GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

 

LENTIL SOUP ! NO BROTH? FOOD BANK RECIPE

What to do with the bag of dry LENTILS?

LENTILS PROVIDE protein as well as having other outstanding attributes.

LENTIL SOUP

Here's a Lentil don't:

There are different colors and types of lentils. When boiling or using for soup, don't mix the types together as they need different cooking times. If you have regular lentils (the pale brown-green type) and say, red lentils, you will need to cook them separately and put them in the soup at the end of the cooking time. In general lentils usually do not need long cooking times like dry beans and, as they break down a bit, they will thicken the soup. Lentils can also overcook and turn into mush quickly. However, the cooking lends a bit of flavor to the broth. Don't use the little round black lentils for this recipe which are sometimes called "French lentils."  Those are much better as an add-in to a rice dish. The green-brown lentils should simmer to cook in about 25 to 35 minutes.

Broth. I haven't seen broth given out too often in food distribution bags, so you will probably have to provide your own. Some bullion products are mostly salt, even contain the salty food preservative MSG (which I'm wary of) but if you do not have the time to cook up a broth using veggies or chicken, you can use the packets that come with those dry noodle soup packages as your broth base!  I believe a major brand brags that there is no MSG in there. (Use the dry noodle for another recipe!)

One way to flavor a broth, is to make "stock." You to throw in the parts of the veggies you didn't want to eat in the water, such as carrots and stems, and boil to simmer them. Remove them from the broth before including the veggies you do want in the soup.  You may also throw in bones recently saved from another meal.

For about a gallon of broth, use about two cups of lentils unless you want a very thick type soup.

Tradition is that carrots go into the broth as well as a BAY LEAF  (Greek Laurel) and onions. They say Bay leaves add SOUL. But you are being adventurous as well as thrifty so we have to think about what we have in the garden or on hand.

Skillet cooking veggies and spices first:

Cut up whatever veggies you have into smallish pieces including kale, celery, cabbage, onions, garlic, carrots, and cook them first in a pan till semi soft, with some olive or coconut oil...  garlic first, onions next, then the celery, just a minute or two between, overall about ten minutes over low heat. Kale is called a nutrition superstar packed with vitamins and minerals. Cabbage has vitamin C, more than citrus. So do peppers. Then mix all these veggies in your broth. Tradition is to use the celery ribs.  I use leaves and all.  (Leaves that are going yellow should be plucked.)

This pan is also where to put spices that need the cooking to release their powers. For an East Indian flavor consider adding cumin, curry powder, or even the masala type spices that are sold in small boxes. Of course your favorite paprika can please. One teaspoon or less is usually enough to spice up a gallon of soup for European tastes.

You can also use cilantro as a garnish or include it or parsley into your soup.

If you use canned vegetables, they are already cooked, so add them and the juice in the can at the end of the cooking, so they don't turn into tasteless and limp veggies. 

You can also use rice (about one third cup dry is about one cup cooked) or potato. Rice can be white or brown and I suggest that, while it will cook in broth, timing is important, as it will do so in about ten to twenty minutes.  So I cook rice separately. rinse it, and put it in the soup towards the end of the cooking. By putting the rice on the side, some of your family may decide they want the soup without it. Both are starches and I think should be added towards the end of the cooking.

Now, some people cook the lentils on the side, then put half in a blender, so adding two different lentil textures to the broth. If you have no broth, you can easily make a lentil-rich dish that will go over rice or potato instead.

C 2023 Magyar-American BlogSpot

ROSE WREATH

 

HUNGARICANA DATABASES FOLK MUSIC! CHOOSE A REGION and PLAY THE MUSIC!

Check out the MUSIC!  Hear a song that your ancestors may have sung. In some cases the sheet music is also available!

https://zti.hungaricana.hu/en/

What a wonderful opportunity to hear music from the nation of Hungary!

