Marshall's Guide to Hungarian Cooking

Photo by  Katalin Varga

I recently tried cooking goulash. It wasn’t a failure, but I wouldn’t say it was a resounding success either. It was decent, edible... and we’ll leave it at that.

The edible goulash is my most recent foray into Hungarian cuisine. Scrambled eggs with onions and paprika was my first, and easiest, move – though it took a few attempts to get it right (fry the onions first, sprinkle in the paprika, wait a minute, add the eggs). I’ve made pörkölt – a paprika flavoured meat stew – with some success and no complaints (although I was the only one eating it).

Lately, my best dish has been the lécso. This is paprika-flavoured stew (yeah, I put paprika in almost everything) of onions, peppers, and tomatoes with meat or sausage, or meat and sausage, or meat, sausage, and eggs. 

All I knew about Hungarian cuisine when I arrived was goulash, but I’ve gotten good at making lécso. It’s cheap and healthy and you can put in as much meat as you want, because a meal ain’t a meal in Hungary unless there's meat and onions.

I’m a lazy cook too. I’m not good at fussing over ingredients or worrying about spices and all that junk. I just want to throw my stuff into a pot with a bunch of paprika and eat it. If I get leftovers for a few lunches, even better.

Lécso suits my laziness. it’s a breeze to make and what can go wrong with a food that includes a lot of onions and paprika? Start with the lécso and see how Magyar you get in the kitchen.

All you need is:

Fatty bacon (You can use oil, but you lose out on the Hungarian-ness)

A bunch of tomatoes

A bunch of large onion 

Two bunches of big red or green

A chili pepper

Smoked paprika (the spice)

Sausage (Hungarians use a sort of Frankfurter, I like spicy sausage. But really, almost any meat is fine.)

Cook the bacon until the fat is melted and add your onions. Cook those until they’re soft-ish and add two teaspoons of the smoked paprika. Cook for a little bit longer, then add the peppers. Drink some wine, let the peppers soften, add the sausage. Let those cook a bit then add the tomatoes and one more teaspoon of paprika. Put the lid on and let it all stew. If you're feeling adventurous, whisk a few eggs and stir them into the stew. Serve with a slab of bread (I like the dark rye) and have some more wine.