There is not a mistake in the title – yes, it is Valeria. Valeria was my grandmother, who I never met, but I was named after her. Everybody in the family remembers her as an amazing cook and queen of Hungarian recipes.  During the war (WWII), she ran a small workers’ kitchen, and her cooking is still remembered by those who outlived her. The problem with my grandmother’s recipes is that she wrote them for herself. She did not write a lot about how to prepare this cake,  at which temperature to cook it, how long to cook it, what kind of cake pan to use. I tried to check online and asked some friends but when I mentioned the ingredients, they said “no flour? you must be missing a page!”. So I looked into early twentieth and late nineteenth-century cookbooks, and there it was. Potato torte,  at least 4-5 versions. Mr. Kugler (a Hungarian pastry celebrity from the early twentieth century) explains a lot about the cake, but my questions were still unanswered.  It seems that since then this recipe has been forgotten. So we had to experiment and bring it back. The main difference between my grandmother’s and Mr. Kuglers recipe is that my grandmother wrote it during or right after war, so she used a limited range of ingredients.  Her version of the cake is great not only for people with gluten intolerance but for people watching their fat intake and for people who watch their wallets. A great cake for hard economical times.

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I have never seen this except in Central Europe. But here it is a classic, served as a side dish with deep fried items. My best combo: parsley potatoes, pork chops in flour (see the recipe) and peach or pear compote. Such a treat! [Read more →]

My parents make roasted brussel sprouts and potatoes together with different types of Hungarian sausages (paprika sausage, blood sausage and liver sausage). The result is an amazing well-balanced meal floating in grease.

Example of the “hurka”, hungarian blood and liver sausage

Katy is a vegetarian (…I know, how could I have married her ? )  and she will not touch the this fabulous sausagy heavenly meal. In order to introduce her to brussel sprouts I made up this adaptation. The onions and the garlic partly imitate the full flavors of the sausages. It is a fantastic combination; roasted brussel sprouts are just amazing and a good way to (re)introduce this super food into your diet.

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