Hungary???

Dartmouth’s Lake Banook is holding the 2009 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships this week. It is the largest international sporting event ever held in Atlantic Canada. I have the opportunity to cater to a few of the teams that have come from around the globe. This is what has lead me to this blog installment.

http://www.canoe09.ca/

One of the teams I am participating in cooking for is team Hungary. I am among those believers that the simplest way to learn a nation is through its Cuisine.

For many Hungarians, lunch remains the main meal of the day. This is a lesson I will take through the week as we were refilling the buffet table endlessly at noon time. More is better.

Paprika is the spice of the week and we seasoned several dishes with this spicy vibrant colored powder. Hungary is a major producer of high-quality paprika, it ranges from very sweet with a deep bright red color to rather hot with a brownish orange color. The word paprika is the Hungarian word for "pepper". Paprika is a spice made from grinding dried red bell peppers into fine powder. What I learned is the spice should not be overwhelming or dominant in all dishes, yet it is a spice that is to enhance the flavor of the dish that is being prepared. This is a culinary evolution and has toned down over the culinary history of Hungary. Two dishes that I made for the evenings dinner were as followed;

Uborkasaláta (Cucumber Salad) consists of cucumbers, white onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, paprika, garlic and sour cream, lots of sour cream. It is not the most appealing looking of salads but refreshing and light. After a few dish changes and some garnish it was more appealing. Because cucumbers hold so much water it is best to salt the cucumber and allow the water to drain out into a colander at room temperature for several hours, having some sort of weight to press down assisting the cucumber to release the liquid.

The second dish I cooked using paprika was Csirkepaprikas (Chicken Paprikas) simple and delish!!!!
Simply... chicken cubed, chicken stock, paprika, onions, salt, vegetable oil/butter, garlic and sour cream. Saute onion and garlic in Veg oil or better yet butter, add chicken, salt and paprika let chicken cook through, add chicken stock let simmer thicken with sour cream. Served as a thick side dish, stew or on top of rice or pasta. I love it!

The most interesting dish we served was plain pasta with side dishes of powdered sugar, walnuts, strawberry jam and ground poppy seeds. Interesting combination! I am sure in the days to come I will be serving up more Hungary food perhaps some tasty goulash and more sweet treats!

Peeling the layers away

Last week I had an experience of repetition. Pealing and dicing onions, dicing tomatoes and deep frying nachos. In total, eight hours worth of these tasks. Long intensive labour. My hands were numb, my feet ached and my back felt like it would break. It put me in a bad mood, by my 6th hour I was longing to be done, I hated it, this was not an adventure I wanted any part of. I thought what the hell does this have to do with learning to cook. Through out the tasks I played games with myself seeing how fast I could get a tomato sliced and pressed through the dicer. Frying nachos for 10,000 people, how many could I do, how quickly? I counted how many onions it would take before I would shed a onion tear, I held off through 100 pounds. Not a tear shed untill I left the kitchen that day and not a result of the onion. I was cranky and unapproachable by the time I arrived home, I was resentful that I was in a kitchen full of cooks who were cooking and I was left with onions.... I ran a bath, poured some Chef Juice, griped on the phone about my onion day and crawled into bed putting me and my world out of the misery called Mandy, falling fast asleep.

I really did not give the day another thought until today... I was in a different kitchen, chopping, preparing, cooking doing all the things I love to do and then a realization came over me, I realized my hand was steadier, my fingers did not fumble towards the blade of my knife as they once did. I realized I was faster then I had been the week before, I was focused. I now know that my onion day was a very good day in my culinary learning, my day of prepping had given me was some very important lessons. It gave me repetition, it gave me practice to develop my knife skills, lessons in sequencing and organization. It gave me opportunities to work in a kitchen with other cooks and developing relationships that aid in my journey. I realize that every cook in that kitchen had been in my shoes, felt my aches and pains and I developed more of a respect for who they are and where they have been.

With this reflection I also remember a little light in the form of a autistic child who had eaten at the restaurant that day. He wanted nothing more then to see the kitchen. He was so beautiful and happy, shaking hands with all the cooks and tipping his hat. His smile was intoxicating. Had I not been prepping that day I would have missed out on that experience and I realize onions aren't that bad and when you peel the layers away you get...well... more onions...