Today we have a classic from Czech pubs. Utopenci is a jar of pickled hot dogs, onions and spices. It is a necessary addition to all czech pubs, usually to be found near the tap.

The name Utopenci has deep roots in the Czech soul and humor. Utopenci were invented 100 years ago by Mr.  Šamánek who owned a mill and a pub in Beroun. The pickled hot-dogs were very popular and his pub was famous throughout the country. As life has its irony, he drowned on day while fixing his mill’s wheel. Czechs love black humor and they named this classic Utopenci – Drowned men.

I decided to post this video, because it reflects the era of socialist pub culture, which spans the late 50′s until mid 90′s of the past century. This is the period when the pub was the gathering place of ordinary Czech men, and a very important institution where the men had to fight for social positions and made their most important life decisions. At 3:30 pm the men came home after a hard day’s work, and after a well-deserved lunch they would set off to the pub. They had to rush, because the pubs were open only until 9  pm. As soon as the last round was called (usually known by the fact that the smoke in the air could be cut by a dull knife)  they had a hard “orientational” walk home where they would be shouted at and beaten by pasta-roller wielding Czech women – the wives.  This song reflects the hardship of the Czech men. In this video you could see the hard fight for social acceptance, and of course the original beer tap which was in use in all pubs in Czechoslovakia for almost 50 years. As a sign of the sour future to come, the main character helps himself to utopenci. During this presentation you will be able to see how the air thickens as a sign that time is running out and slowly they have to start the journey home.

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Utopenci – Drowned Men

There are plenty of variations for utopenci. Originally, utopenci were not spciy so you can leave out the chili. The very basic recipe is the first 10 ingredients. After that you can use your imigination – some people add mustard or mustard seeds, horse radish, pickled cucumbers, Worcester sauce, olives etc. I have added tomatoes because Katy likes pickled tomatoes so why not?

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups water
• 1.5 cups 8% white vinegar
• 10 whole pepper corns
• 4pc allspice
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 pounds of thick hot-dogs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 5 cloves garlic
• 4-5 big onions
• 2 chilies
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 2 cups of sauerkraut

Method

• Mix the water, vinegar, salt, sugar and the spices and bring them to boil. Boil them for 2 minutes and then let the liquid cool.
• Peel the hot-dogs, chop the onions into circles. Peel the tomatoes. The trick with tomatoes is to put them into boiling water for 20 sec. After that it is very easy to pop them out of their skin.
• Prepare a 4.2 pint (2liter) jar. Start to layer onions, garlic, hot-dogs, sauerkraut, chilies. You can do few layers. On the top I have put the tomatoes.
• Once the vinegary liquid is lukewarm, pour it into the jar. Shake the jar in order to get rid of bubbles. Do not leave out the spices and put them into the jar. Seal the jar and put it into a cool place or fridge for 2 weeks. If you are going crazy you can eat them in one week, but two weeks is the etiquette. In the fridge they will take longer to mature.
• Serve with rustic bread and plenty of pilsner. Do not forget to invite me over.

It is time to drink yourself to death in order to celebrate the new year. At least that’s what we do in central Europe. Along with huge amounts of alcohol we also serve plenty of food and we blow ourselves up with firecrackers and fireworks.  We have a  saying: “as it is on New Year’s Day, so it will be all year”. Maybe that is why Hungary has one of the highest suicide rates and Slovaks and Czechs are heavy drinkers.

I have a few tips for you how to avoid hangovers or “still drunk” stages on New Year’s day, and also a description of a typical Central European sandwich.

One of the classics for any celebration is a sandwich. It is not a sandwich as the world knows it, two slices of bread with yummy things in between.  No, no. This one is open, fancy and full of anti-hangover properties. Here is how you should make it. We do not offer this sandwich only on New Year’s but also on any occation, including long meetings.

Take a slice of white bread, spread butter, add salami (not too spicy, rather fatty), add a slice of pickle, slice of a hard boiled egg, blob of mustard or ketchup or both,  grate cheese over it and you are set. Make hundreds of these and your New Year party will be great.  Bread, butter, salami, cheese will fill your stomach so the alcohol is absorbed more slowly (the fats will especially protect you). The egg yolk, pickle and mustard are full of vitamin C and minerals so they will help you a bit to avoid hangovers – a perfect snack for your party!