MONTH OF MARY : APPLE BLOSSOMS and LITTLE ALTARS

My childhood memory is of going into an old apple orchard and cutting off branches that held blossoms, putting these in jars or vases on the window cill near a statue of Mary.  (We did not do Maypole dances.)  What might have been especially special was the knowing that honoring Mary was honoring mothers, perhaps all females, and that we were girls.

THE POPE VISITS THE YOUNG PEOPLE - GIFTED A BOTTLE OF WINE and a RUBIK'S CUBE : YOUTH GATHERING

I do realize that some people think Pope Francis I is too liberal and that Hungary is undergoing a conservative outlook. But who or what can be labeled 'liberal' or 'conservative' changes all the time. At this distance, since I live in the United States, it's my feeling that Hungary needs stability and is seeking a national identity that is always entwined with the founding of the nation as a Roman Catholic country - a Christian country. 

The message for peace and harmony is International and not dependent on religious beliefs. In recent weeks I've tried to familiarize myself with all the military actions and wars in the region of the past. I watched the Oliver Stone documentary that came out in 2018 and wonder what he thinks now that Russia has gone into Ukraine. There were and are peaceful ways to go about this, especially when you consider the economic costs as well as the horrible toll on the psyche's of the citizens.

My observations watching this : The modern Christian music feels like what is more common in Christian - Protestant churches in America, including some that consider themselves to be Bible Based Fundamentalist. It also feels a bit like what we call a "revival." The testimonial aspect also feels Christian - Protestant to me.

That said, I respect the program and the people who are testifying and the outreach to the young people, whose parents or grandparents likely lived in the Communist times.

I respect the inclusion of the Greek Catholics.

POPE FRANCIS I VISIT TO HUNGARY : ENGLISH TRANSLATION :

POPE FRANCIS IN HUNGARY - HOLY MASS AN REGINA COELI PRAYER 

He urged young people to be peacemakers.  We must all try...

He visited Saint Elizabeth Greek Catholic Church...

Cries of Papa!  Papa! can be heard...

Beautiful voices singing prayerful adorations.

In this article by BBC, it's said that Pope Francis has made this journey, his first to Hungary, as an anti-migrant stance by the government there goes against his beliefs.  However, the people of Hungary have taken in more refugees from the Russian war against Ukraine than any other country.

BBC - EUROPE : POPE FRANCIS I MASS BUDAPEST

DINNER -GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

 Magyar-American BlogSpot features 

Hungarian-American genealogy tips and resources, and posts on

Society and Culture of Hungary and the Hungarian-American Community.

WATER FAIRIES : HUNGARIAN FOLK TALES

A "happy ever after" ending, I wonder at the nature spirit of water,

VERA and DONALD BLINKEN OPEN SOCIETY LIBRARY at CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY : COLD WAR - COMMUNISM - HUMAN RIGHTS

Where have I been to not have known of this research library in Budapest?  Thanks to a YouTube video by a woman who did research there, I might not have heard of it. 

Excerpt from website:  The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) at Central European University (CEU) is a complex archival institution.  OSA is both a repository of important collections, primarily related to the history of the Cold War and grave international human rights violations....

OSA ARCHIVE START PAGE - BUDAPEST

YOUTUBE OSA ARCHIVE - PLAYLISTS - VIDEO COLLECTION

Bettina Fabos briefly tells of her use of the OSA archive in order to tell her family story.  Hardly recovered from the losses they endured during World War II by 1949 Communism was the next to persecute farmers who were independent, meaning they owned their own land.  Ms. Fabos is a college professor in the United States. She worked with police archives, newspapers, cartoons, and much more.

LARD PORK LARD - REFORMKONYHA - HEALTHY EATING : HUNGARIAN/ HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN STERETYPES

A stereotype of Hungarians is the use of pig - hog - pork fat - LARD in every recipe. In fat, a prize pig is mostly LARD.

