Tag: potatoes

Latvian Wild Mushroom and Potato Soup Recipe

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Latvian Wild Mushrooms and Potato Soup 8

During the summer, I had a friend visiting from Latvia, Dace, very pretty girl, studying theatre.

After a while, this autumn we chatted online and she told me that she was like most of her countrymen busy picking mushrooms, she laughed when I told her I never did mushrooming ;). (Though a few weeks later I went picking mushrooms and the ensuing recipe will follow soon).

Inspired by this huge Latvian tradition for mushrooms I cooked the following recipe with some wild mushrooms bought from the farmers market, you can you whatever you find as long they are wild!

The recipe turned out to be very tasty as my Ukrainian guests agreed, soon I will cook Varenyky inspired by talks with them.

Ingredients (4 servings)

  • 500 g wild mushrooms – I used once scotch bonnet mushroomsLatvian Wild Mushrooms and Potato Soup 1
  • 6 larger potatoes
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 tablespoon butter
  • 100 ml white wine
  • 1 l vegetable stock
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 tablespoon sweet paprika
  • 100 ml heavy cream
  • some fresh dill for garnishing

Preparation method:

  1. Chop the onion roughly.Latvian Wild Mushrooms and Potato Soup 5
  2. Peel and dice the potatoes.Latvian Wild Mushrooms and Potato Soup 3
  3. Chop roughly the mushrooms if using larger ones
  4. Heat olive oil and butter in a large soup pot.
  5. Saute the chopped mushrooms until soft.Latvian Wild Mushrooms and Potato Soup 2
  6. Add the white wine, vegetable stock, potatoes and salt and pepper.
  7. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft.Latvian Wild Mushrooms and Potato Soup 4
  8. In a different small frying pan heat 2-3 tablespoons olive oil. Add the chopped onion and fry until golden brown and has a nice aroma.
  9. When potatoes have cooked take out about half of them into a blender. Add some liquid from the soup and puree them.Latvian Wild Mushrooms and Potato Soup 7
  10. Add the pureed potatoes add back into the pot with soup, together with the heavy cream, paprika and some salt and pepper to taste.
  11. Serve the soup while hot, add a tablespoon of creme and some dill leaves.Latvian Wild Mushrooms and Potato Soup 9

Gulyásleves Recipe – Hungarian Goulash in Cast Iron Kettle

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Gulyasleves Recipe - Hungarian Goulash in Cast Iron Kettle

I had over a friend from France – Robin – very nice guy and a very good blues musician. His plan is to go by hitchhiking all the way to Australia along singing and playing his guitar and harmonica.

He has seen a lot of places and has been in a lot of places, having a lot of good stories to tell. He has been through Hungary but from his recollection didn’t eat tasty Hungarian food. So I had to correct his impression on Hungarian cuisine. I met with some friends with whom planned for ages to cook, gulyas soup in a cast iron kettle over an open fire. This was a very good opportunity to finally do it.

We went to our friends garden unpacked the kettle, set the fire and cooked the delicious goulash or gulyas as it’s called in Hungarian. It was the beginning of the summer on a long Sunday warm afternoon prolonging into the cooler night. In the meantime we had fun, singing talking and drinking beers. As it turned out, it was the start of the open fire kettle cooking – since this time we had another five cookouts at the same venue which (apparently) finished for this year at the end of September. Some of the recipes I already shared, some are still to come.

And here follows the recipe:

Ingredients (8-10 servings):

  • 2 kg lean veal, preferably,  but you can also use beef    Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 05
  • 1 kg onionsGulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 01
  • 2 whole bulbs of garlicGulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 03
  • 2 kg potatoes
  • 100 ml rendered pork lard or vegetable oil
  • 1/2 kg red/green bell pepperGulyasleves Recipe - Hungarian Goulash in Cast Iron Kettle
  • 4 tomatoes – about 1/2 kg
  • salt to taste
  • 1/2 tablespoon cumin
  • sweet and hot paprika to taste ( 1 used about 1 tablespoon sweet and 1 tablespoon hot)

Preparation method:

  1.  Dice the veal into 2 cm cubes.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 06
  2. Chop roughly the onion and garlic.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 04Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 02
  3. Dice the bell peppers.Gulyasleves Recipe - Hungarian Goulash in Cast Iron Kettle
  4. Dice the tomatoes into 1 cm cubes.a2014-09-06-22.24
  5. Clean and dice the potatoes into 2 cm cubes.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 14
  6. Heat the rendered lard/oil into the cast iron kettle.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 07
  7. Add to the kettle the chopped garlic and onion and fry, stirring them about 5 minutes until golden and fragrant.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 08
  8. Add the diced meat Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 09and the hot and sweet paprikaGulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 11
  9. Fry them stirring from time to time for about 15 minutes until the meat has taken a brownish darker colour.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 12
  10. Add water to cover and the salt and cumin to taste. Don’t use black pepper, all the hotness of this dish is from the cumin and hot paprika.
  11. Bring to boil and cook over a medium fire for about 2-3 hours until the meat is 2/3 done. It depends on the kind of meat you use and don’t’ forget to stir now and then. Because this step is a lengthy one, you can relax and sing a bit as we did with our recent friend Robin Madier.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 13
  12. When the meat is about 2/3 done add the cubed potatoes, replenish with some more water to cover and cook for another circa 20 minutes.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 15
  13. When the potatoes are almost done add the diced bell peppers and tomatoes, add if needed some more salt and sweet/hot paprika to taste.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 18
  14. Cook for another 10-15 minutes, until the tomatoes and peppers mostly melted in the pot of soup.
  15. Serve the soup while hot.Gulyasleves - Hungarian Goulash 19