavour the ice cream. The Limoncello I made a few years ago provided the liqueur in the recipe, and, because it just wasn’t rich and creamy enough with the whipping cream, in an adaptation of an earlier blueberry version, I added cream cheese to make it similar to a cheesecake.

Lemon Curd & Limoncello Cheesecake Ice Cream – makes ~3 1/2-4  cups

3/4 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
3 oz/85 gm cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 tbsp Limoncello
1/3-1/2 cup lemon curd, divided

In a large cold bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form.

In a second large bowl, whip the cream cheese until smooth and then beat in the  sweetened condensed milk and the Limoncello.

Stir in a few tablespoons of the lemon curd.

Fold the stiff cream into the cream cheese/sweetened condensed milk/lemon curd mixture.

Spoon half the ice cream mixture into a freezer safe container. Smooth the surface. Dot several half teaspoons of lemon curd over the surface of the ice cream. With a wooden skewer or chopstick, marble the curd through the ice cream.

Add the rest of the ice cream mixture and flatten the top. Dot some more lemon curd over the top of the ice cream and marble through as before.

Cover the container tightly with a lid or a sheet of foil and place into freezer for a minimum of 8 hrs or overnight.

Sourdough Waffles

NOTE: I have two brilliant ideas for no churn ice cream flavours but they both involve going shopping first. This is why I keep putting off going out for sushi … I blow my bi-weekly budget on cooking things in my own kitchen. Bread baking is cheap when you already have a 20 kg bag of AP flour in the freezer.

I recently finished the last of the sourdough pancakes in my freezer and rather than making another batch, I decided to switch things up and make sourdough WAFFLES. As I’m basically a lazy cook, I looked for the simplest recipe on line. I even solicited a recipe on my sourdough FB groups. Although a number of people recommended the King Arthur flour recipe and a fellow blogger, from whom I ‘borrowed”, my sourdough tortilla and naan recipes, shared hers, they either had ingredients or time constraints that I wasn’t prepared to deal with. So, I went with a recipe I found at the “Serious Eats” website. You can use either active or discard starter.

I didn’t rewrite the instructions enough that I feel that I can post it here so you’ll have to go to the source for the recipe.

You may remember that my waffle maker is an OLD OLD clunker with reversible plates, no temperature controls and sticking issues. It took me almost the entire batch of waffle batter to get the waffles to release from the top plates, which were probably on the bottom the last time that I used them, more than a year ago.

The plates are made for rectangular waffles, but if you pour the batter in the center and hold back on a tablespoon or so, you can get round waffles.

NOTE TO SELF: 1/2 cup of batter, per each side of my waffle maker, cooked for 2 min 45 sec to 3 min, is perfect .

Some odds and ends I want to share … a steak quesadilla snack on my home made sourdough tortillas.

Or a steak breakfast burrito plate as good as in a restaurant.

I’ve been playing with plating my Hungarian cheese dumplings … honey and cheese is a great pairing.

A first attempt at slider buns with enriched dough. Some hamburger buns were made with the leftover dough.

Another Something Old, Something New Post

Most of our moms had ‘good’ towels or ‘guest’ towels that you weren’t allowed to use. At my house, they were packed, two rows deep in the bathroom closet, and so tightly that you couldn’t pull any out without causing a towel-slide. After my mom passed away, it still took me several years before I started using the good bath towels. I wasn’t able to make myself throw away any of the old beat up towels I had, except maybe for the worst of the bunch. They would end up in the laundry and then I’d use them ONE more time. Repeatedly.

I finally decided to toss my oldest dish towels and start using the new ones I had bought, this weekend. I went with a red, white and blue theme. And some black. Cause black goes with everything.

Do you prefer fluffy or linen-type dish towels?

And for the old, some pictures I took a couple of weeks ago. I had thawed some sliced pork butt to make Chinese barbecued pork (char siu) and then realized that I hadn’t replaced my bottle of hoisin sauce, which I needed for the recipe. So, I rummaged through the jars in the fridge and found some satay sauce.

Pork Satay

Pasta Possibilities … Egg Noodles

ETA (07/31/2017): Picture of Mákos tészta added

Whether or not you’re on a budget, pasta is the start of many amazing dishes that don’t make you feel like you’re tight on cash.

I ended up making the usual ‘boring’ pasta dish because I had leftovers in the fridge that I wanted to use up … cooked hot Italian sausages and jarred pasta sauce from making a couple of pizzas on Saturday. And, because I’ve already made several heavy Hungarian dishes and both my two other options were also Hungarian. I hope to make them sometime in the next week and post pictures then.

These are the Hungarian noodle dishes I was GOING to make.

Mákos tészta (sweet poppy seed noodles) …

or Túrós czusza (curd cheese and bacon noodles) or Kaposztás tészta (cabbage with noodles)

Which one do you think I should make??

Instead of using dry pasta, I made fresh egg noodles with semolina … just enough for 2 servings (scaled down to use 1 egg) and am re-posting the recipe here. It’s very easy and you don’t even need a pasta machine to make them though I did for the convenience.

Fresh Semolina and Egg Pasta – 1 lb of pasta, enough for 4 servings

1 cup (170-180 gm) all-purpose flour
1 cup (200 gm) semolina flour
a pinch salt (1/8 tsp)
3 large eggs
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Sift together all-purpose flour, semolina flour, and pinch of salt. (Remove about 1/4 cup to a separate bowl and use it to knead with.)

On a clean surface, make a mound out of the flour mixture then make a deep well in center.

Break the eggs into the well and add olive oil. Whisk eggs very gently with a fork, gradually incorporating flour from the sides of the well. When mixture becomes too thick to mix with a fork, begin kneading with your hands.

Knead dough for 8 to 12 minutes, until it is smooth and supple. (To know when you’ve kneaded it enough, form the dough into a ball and cut it in half. The inside shouldn’t have pockets/holes in it but look nice and compact.)

Dust dough and work surface with semolina as needed to keep dough from becoming sticky. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and allow it to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Roll out the dough with a pasta machine or a rolling pin to desired thickness (<1/16th of an inch or 1 mm).

Let air dry for 10-15 min before cutting, especially with your pasta machine cutters. Cut into your favorite style of noodle or stuff with your favorite filling to make ravioli.

Bring water to a boil in a large pot, adding about a tbsp of salt.

Cook pasta until it is tender but not mushy, 1 to 8 minutes (2 1/2 minutes in this case) depending on the thickness. Drain immediately and toss with your favorite sauce.

Speaking of pizza … here’s what I made.