Hungarian Kitchen: Tökfőzelék fasírttal (Squash w/ meatl

Now to venture away from the stereotypical Hungarian fare of goulash and paprikash. I didn't want to leave anyone with the impression that Hungarians don't eat vegetables, so I decided to cook up some főzelék (creamed vegetables). Creamed vegetables are a Hungarian staple, and you can find them being served everywhere in Budapest: from school cafeterias, to the food stands at the outdoor markets, to even little buffets that specialize in főzelék and nothing else. Supplemented with a little meat patty, they make a filling, complete, and very economical lunch, usually around $2 or so.

Many different types of vegetables can be made into főzelék. The most common ones are squash, kohlrabi, spinach, carrots, green beans, and sorrel. Kohlrabi is my personal favorite but my local grocer doesn't carry it, so I settled on squash, my second favorite vegetable for this dish.

Here's most of what you'll need:



Butter, sour cream, banana pepper, onion, salt, vinegar, dill, squash

(also, not pictured: flour, paprika)

Start by roughly grating two or so pounds of peeled, seeded squash. I used yellow squash, but you can use zucchini, as well. Usually, some type of summer squash is use, but I can't see any reason you couldn't use a winter squash like butternut or even pumpkin.



Sprinkle over a couple teaspoons of salt, and let rest for about 30 minutes.



After 30 minutes, heat 5 tablespoons of butter in a pot. Add one finely diced small onion. Cook until translucent. Add 5 tablespoons of flour. Stir and cook through for about 2 or 3 minutes. Lower the heat to the lowest setting, and add about 1/2 teaspoon or so of paprika (optional):



Add 1/2 cup of chopped dill and stir to combine:



Pour off the liquid from the squash, and add the shredded squash and the chopped banana pepper to the pot:



Mix thoroughly, and add about 3/4 cup of water or milk. (I used water). Stir, cover, and let cook over a low/medium-low heat. When the squash is about 1/2 cooked (after 15 minutes), add one tablespoon of vinegar.

Continue cooking. When the squash is cooked through, but still retains a little bit of bite to it, add 3/4 cup of sour cream:



Stir and cook through, about 2 minutes more. Taste and adjust for salt.

You can stop here, and serve it straight up. Some people add a little more vinegar at the table. This can also be served with a fried egg (sunny side up) on top, or with some pörkölt (goulash) scooped over it. Also, instead of vinegar in the recipe, you can substitute pickle brine if you happen to have it (naturally fermented/lactic acid pickles are preferable) for the vinegar in the recipe.

However, my favorite way of eating főzelék is with fasírt, basically, a meatloaf patty. My next post will detail making fasírt.

For the fasírt, you will need the following:



Bakery buns, black pepper, bread crumbs, paprika, garlic cloves, mustard, salt, pork, eggs, onion

From here, it's pretty much your standard meatloaf type recipe. Start by soaking three buns in water:



Squeeze out the water, and add the following (for two pounds of pork): three eggs, two teaspoons salt, one teaspoon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, four finely minced garlic cloves, one finely chopped small onion, 1/2 teaspoon pepper.



Mix thoroughly with your hands, then add pork:



Mix bread mixture and pork mixture together. If your mixture is too wet (because you didn't squeeze the bread out well enough), that's no problem. Just add bread crumbs until you get a consistency where the meat mixture holds its shape:



You can let the meat rest for awhile, if you'd like, to let the flavors meld together a little. While you're waiting, preheat an oven to 350 degrees, and get a baking dish or other oven vessel ready--we're going to brown the patties on the stovetop and finish in the oven.

Heat a well-oiled pan over medium-high heat. Pour a handful of breadcrumbs into a dish. Grab a slightly-larger-than-golfball-sized piece of meat, and flatten gently into a pudgy disc. Dip in breadcrumbs:



Brown well on both sides in a pan:



Transfer to baking dish, and continue browning the rest of the meat by batches.

When you're done browning, transfer to oven:



Cook until done. It should take about 20-30 minutes. When finished the patties should be light and moist from all the soaked bread. Serve with the creamed vegetables to complete your meal:

Binko, that's just beautiful. Thanks for all your recent recipe posts - I am following eagerly.

I usually make mine with zucchini, seeing this post though, I'm apt to try it this weekend with some squash.

All these posts really remind me that I should be less lazy and pull some of my cooking photos off my memory card.

Excellent job as usual!

Erzsi wrote:I usually make mine with zucchini, seeing this post though, I'm apt to try it this weekend with some squash.

All these posts really remind me that I should be less lazy and pull some of my cooking photos off my memory card.

Please do! And if you have any other variations, please comment. As for squash, the most common one in Hungary I saw was something that looked like a pale green spaghetti squash, but had a different flesh than a spaghetti squash. I have no idea what the English name would be, and I can't find any good pictures on the internet of it. If I remember, I'll take some photos when I head up there in March. As I mentioned, zucchini can certainly be used in the recipe and that variation is often called cukkini főzelék (although I seem to recall that Paprikash Restaurant makes their tökfőzelék with zucchini).

These look terrific, and I'm hoping to try them this weekend. Thanks for the terrific photos to go along with the recipes.

Suzy

Mhays wrote:Binko, that's just beautiful. Thanks for all your recent recipe posts - I am following eagerly.

I must admit, Bridgestone has been my inspiration. After trying about half a dozen of his recipes and expanding my practically non-existent knowledge of Swedish food (the kalops recipe, in particular, has become standard fare at chez Binko), I wanted to do the same thing with Hungarian food and see where it goes. I just wish I had the natural light of his beautiful kitchen!

sdritz wrote:These look terrific, and I'm hoping to try them this weekend. Thanks for the terrific photos to go along with the recipes.

Suzy

One word of warning, which should be obvious, but bears pointing out. The recipe calls for a lot of dill (I used 1/2 cup for two pounds of squash.) I know quite a few people who have a very strong aversion to dill, so keep that in mind. You can go a lot easier on the dill if you wish. I suppose you can omit it, too, but for creamed squash, the dill is part of the traditional preparation. (But, I'll admit, the decorative dill for the final photo is a bit of overkill. I just wanted to pretty up the dish a little.)

Your presentation looks wonderful, Binko. I've eaten more than my share of this dish, and love it. Most of the Hungarians I know seem to have an affinity for zucchini, green beans, and spinach, but I'd like to try kohlrabi sometime, it sounds like it would be a great choice.

Cogito wrote:Your presentation looks wonderful, Binko. I've eaten more than my share of this dish, and love it. Most of the Hungarians I know seem to have an affinity for zucchini, green beans, and spinach, but I'd like to try kohlrabi sometime, it sounds like it would be a great choice.

When making the kohlrabi version of this dish, I usually leave out the paprika and onions (or I use one very small onion). Substitute parsley for the dill (but don't go as heavy on the parsley as I did with the dill--use about one tablespoon at most for a kilo of kohlrabi). And I finely dice the kohlrabi, rather than grating it. Skip the vinegar, and possibly add a little bit of sugar, if you wish. Also, you can go much easier on the roux, as kohlrabi doesn't release as much liquid as squash. Use two tablespoons of flour and butter.

My girlfriend-at-the-time's mother used to send over creamed kohlrabi with pork meatballs from time to time, and it was one of my favorite dishes. I love the more assertive flavor of kohlrabi but, then again, I have an affinity for any vegetables from the genus Brassica.