This dish was among the top 10 in the mains category in a 2010 online vote to find Hungary’s favorite dishes. This is a translation of a recipe published on mindmegette.hu. It serves four people.
Ingredients:
600 grams mixed soup vegetables (carrot, kohlrabi, celery)
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
600 grams stefánia
4+2 tablespoons oil
1 bay leaf
1 pinch dried thyme
100 milliliters dry red wine
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon sugar
300+100 milliliters sour cream
1 tablespoon mustard
1-2 coffeepoons lemon juice
For the bread balls:
10 dry bread rolls
2 onions
750 milliliters milk
4 eggs
100 grams rough flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 knife tips white pepper
1 bunch parsley
Method:
Clean and dice the soup vegetables, onion and garlic. Wash and dry the meat, slice and make 3-4 cuts on edges covered with skin so that they keep their shape. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil, add slices of meat and quickly fry both sides. Add vegetables and onion, roast on strong heat for 3-4 minutes, then add garlic, bay leaf and thyme. Flavor with salt and pepper to taste, add wine, let it evaporate, then cover and cook on low heat until butter soft (40-60 minutes). Keep replacing evaporated juice with hot water. With the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, fry flour until brown, add sugar, roast for another minute, then remove from heat. Add 200 milliliters of cold water and stir until smooth. Remove meat from juice, place in a deeper dish and keep warm. Throw away the bay leaf and puree the vegetables with a hand blender. Add the roux, 300 milliliters of sour cream and flavor with mustard, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Boil for 8-10 minutes, spread on meat, decorate with remaining sour cream and parsley leaves and serve.
For the bread balls, dice the bread rolls. Peel and cut up onion into small pieces, fry in hot fat until glassy, then pour on the bread. Combine eggs with milk and pour on the bread. Wash and finely cut up parsley, add to mixture and let it sit for a little while. Mix in flour. If mixture is too dry, add milk. Boil salty water, wet hands and form one ball (for testing) from mixture. Place ball in boiling water. If it falls apart, add 1-2 spoons of flour to mixture and let it sit for a while again. (Be careful not too add too much flour, or the bread balls will be hard.) Put balls in water, bring to a boil then turn down the heat. Cover, cook until done, drain and serve.