I don’t know why is this different then wienerschnitzel or a grilled pork chop, but it is. I thought this meal is only special to me; as a kid I used to request it all the time, and it was always my dad who cooked it for me. But I grew up and this pork chop became forgotten. Until one day I made it again.

You should know that our son does not eat, but rather he lives off the dust particles he breathes in. One day when I had been chasing the kids all on my own, I decided to refuel myself with my dad’s pork chops. After I managed to convince my (at that time 3 year old) son to try it I was shocked. He ate it. My first though was that everybody gets hungry after eating only dust particles for 2 years, right? Well, after a week I made it again, and it was eaten again. And he still keeps eating it.

The recipe is simple:

get a pork chop, pound it flat, salt it, sprinkle flour over it, tap it to shake off the excess flour. Fry it on a non-stick pan with a little oil (like 2-3 tbsp).

With this recipe I plan to save the world from the economic crisis. Not because it is cheap to make, but because the tradition says that if you eat this soup on New Year’s Eve, the lentils represent coins. Your wealth next year depends on how many lentils you will eat. You guessed right, we eat tons of this soup. We try our best to eat many, many coins in order to pay for our dreams or blog hosting costs.

Before New Year’s Eve, we have this soup as a Christmas dish.  Most families in Central Europe have fish soup, but our and other cool families prefer this amazing lentil soup. Since Katy joined the family, we also have this soup many times during the year. My mum makes it the best, but I have gotten good at it too. And I even developed a vegetarian version especially for Katy.  Here I mention both, the classic with sausage, and the vegetarian version. Enjoy and get rich!

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Lentil Soup – classic version

The only meat in this soup is a Hungarian-style smoked paprika sausage (not hot). Gyulai kolbasz or Debreceni kolbasz are ok. Do not skimp on the quality, since you need just a little bit of it. Please do not use fancy vinegars. The rule here is cheap white vinegar. You can use any mushrooms, no need for anything exotic, but for the most authentic results you can use dried European wild mushrooms. The more varieties, the better the soup. Instead of sour cream you can use cream or 1/2 cream and 1/2 sour cream. For a fancy occasion I go for cream, when I am making it just for us, I use sour cream.

Ingredients

Makes 4 portions

• 1 cup dried lentils
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp sugar – optional but good
• 7 cups water
• 1 Turkish bay leaf or 1/2 Californian one
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms or handful of dried ones
• 2 tbs white vinegar or 3 tsp of lemon juice
• 1 cup sour cream or cream
• 1 cup or more sliced Hungarian style sausage
• 2ts flour

Method

• Wash the lentils, put them into a pot together with water, 3 cloves of crushed garlic (just hit it hard once with your palm), bay leaf, salt, sausage and mushrooms.
• Cook on low heat. When lentils get soft (40min to 1 hour). Add the sour cream/cream. In order to prevent curdling, put the sour cream into a bigger bowl and gradually add some of the hot soup, maybe a quarter-cup at a time to bring up the sour cream’s temperature. Then add the mixture back into the soup and bring it to a boil. (boil it for 2min)
• Now soup is almost ready. Let it cool a bit (like 5-10 min) and then add the vinegar and sugar.
• Depending on your taste, add more salt,vinegar or sugar.
• You can serve it with more sour cream and parsley.

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Lentil Soup – vegetarian version

This is a vegetarian version of the amazing lentil soup. The quasi roux is for imitating the spiciness of the sausage. You could try adding a little Spanish smoked paprika (pimentón) for even more sausaginess. As above, use cream, sour cream, or a mixture according to your taste.

