Hungarian “master” chef László Benke and his team reportedly set a “Guinness” world record in Siófok over the weekend when they cooked tojáspörkölt (egg stew) for 3,500 people at the fourth annual Siófok Egg Festival. According to legend, the dish was the favorite of “Bandi Angyal,” an infamous zsivány (villain) from Somogy. To make the record-breaking dish, 7,500 chicken eggs, 1,000 quail eggs, 50 kilos of ham and 80 kilos of potatoes were stewed. “This is the fourth year that I’ve come to make this dish in a huge quantity,” Benke told Blikk. “This year, the pan needed to be bigger because last year, people nearly killed me when there was not enough food for everybody.”
If you want to try your hand at tojáspörkölt, the following recipe was sent in by reader “Solyab” to Hungarian-language culinary site mindmegette.hu:
Solyab’s Tojáspörkölt
Two or three eggs
One yellow onion
Two tablespoons cooking oil
Pirospaprika (Hungarian paprika, hot or sweet)
Salt and black pepper
Directions: Hard-boil the eggs, remove them from their shells and cut them into circles. Cube the onion and sauté it in the oil until it is “glassy.” Add the paprika. (This is the pörkölt base.) Add the eggs, some water, and salt and black pepper. Serve with rice or potatoes and some salad if you like.
Note that the above recipe serves one, meaning you should multiply by approximately 3,600 if you want to beat chef Benke’s record.
