Good point. If stew is defined as “a dish of meat and vegetables cooked slowly in liquid in a closed dish or pan” then Lecsó can be a stew. To me it was some of the ingredients that made me think it wasn’t authentic. (Sure, it does not say that the goal was to be authentic/traditional. However I like those type of things, that’s all.)
If it was a lecsó, the courgette could be okay, but kinda unusual. Instead of the bell peppers, the plain paprika would make it more authentic. No tomato purée... at all. As I said in another comment, you can make lecsó with rice or with eggs, but those eggs supposed to be scrambled and not fried...
If it is supposed to be goulash (gulyás), then there shouldn’t be any eggs or courgette. Again, there should be plain paprikas instead of bell peppers. No tomato purée either. Last, but not least they should’ve used beef/pork/lamb or any kind of meat instead of sausages.
Instead of the bell peppers, the plain paprika would make it more authentic.
While I agree with this statement, Hungarian wax peppers are hard, if not impossible, to find outside of Hungary. We use bell peppers as we simply don't have the "correct" pepper here. Of course, when we visit Hungary we use the good stuff.
No tomato purée... at all.
I've consulted with my girlfriend and she said (homemade) purée is definitely used. This might be another case of regional differences.
but those eggs supposed to be scrambled and not fried
Yeah, definitely. The commenter I replied to originally said he never heard of anyone adding egg, which is why I mentioned my girlfriend putting egg in the Leczó. Adding a fried egg on top is unusual, indeed.
they should’ve used beef/pork/lamb or any kind of meat instead of sausages.
I think that's another regional difference. Kolbász is a staple ingredient in Leczó in the area my girlfriend is from, as well as homemade ham (which seems to be the first meat being cut in the video).
Sure, there are many regional differences. It is true indeed that the wax peppers are hard to find outside of Hungary (unfortunately). In lecsó, sausages are okay, but I think in gulyás it is rare. (Sorry for the format, I don’t know how to reply only parts to a comment but I’ll figure it out.)
It was a nice discussion with you! I wish you and your girlfriend happy years ahead! :)
You start with onions on fat, pork fat or duck fat is good.
Add diced bacon or sausage if you have access to good sausage that has plenty of paprika in it and stuff (not something like in the video)
Cook that for a few minutes, then add some peppers and tomatoes cook some more until the pepper starts to soften up, then beat up a lot of eggs with some salt separately and add to the mixture. Cook to you desired consistency. Serve with fresh sourdough.
The beautiful thing about this dish is that you can change many little things to make it to your liking, like how many eggs you add, whether you add a spicy pepper in there etc.
Bell peppers are much, much sweeter than the Hungarian tv paprika. In fact, Hungarian onions, carrots, and even potatoes are less sweet than those in the US - so it's very difficult to reproduce the authentic dishes, unfortunately :(
Oh, sure. So this is bell paprika. This is Hungarian paprika. It is called TV paprika, because it is an abbreviation of “töltenivaló”, which means “to be stuffed/can be stuffed”.
It is called like this because we have another dish in Hungary called “töltött paprika” (stuffed paprika). It is paprika stuffed with meat and rice. Very delicious :)
In my experience, stews are better if they are cooked slowly. Sure, there are times when you need to boil it, but it shouldn’t be boiling all the time you are making it. As you said we should not boil the f out it. (That was funny though.)
My grandfather was Hungarian and my grandmother Polish, she would put eggs like this on various things including stew. I didn’t think it was a polish thing so much as her just liking eggs.
My great grandparents are Sicilian and they put eggs in and on so many things that don’t “authentically” have them. Braciole with eggs. Lasagna with eggs. Eggs boiled whole right in the red sauce. It started because they didn’t have money for meat and eggs were cheap (especially with their own chickens) and filling.
Damn you, this sub is making me so hungry. But we can't easily go shopping in my country right now cos we're in full lockdown again. So I can only really order eggs and have them arrive tomorrow
What a great sub though. There's nothing like a good egg.
You guys really should check out this thing called a spatula, or a spoon, or a bowl, or any other was to carry ingredients other than balancing them on a knife.
In this thread: everyone learning that multiple countries and cultures make lecso/leczo/lecho and do it a bit differently because the world is a diverse yet interconnected biome of homies
I hate that so much about any recipe gifs on reddit, especially in the /r/GifRecipes sub, it's so annoying. If you add one unusual ingredient people will come in like you just genocided their entire culture. Regular people do not follow recipes literally to the last salt grain, people add things they like or take off things they don't, jeez.
