This week, because of Halloween, Anikó Mészáros had ambitions to make some great pumpkin stuff. But the plan is just a plan, and then you can always make pancakes.
There was a plan: soup by the Hungarian, cake by the Slovakian, lamp by the Italian. We had to postpone it, because ICA had run out of pumpkins. What a shame!
After the shock by the empty shelves and – almost – no pumpkins (we found a tiny one by accident), we decided to make pancakes. We had quite different ideas as plan B. That’s why pancake is the best compromise: you can prepare the more types of fillings, you can put basically anything into a pancake.
I’m always in trouble with the pancakes. I know that you need flour, eggs and milk. I also know that you have to mix them until it’s perfectly homogeneous. But there are some big debates here. How much of the ingredients? Should you add salt? Should you add sugar? Should you add oil?? Ahh… if you add sugar, it will burn more easily. If you add oil, then you don’t have to put oil in the pan. Others say you don’t need oil at all. If it’s too much milk or flour, it won’t have the normal shape. And the best pancake-makers all say they go randomly!!
So we usually have stupid-shaped or leaky pancakes, but there are always some normal ones, too. They go to the guests… Moreover, this time we managed to do even some giraffe-patterned ones!
We made three different fillings.
Number one: very simple chicken with onion and paprika. Cut all three into small pieces and heat oil. First add the onion, then the chicken and the paprika. Little water, salt, pepper. Feel free to try any spice! It’s ready when the chicken is ready.
Number two: this is normally a Hungarian dish with noodles, called „gombapörkölt”, but now I put it into pancakes. It is saucy mushroom with the most important Hungarian spice: red paprika. Quite easy to make, it cooks itself. First you have to heat some oil, then put small-cut onion on it. After a few minutes the onion becomes transparent. Then take it off from the fire, add a teaspoon of paprika and a little water. (If the paprika burns, it gets bitter, that’s why.) Back to fire, add salt, black pepper, and the mushroom. Small-cut, and a lot, because as it is cooked, it becomes much smaller. Water, cover, stir every five minutes until it’s done. (Taste and you’ll know how it’s going.) As the last step, add cream, stir, cook for three minutes and you’re ready.
Number three: the ultimate pancake dessert. I really hope you know it already but it’s always good to repeat: the Trinity is nutella, banana and vanilla ice cream… nod discussion about it.
There was, however, this one small pumpkin left in the shop. I bought it even if I was afraid that it was the last one, the leftover, therefore not tasty. I wanted to try an old dessert recipe of my parents, and finally it turned out to be great. Trust the last pumpkin!
It’s really easy: all you need is an oven and some sugar. Cut the pumpkin into half. Take out the seeds with a spoon. Put a little sugar on the two halves and put them into the oven. After around 30 minutes you’ll have an exciting sweet dessert that you can eat from its skin with a spoon. Combine with ice-cream or fruit if you like.
I think I’m still not late with the pumpkins, though. Now that it’s getting colder and darker, thick soups and warm sweets are becoming more and more popular. Pumpkin will be back!
