Hungarian Gulyas Festival

This weekend marked the sixth annual Hungarian Gulyas Festival at on the grounds of the Norridge United Hungarian Church of Christ
8260 W. Foster Ave.,
Norridge, IL 60706
http://www.gulyasfestival.com/

Saturday was more crowded than Sunday though both days are very tame and family friendly by festival standards. It felt more like a church picnic, which it kind of is. All you can eat Gulyas with a best recipe contest Saturday of at least a dozen types.

from the website:
Featured at the festival is a large sampling of the Hungarian kitchen which includes the bottomless gulyas pot, mititei, crêpes, kürtöskalács (rolled sweet dough), lángos (elephant ears), and a lot more!

All of the food was excellent and reasonably priced for a festival/fundraiser. The music and dancing were great and the activities for kids were a hit with our group aged 2 - 7.

There were many cauldrons going with the gulyas in different stages. The gulyas was served HOT 1 bowl at a time right from the pot over the fire with optional sour cream, jalapenos, fresh garlic, salt pepper, and of course rye bread

This gentleman was manning an enormous wooden spoon and the gulyas the entire time I was there Sunday,


here is the pot where they cook the beef and onions for hours


these shots are of the other pots with the gulyas. there were always at least 4 pots going. 1 of them was like a wood stove with a giant kettle for a top.






finally here is the nice lady serving up another bowl for me.



updated to correct photos and spelling

No photo is visible for me.

=R=

#%^*!!

Wish we had known about this ahead of time. Marking my calendar for next year.

#%^*!! is right. Grrrrrr....wish I had known about this.

Hi,

I finally can see the photos. Wow, I will not miss it next year. Please post it on Events so everyone and anyone can go.

Regards,

Yes this looks great!!!

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I finally can see the photos. Wow, I will not miss it next year. Please post it on Events so everyone and anyone can go.

Regards,

Totally agree. Awesomeness. Thank you so much tcf, for posting this.

=R=

That looks awesome but I don't know what all them weird half-moon looking vegetables are doing in there. Animal fat, onions, paprika and beef are what make a proper Gulyas. You with me Binko?

Nah - that looks great. And so does this festival. Those big cauldron things are very traditional. Hopefully make it next year inshallah.

Habibi wrote:That looks awesome but I don't know what all them weird half-moon looking vegetables are doing in there. Animal fat, onions, paprika and beef are what make a proper Gulyas. You with me Binko?

Nah - that looks great. And so does this festival. Those big cauldron things are very traditional. Hopefully make it next year inshallah.

The half-moon vegetables are potatoes. The ubiquitous use of new world foods has always been something I was curious about, especially in Transylvania where corn (mamaliga) is the most common and cultural staple. I never met anyone who had much knowledge of older recipes but on Sunday one of our party had a cook book they picked up with Transylvanian recipes dating back to pre Americas. Supposedly an English version is being sold at Dracula's castle in Romania and we hope to get our hands on it soon - it sounds fascinating.

For the purists I will also admit I saw a lot of food service paprika around at the event. The food was fantastic but as others have mentioned on this board the good quality Hungarian paprika is hard to come by in the states.

Habibi wrote:That looks awesome but I don't know what all them weird half-moon looking vegetables are doing in there. Animal fat, onions, paprika and beef are what make a proper Gulyas. You with me Binko?

Potatoes are pretty much required, but it's also not unusual to see soup veggies like carrots, parsnips, and sometimes celariac in it. I like it with a bit of soup veggies, myself. It's pörkölt where you won't see potatoes in the stew itself (but may be served with them on the side.) Looks like one guy has a mix of red and green bell peppers going. I've said it before, but I've not been a fan of bell peppers in traditional Hungarian recipes. The green bells are just too "green" and strong flavored and the reds are a different flavor profile. You need something more thin-skinned and yellowish like a mild banana pepper or a gypsy pepper or something in that nature. But some US Hungarian cooks do make it that way. And it looks like one guy might be using marjoram there, as well. That's not totally unusual, but typically only paprika, caraway seeds, salt, and pepper are used (and even the caraway is optional.)

As for good quality paprika, it's actually not that difficult to find anymore, with places like the Spice House and Penzey's selling some very nice stuff from Hungary. And, I may have mentioned before, I was also quite impressed with their California paprika.

third coast foodie wrote:I never met anyone who had much knowledge of older recipes but on Sunday one of our party had a cook book they picked up with Transylvanian recipes dating back to pre Americas. Supposedly an English version is being sold at Dracula's castle in Romania and we hope to get our hands on it soon - it sounds fascinating.

You've piqued my curiosity: I've got a decent, if not large, collection of Romanian cookbooks (all in English; the only ones I've ever seen for sale there that look worthwhile are in Romanian only; the "touristy" ones have seemed less...dependable), some older than others. Do you recall the author or title of the one you saw? If it's not available here, I may be able to get it through an old friend in Bucuresti.

Bende's also sells paprika and other imported foods. I think they have several varieties and its imported from Hungary.

http://www.bende.com

One of the stores is on Roosevelt rd in glen ellyn.

toria wrote:Bende's also sells paprika and other imported foods. I think they have several varieties and its imported from Hungary.

http://www.bende.com

One of the stores is on Roosevelt rd in glen ellyn.

