Hungry for Hungary-HELEN'S HUNGARIAN HERITAGE RECIPES ™©2006

Local News - November 22, 2008 - Brantford Expositor

Brantford, Ontario, Canada

Hungry for Hungary

Mother-daughter team create new cookbook

HELEN'S HUNGARIAN HERITAGE RECIPES ™©2006

  Posted By HEATHER IBBOTSON, EXPOSITOR STAFF

Do you crave cabbage rolls, drool over dumplings or get all atwitter about torte?

Recipes for these favourites and more than 300 others are included in the latest 312-page edition of
Helen's Hungarian Heritage Recipes.

The cookbook, based on the culinary magic of Helen Irene Czegeny, of Brantford, is self-published by her daughter Clara Margaret Czegeny, of Paris, Ontario

The bulked-up fourth edition of the Hungarian cookbook debuted this summer, bursting with 325 recipes from the sublimely elegant Dobos Torte to the sublimely simple cabbage noodles.

The Czegenys will be at Coles at Lynden Park Mall on Saturday for a Taste and Sign from 1 p. m. to 3 p. m. where samples of goulash will be available as well as signed copies of the cookbook.

Nearly 3,000 copies of the cookbook have been sold since its first printing two years ago.

"I never dreamed something would come of it," said Helen, who remains amazed at the constant demand for the recipes she simply kept in her head.

Along with hundreds of mouth-watering recipes, the updated and expanded edition includes trivia, anecdotes, memories and traditions penned by Clara.

Recipes in the final chapter, Passport to International Fare, are a tribute to Helen's culinary talents in preparing classics and favourites from other lands.

Cooking is as natural to Helen as breathing.

STARTED COOKING AT 12

Now 82, she has been cooking since she was 12 when she began working for her great-aunt in the village of Hajduhadhaz, Hungary.

Helen and her husband, Alex, slipped out of Hungary in 1947 and went to Sweden, where they lived and worked on farms, until 1953 when they immigrated to Canada.

Her husband worked mostly at Massey Ferguson, but the family spent some years as tobacco sharecroppers in the Oakland, Scotland and Mount Pleasant area. Helen's hearty cooking was a natural hit with hard-working tobacco labourers at harvest time. The Czegenys returned to Brantford in 1963.

The cookbook was Clara's brainchild and originally was printed as a keepsake for family members in celebration of Helen's 80th birthday in 2006.

Everyone in the family was astounded and delighted when the book began to take off and requests for copies began pouring in, Clara said.

The self-publishing route has worked out well, Clara said, adding that maintaining control over the venture is important to her.

"This is fun and I want it to stay fun," she said. Still, putting together a cookbook is no cakewalk.

Helen prepared her recipes from memory. The ingredients, amounts and instructions were recorded and the results taste-tested. Recipes were fine-tuned if needed and then prepared again.

Somewhat challenging was the conversion of Helen's pinch-of-this and handful-of-that ingredients into proper cookbook measurements, Clara said.

Many a midnight was passed in the kitchen conducting taste tests, she said.

For ordering information, visit www.helenshungarianrecipes.com

TASTE AND SIGN

What: Taste and Sign with Helen and Clara Czegeny of Helen's Hungarian Heritage Recipes

Where:Coles at Lynden Park Mall

When:Saturday November 22, 2008 From 1 p. m. to 3 p. m.

Website: www.helenshungarianrecipes.com

Article ID# 1307004

Put a Little Paprika In Your Life!
================================

Clara's Sister Anne Lindsay congratulatory cookbook note says..."Clara and my mother Helen co-authored these amazing treasured Hungarian family recipes.

So, whether you crave Chicken Paprikas or Almas Retes, this authentic, beloved, cherished and Hungarian Heritage Recipe collection includes a vast array of national favourites, from appetizers through desserts. Learn about, create, and taste the flavours and culinary traditions of Hungary - from Cabbage Rolls to Poppy seed and Walnut Rolls and the famous regal Dobos Torte. It must have been an amazing task - God bless you both! Great Job!

To Gulyás or not to Goulash'

While writing the preamble to my Hungarian Pork Gulyás Soup recipe in our ever popular Hungarian Cookbook - called; Helen's Hungarian Heritage Recipes, I realized that the very name GOULASH conjures up all kinds of ideas, memories, cooking vessels, ingredients - maybe even the kitchen sink. (one can never be too sure)

So - after a long discussion with my 83 year Hungarian Mother, we decided to be a bit more explicit in our description so as to not only to entertain and entice cooks, but to inform and educate chefs and encourage them to give this classic Hungarian Dish an honest school try.

Here it is in all it's paprikás glory!
Goulash Soup (Gulyás) is a classic and traditional Hungarian soup. It is one of the five most popular meat dishes on the North American cooking scene. Although goulash/gulyás turns up on many German and Austrian menus and cookbooks, gulyás actually originated in Hungary and later spread beyond its borders, first to the Austrian Empire, Germany, and the Balkans, and finally around the world!

Hungarian gulyás traces its roots back to nomadic Magyar herdsmen in the ninth century. Shepherds cut meat into cubes and slowly stewed them in a heavy iron kettle over an open fire until the liquid evaporated. The meat was then spread out dry in the sun; an early convenience food; became totally portable as they followed their flocks across the vast expanse of Hungary's Great Plain. Water reconstituted the meat and by heating and adding some vegetables in a pot over a fire: the stew was ready. The consistency depended on the amount of liquid added. If more, the dish was called gulyás soup; if less, it was simply goulash/gulyás meat. In both cases it was eaten with spoons dipped into the communal cooking pot.


Hungarian Gulyas, as we know it today, did not develop until the beginning of the 19thC with the widespread cultivation of peppers in Hungary and the use of paprika as a popular spice. Originally it was considered peasant food, eaten primarily by country folk, farmers, shepherds, cowboys, and swineherds. With the rise of Hungarian nationalism in the second half of the 19thC, paprika-seasoned gulyás moved from the campsites and farmhouses to the tables of middle-class and wealthy city dwellers, to the menus of fashionable restaurants, and eventually across the globe.

Goulash/gulyás is now the Hungarian dish most widely known abroad. However, in many parts of the world, dishes called "goulash" bear little resemblance to the gulyás that originated in Hungary and is eaten there today. In Hungary, gulyás is a meat dish halfway between a soup and a stew, made with small cubes of meat (usually beef), no more than 3/4-inch in size, and flavoured with bacon or lard, onions, and paprika. Gulyás is traditionally served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon.

Put a little Paprika in your Life

Clara

http://www.helenshungarianrecipes.com/


Clara's Sister Anne Lindsay congratulatory cookbook note says..."Clara and my mother Helen co-authored these amazing treasured Hungarian family recipes.

So, whether you crave Chicken Paprikas or Almas Retes, this authentic, beloved, cherished and Hungarian Heritage Recipe collection includes a vast array of national favourites, from appetizers through desserts. Learn about, create, and taste the flavours and culinary traditions of Hungary - from Cabbage Rolls to Poppy seed and Walnut Rolls and the famous regal Dobos Torte. It must have been an amazing task - God bless you both! Great Job!