Ingredients

Makes 4 portions

• 1 cup dried lentils
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 7 cups of water
• 1 tsp sugar -optional but good
• 1 Turkish bay leaf or 1/2 Californian one
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms or hand full of dried ones
• 2 tbs white vinegar or 3 tsp of lemon juice
• 1 cup sour cream
• For the roux
• 1.5 tbs of vegetable oil
• 2tsp flour
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Method

• Wash the lentils, put them into a pot together with water, 1 clove of crushed garlic (just hit it hard once with your palm), bay leaf, salt, and mushrooms.
• Cook over low heat. When the lentils are slowly getting soft (cca 30min) make the roux. In a separate pan add oil, and start to fry smashed garlic and the black pepper. Add flour and when the flour is a bit brown, add the paprika, stir and add it to the soup. The process has to happen fast, because you do not want to burn the garlic or the paprika.
• Continue simmering over low heat. When lentils get soft (40min to 1hour). Add the sour cream/cream. In order to prevent curdling, put the sour cream into a bigger bowl and gradually add some of the hot soup, maybe a quarter-cup at a time to bring up the cream’s temperature. Then add the mixture back into the soup and bring it to a boil. (boil it for 2min)
• Now soup is almost ready. Let it cool a bit (like 5-10 min) and then add the vinegar and the sugar.
• Depending on your taste add more salt,vinegar or sugar.
• You can serve it with more sour cream and parsley.

Gulyás in Hungarian means shepherd or cowboy – somebody who tends cattle. And that’s where the name for the food comes from: while gulyás were off far away from their homes they made food from the available ingredients. For these trips they brought things that kept well: bacon, herbs and spices. In the beginning they ate it with bread and there were no potatoes or fancy stuff involved. The real revolution in cooking gulyás started in the nineteenth century when it found its way to home kitchens and restaurants. That’s when the potatoes, paprika and other things started to be used. In all cases, the gulyás is a thick soup or thin stew made of onions, peppers, tomatoes and spice with added meat, potatoes or other ingredients depending on the region or the person who makes it.

Where do people make mistakes? There are plenty of Hungarian “gulyás-like” dishes which are not gulyás like:

Tokány – tokány is a meaty dish. The onions are steamed and not sautéed, and the meat is cut into strips. It has a thick consistency.

Pörkölt – most mistaken for gulyás. The basis for pörkolt is very gulyás-like, but while gulyás has a thick soup- almost stew-like consistency, pörkölt has a thick, true stew consistency. The basis is just onions, peppers, tomatoes, cubes of meat, spices and a little bit of liquid. It is poured over dumplings (nokedli) or eaten with bread.

Paprikás –is almost like pörkölt, but is prepared a bit differently. Some regions do not differentiate and they make only one kind of paprikás,  the famous chicken paprikas.

Czech Hungarian Guláš – this fake gulyás is a part of Czech cuisine. Basically, it is simplified pörkölt eaten with knedlíky (steamed bread), a Czech speciality. With a good local beer, it is a tasty Czech classic, but it is not Hungarian gulyás. I wonder why they don’t call it Czech goulash?

Czech/Slovak Szegedínsky Guláš – this is a weird meal. It is a pork stew with sauerkraut and sour cream. It is also eaten with knedlíky. I have to say I rather like it. The oddity is that it has nothing to do with gulyás or with the Hungarian city of Szeged.

Gulyás Leves – clear beef soup with root vegetables.

Gulyás, together with Hungarian fish soup (Halászlé), is the barbecue of the Hungarian people. Imagine a burger. You can make in a pan at home, but what a difference when you grill it on a barbecue! Similarly, gulyás is traditionally made in a huge pot over an open fire. Often families will organize a cookout, where everyone hangs around playing soccer, arguing over politics, drinking beer and waiting for the gulyás to be ready. It’s not at all uncommon in the summer months to see groups of people climbing into trains at the Budapest stations, carrying a gulyás pot and three-legged stand to go somewhere in the countryside for a picnic. If you decide to serve gulyás, make gulyás and not something else. It is like asking for a hamburger in a Hungarian fast-food stand and receiving an unidentifiable object and lettuce on a bun. (Which is also a classic here, but that’s a story for another post.)

Here is a recipe and a video on how to cook gulyás, featuring a gulyás master, a.k.a. my dad. Enjoy.