William Penn Life, 2013 (48. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2013-02-01 / 2. szám
Tibor s Take twisted noodle tidbits to make a pound. My sister Erzsi on occasion will make csiga on a board made and given to her by Rudy Gall of Hiram. As Lizzy says, "I wouldn't want to make my living making csiga!" During the colder months, church volunteers assemble on Tuesdays to make and fill orders of this delicate garnish for soup. If you are good with shaping small things, there is always an extra csiga board available for you. Laci Pecsenye - This was once a common meat dish at Hungarian picnics, but now I can find it only at picnics held at the Northeast Ohio Hungarian Cultural Center in Hiram, Ohio. This slow-cooked blend of pork slices, paprika, onion and garlic is one of my picnic favorites. I love to put it on generous portions on crusty rye bread with a nice sour dill pickle. Kürtőskala'cs - Unless you visit Hungary or Transylvania, you'll have a hard time finding this treat. I know of only one place in the States where it's made. The Transylvanian Bakery in Cleveland makes and sells "chimney cakes" at the Northeast Hungarian Cultural Center picnics. Be warned, the line of anxious buyers is long. Get there early to get one of these unique pastry sensations. After my family exhausted our frozen supply of American-Hungarian Club hurka in 2010, my apa contemplated making our own hurka at home. I remember as a young lad watching him and my nagyapa making hurka and fresh kolbász. It was always a festive occasion with a Christmas-type excitement. Unfortunate circumstances and college prevented my family from assembling to tackle this task until this past season of Karácsony 2012. With a hankering for good hurka, my apa directed me to get out of cellar storage the grinders and stuffer that were once the possessions of my great-grandfather Mihály Cseh. The stuffer is at least 100 years old. If it could talk, the stories it could tell. Right after my birthday on Jan. 1, we gathered as a család and made about 50 pounds of sausage. In comparison to Szt. István or the Youngstown Hungarian Club, the amount was miniscule. The work was just the same: hard and smelly, but fun. My anyám and apa providing directions for my siblings and me. With the music of Udvary, Borisz, Jeromos and Harmonia playing in the background, we spent the next seven hours creating hurka. First, we trimmed and cut the liver, tongue, heart and shoulder. My sister placed the meat in a boiling pot of water to cook. Endre and I peeled, washed and, with a hand grinder, pulverized the onions. We cooked the onions in trimmed pork fat until golden brown. My apa told my sister Erzsi to go to her collection of Hungarian cookbooks and find the one written by Pittsburgh native Yolanda Nagy Fintor. He further instructed her to retrieve an old folded piece of paper that could be found on page 93 (the year Liz was born). This parchment contained a hurka recipe penned by my Great Grandfather Cseh in 1947. We cut the recipe requirements in half because the recipe made 100 pounds of sausage. In our refrigerator was a 2-quart bowl filled with water and hog casings. My apa had been soaking the disznó innards for a few days to insure maximum elasticity. We ground the meat using our Universal #1 hand cranking grinder. Lizzy parboiled the rice. Then we mixed everything together: first the meat, then the fried onions, the spices and, finally, the rice. My apa was particularly concerned that I didn't mix too harshly or too much. He added a little of the leftover gravy he saved from boiling the meat into the mixture and, quicker than you could say "Ritka Búza," we were loading the stuffer and cranking. My apa directed the stuffing process. It had been a few years since we ran the stuffer, and we broke the first casing when too much cranking pressure was exerted. We gave it another try and, within a half hour, we were done stuffing. We tied off the ends with heavy cotton string and then placed the sausage into a pot of boiling water to close up the casings. When done, we packed the hurka for freezing and ate some leftover hurka by placing the mixture in a cast iron skillet to bake in the oven. My édes anyám made us a bowl of sliced beets and caraway with a subtle taste of sweet and sour immersed in the red liquid. The beets were a perfect compliment/contrast to the robustly flavored hurka. The worst part of the entire process was washing the pots, pans, grinders and stuffer. Performing this old family ritual was similar to completing a religious or cultural retreat. It was fun, it was hard work, but the satisfaction of continuing a Hungarian tradition was wonderful to say the least. Following our hurka making experience, I immediately made several copies of the recipe and put the original away for safe keeping. Both my apa and anyám smiled. Éljen a Magyar! Tibor II Tibor Check Jr. is a member of Branch 28 Youngstown, Ohio, and a student at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He serves as a host of the “Souvenirs of Hungary’’ weekly radio show broadcast on WKTL-90.7 FM in Struthers, Ohio. Let's hear your take Let me know how you enjoy my thoughts and views on growing up Hungarian Style. If you have any questions or comments about me or my column, please email me at: silverkingl937@yahoo.com, or drop me a letter in care of the William Penn Association, 709 Brighton Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15233. William Penn Life 0 February 2013 0 7