You can also find some of the Bende products (sausages, packaged goods) at Fresh Farms in Niles.

I find the paprika at The Spice House to be of excellent quality. It's flavorful and because they do a healthy turn, the color is always outstanding. They carry a few varieties of Hungarian and Spanish, and occasionally even have Hungarian "exquisite" grade.

=R=

Gypsy Boy wrote:

third coast foodie wrote:I never met anyone who had much knowledge of older recipes but on Sunday one of our party had a cook book they picked up with Transylvanian recipes dating back to pre Americas. Supposedly an English version is being sold at Dracula's castle in Romania and we hope to get our hands on it soon - it sounds fascinating.

You've piqued my curiosity: I've got a decent, if not large, collection of Romanian cookbooks (all in English; the only ones I've ever seen for sale there that look worthwhile are in Romanian only; the "touristy" ones have seemed less...dependable), some older than others. Do you recall the author or title of the one you saw? If it's not available here, I may be able to get it through an old friend in Bucuresti.

Here is a link to the cook book I saw at Bran Castle. It is in Romanian but our friends said they may now sell English versions.
http://librarie.carturesti.ro/draculinaria-290093

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran_Castle

Cooks Illustrated selected our Hungarian sweet paprika as the best in their blind tasting back in 2008. They continue to recommend it in their various media outlets, including their test kitchen videos. It caused our paprika sales to soar, even five years later, it is in our top 3 best selling products. My husband, who is our buying, takes paprika quality extremely seriously, he feels it is very important that the bar is set really high here. In fact, on his bucket list is visiting the paprika museum in Kalocsa, where, supposedly, you gently wake up the elderly gentleman in his rocking chair on the front porch, and he gives you the tour. (Hasn't made the travel planner's bucket list, however!)

Oops, just realized that you all may not know that I am talking about my company, the Spice House. My brother's company is Penzeys, they also take great pride in the quality of their products.

Bende sells a product called Gulasch Creme. It is great shortcut for making gulyas.

http://www.bende.com/univer-goulash-cream-p-354/

Bumping because I was pissed I missed this fest last year and will definitely hit it this year on the 13th. This year it will be on the 12th and 13th of July. Prepare.

Sauganaut wrote:Bumping because I was pissed I missed this fest last year and will definitely hit it this year on the 13th. This year it will be on the 12th and 13th of July. Prepare.

Thank you, I forgot about this and appreciate the reminder.

Regards,

Since I very nearly managed to forget this again, I thought it might be worth bumping one last time. Hoping to make it around dinnertime either Sat or Sun.

I was actually going to compete in this festival, but I didn't have a bogracs (kettle). The organizers were quite nice--they actually found an extra one earlier this week (after initially not having one when I first contacted them), but I had already made other plans that would cut in too close to the festival. I hope to compete next year! I'll definitely be there on Saturday or Sunday. Most likely Sunday, at this point. Hope to see some of you there! Every year this festival comes along, I manage to forget about it and miss it. This time, it's in the calendar!

At least the scouting this year will give me an idea of what the judges expect. I have NO idea how to go into a cooking competition like this. Do I do a straight-up traditional goulash? Something more concentrated? Lots of root veggies or none? Relatively thin broth or thick French-style heavy broth?

Binko wrote:I was actually going to compete in this festival, but I didn't have a bogracs (kettle).

I actually have a bogracs that you'd be welcome to use next year if you need it. I never heard it referred to as a bogracs. To me it's always been Bubbe's big soup kettle (She used it for big batches of matzo ball soup).

I'm interested in checking this out. Per the website, tickets are $20/day ($30 for both days). That seems a bit steep for a church festival. For those who have been in the past, I assume once you pay for admission, we are still paying for our food inside?

Thanks!

stevez wrote:

Binko wrote:I was actually going to compete in this festival, but I didn't have a bogracs (kettle).

I actually have a bogracs that you'd be welcome to use next year if you need it. I never heard it referred to as a bogracs. To me it's always been Bubbe's big soup kettle (She used it for big batches of matzo ball soup).

Bogracs (pronounced something like "bogrotch") is just the Hungarian word for it. Is it at least five gallons? I think that's the minimum required at the fest.

Binko wrote:
Bogracs (pronounced something like "bogrotch") is just the Hungarian word for it. Is it at least five gallons? I think that's the minimum required at the fest.

It might be a little small. IIRC, it's around 3 - 4 gallons. I've got it in storage, but I can check for sure if you need me to. I doubt it's 5 gallons, though.

If I'm reading the schedule right, if you want gulyas, you need to go Sunday afternoon, yes?

Octarine wrote:If I'm reading the schedule right, if you want gulyas, you need to go Sunday afternoon, yes?

To be absolutely, 100% certain, I just sent a quick e-mail to the info@ address and asked that question. As soon as I have an answer, I will share it here.

I just sent an email to the info address on the website with my question regarding whether the admission fee included any food, and their response was as follows:

The entrance fee includes unlimited gulyas consumption on site and all entertainment.
Besides the gulyas, we will sell kurtos kalacs (chimney cake), palacsinta (crepes), langos (fried dough), and more for extra charge.

There will be a LOT of gulyas both days - Saturday and Sunday.

And the response I received:

"We will have gulyas throughout both days!! - unlimited!! "

So I would guess you can show up whenever you want and get all the gulyas you can eat!