This item can barely be found on supermarket shelves in California.  I swear this is true.  Maybe twenty years ago you could find some in blocks.  Even the tubs of Crisco, a pure white sanitized shortening, that were available when I was first learning to cook seem to have gone missing... You can find lard on the bottom shelf of some Mexican grocers, which there are very many of.

Onions, paprika, lard... It turns out that while the die-hard traditional Hungarian cooks are using their recipes that call for pork lard, the reformkonyha Hungarians are moving towards vegetable oil and poultry.  However it is very difficult to impossible to cook authentic Hungarian meals and go vegetarian or - goddess help us - vegan.  (That said, I've tried to work it - all the spices and vegetables - in olive oil or butter.  It's tasty but I can't compare with authentic Hungarian.)

Sour cream is also an essential for traditional Hungarian cooking. That said, a significant percentage of Europeans become or are lactose intolerant. (It's true that most lactose intolerant people can eat or imbibe a small amount of cow milk product and that switching to goat milk can often work and that some people only develop this inability to digest as they age.)

If you are adverse to animal fats of any sort, perhaps watching your waistline expand, you might be able to up your Hungarian authenticity by where you serve your meal.  An outdoor garden, a checkered tablecloth, real, not plastic, utensils, and the right attitude may make all the difference.

So the jury is out.  Is this STILL a Hungarian / Hungarian-American stereotype of not?

C 2023 Magyar American BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

FARINA MUFFINS : YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A BABY TO EAT FARINA! : FOOD BANK RECIPES by MAGYAR-AMERICAN

Hello my Dear Readers,

If you read my blog for any length of time, you know that I've done volunteer work in providing hot meals as well as doing food bank food distribution. That's a past experience now for me, but I know that budgets are strained and that many people who never thought they would need the help have gotten their families free food from one location or another during Covid-19 closures and since then, as rents, gasoline, and so much else has gotten too expensive. I know that many people are faced with ingredients they may not be familiar with. I know that there is a question of nutrition involved and that with the price of meat and seafood what it is many people are moving towards a vegetarian diet without really wanting to. I decided that I will post a FOOD BANK RECIPE from time to time to help you all. The idea is to help you use items that are often included in bags.

FARINA, usually used to make a hot, mushy, cereal is WHEAT.  These muffins are high in IRON.

FARINA MUFFINS

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Line "cupcake" tins with either paper baking cups or lightly grease the bottoms to ease release of these muffins.

Dry Ingredients:

1 and 1/4 cup flour (All Purpose suggested but I've tried Unbleached and so on)

1 cup farina

1/4 cup of sugar (Or less: I've used as little as 1/6th a cup, even using sugar packets that you can get when you buy coffee out.)

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (not baking soda)

1 teaspoon salt.

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup milk (plain water can be substituted)

1/4 cup of oil  (If there is no oil to be had, try using yogurt or applesauce)

1 egg

Mix the Dry Ingredients Together well, just stir around by hand.

Mix the Wet Ingredients together too and then mix into the Dry, completely moistened but not soppy.

Don't spend a lot of time at it.

Just fill the cups about 2/3rds and put them in that pre-heated oven. They will appear light golden brown in about fifteen to twenty minutes. This recipe makes about a dozen.

I like the grittier texture to these muffins which can be like corn meal muffins.

You can add some herbs to these too.

Right out of the oven with some butter, really yummy.

Also good with soup.  (I've been known to throw a farina muffin right in the soup!)

C 2023 Magyar - American BlogSpot

DEAK FERENC - THE SAGE OF THE COUNTRY - WHO WAS HE IN HUNGARIAN HISTORY?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica Ferenc Deak byname The Sage of the COuntry, Hungarian A Haza Bolcse, (born Oct 17, 1803, Sojtor, Hungarian, Austrian Empire died Jan 28/29 1976 Budapest) Hungarian statesman whose negotiations led to the establishment of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

THE RISEN JESUS

 

TULIP SPRING