What do you get when you cross a talented Jewish woman with a funny Polish guy? Well, in my case we added in some Hungarian recipes and wound up with an amazing dinner with a lot of laughs.
My Aunt Carole is a brilliant woman. A lawyer by training, she currently manages a busy plastic-surgery practice. Her undergrad major was in linguistics and she speaks French, Italian, Yiddish and a little bit of Spanish and Polish. Occasionally during dinner she would comment in Polish to her friend Jacek. At least, I think it was Polish.
Jacek has been a friend of the family for years. A gifted renaissance man, his great sense of humor definitely influenced the shots of dinner. Thanks to him, my earnest photos of herbed potatoes have a beer cap in them.
Also brilliant and a practicing laywer, Aunt Lynn joined us for dinner. With strains of the Blue Danube Waltz in the background, we enjoyed fantastic cold cucumber soup (recipe below). Chilled perfectly for a summer day, the soup was creamy with added crunchy texture from freshly diced cucumbers. Thoughts of soup on her mind, Lynn remembered that when she was young, her Hungarian grandmother always had a pot of chicken noodle soup on the stove. Isn’t it wonderful how food can bring back so many memories?
Savory chicken paprikash, asparagus with shredded pepper jack cheese and herbed potatoes made up our delectable dinner. Everything was delicious. Sour cream made the paprikash smooth while the spices added a nice after-kick.
ame home and joined us for her own late dinner. The slight grin in the photo is because I was making her laugh while she was trying to eat. Notice the fabulous hair color? At 21, she is much cooler than I was at that age. Sabrina is an awesome special-effects make-up artist for movies/videos, etc. Want to hire her for your next project? Email me at amiableeats@gmail.com and I’ll put you in touch with her. Yes, I’m not above putting in shameless plugs for friends and family.
-It’s really hard to photograph food without good lighting. My winter holiday gift to myself this year might be a speedlight flash.
-’Smacznego’ means ‘bon appetite’ in Polish
2 c. chicken broth( bullion cubes fine )
parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, dill
1/2 qt buttermilk (or yogurt which I prefer)
Peel and clean (of seeds) the cucumbers; chop into small cubes.
Chop onion
Saute onion in a bit of cooking oil. Make roux using flour. add 2 c chicken stock (or 2 c. water and 2 bullion cubes). Stir ’till no lumps from roux and add cucumbers, herbs and spices.
Cook for 30 minutes
Pour into blender and slowly add buttermilk or yogurt.
Chill – to serve garnish with bits of cucumber or slivered almonds – or bits of onion and parsley….
Chicken Paprikash:
Paprika (“sweet” Hungarian paprika)
onion (one or two large depending on how many chicken breasts you use)
chicken broth
sour cream
flour
Chop onion and brown in just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. When onions are soft, add chicken and brown then take out chicken. Add enough paprika to the drippings to make a roux …maybe 2 or 2+ Tblsp. Add a little ( like less than a cup) water and bouillon cube or chicken broth to soften roux and then return chicken – add more water/broth making sure chicken is totally covered by liquid. You could add bay leaves – but not necessary – parsley – also not necessary – salt and pepper (though chicken broth may already be salty enough) .Simmer slowly – covered – for at least 30 minutes – until chicken is very well done.
Again remove chicken (usually, I do this meal ahead of time and so I put the chicken into the oven-proof dish I will use when I reheat and serve). Mix some sour cream (2 – 3 Tbsp with some flour until you get a really smooth paste. Add a bit of the sauce and make it very smooth again. Then, pour this thick stuff very very slowly into the rest of the sauce in the pan and keep stirring so there are no lumps. This should thicken the sauce —- pour over the chicken —– either serve then or reheat in oven just till warm and serve with noodles or spaetzle …rice …boiled potato…..