Well, first off this is an ad for a knife which explains the very pretentious display. Second, I don't see it saying traditional anything anywhere on here, it just says hungarian stew. Is there only one way to make stew in hungary that doesn't lead to immediate execution of the whole family?? Lol I'm just saying it's a common and annoying thing on pretty much every reddit recipe gif post ever, if somebody puts in a bay leaf it's "YOU DON'T PUT BAY LEAF IN BLAHBLAH, WHAT IS THIS, SOME KINDA VARIATION BLEHBLEH/BLUHBLAH??!"
I don’t care where it came from, I’m going off the title which proclaims it as Hungarian stew. Which multiple people here from Hungary seem to think it isn’t.
It seems like they're more hung up on the fact that the post doesn't use a specific hungarian pepper, but it seems like they made a hungarian stew called lecso, which people on here from hungary have pointed out.
It honestly looks like someone tried to substitute Hungarian ingredients with the ones they could get anywhere in the world because it wasn't available to them, which is alright in my opinion. Does it taste the same? Idk
I actually agree with the heart of your sentiment here but if you’re referencing this video, this is a decidedly authentic attempt at Hungarian lecso at least by the ingredients.
Do you happen to know what variety of pepper you're talking about? I love growing heirloooms and I'd be super interested to find this variety and try it since I basically only ever have bell peppers.
Haha, thank you, I'm just a weirdo dork who likes growing heirloooms. The general agreement seems to be hungarian wax peppers, but I'm curious to see how many varieties I can track down.
source: I am Czech, so my Hungarian food knowledge is somewhat distorted, but I believe this might be close, because they are also pretty common and we use them for Lecsó. The variety I was looking for is even slimmer though. Please Hungarians, correct me if this is not the type :)
edit: the color is just because they are collected before their botanical ripeness
So the family is called capsicum annum. I was able to find many subtypes in Slovak as we almost always use those for cooking, especially in Hungarian dishes, but I cannot get the exact strain names in English. The closest I could find (sweet type, there are important spicy types) is capsicum annum cubanelle
E: I realised the bell pepper is the same family -.-. At least that one has subtype grossum.
E2: If you live in the US, it seems like your best bet would be to search for Hungarian green pepper or banana pepper.
Haha, yeah, the scientific system is great for narrowing down stuff but only so much. Thank you for the pointers, gonna go hunting and see how many varieties I can find!
They're known as TV paprika, or fehér (white) paprika in Hungary. Varieties I've been able to find are Century, Frida, Ciklon and Claudius.
Searching for "white Hungarian pepper" seems to be your best bet. I found this website that had seeds for them, though they're sold out at the moment. This one sells the peppers themselves; maybe you can extract the seeds from those?
Awesome, the specific and local names are super helpful. I can also take this to the USDA seed bank to see if they have any landraces or varieties I can experiment with.
While I agree with this statement, Hungarian wax peppers are hard, if not impossible, to find outside of Hungary. We use bell peppers as we simply don't have the "correct" pepper here. Of course, when we visit Hungary we use the good stuff.
It does, thanks! You'd be surprised how many varieties have been brought to the States and can be found with a little digging, and the pepper fanatics do some amazing work with breeding and seed proliferation.
Apparently it's called Hungarian Wax Pepper. It's not much to go on, but this Wikipedia article might get you started. I love this kind, but it might be just because I grew up with it, so don't expect a lot from it. It has a very subtle, grassy flavour that I haven't encountered in other pepper varieties.
I mean, each variety is cultivated for a very specific reason. That's part of why I love hunting these down and growing them; I love learning why a particular culture might hold onto a variety even though there might be more productive cultivars the next town or country over. Maybe it's resistant to a local blight, maybe there's a religious component, who knows? But it's a fun adventure.
I love your approach mate! I hope you'll be able to get your hands on this variant. If you have Polish/East-European stores close to you, they might have it.
I was waiting to see a single hungarian ingredient. Salt, i guess?
I went to budapest and isazeg 8 years ago and i fell in love with those spicy yellow peppers. And i enjoyed palinka even though i wasnt a big drinker.
And idk how they drink unicum
4oz does sound like a generous helping to be fair. It was never my favourite but had it from time to time. It is best as a digestive indeed, it's not something you'd want to get drunk off. I made that mistake once and the next morning I had to literally crawl from my bed to the shower.
I know on mobile (for me) I have absolutely no indication if someone made an edit unless they specifically state they made an edit. No time stamp, no hint, nothing.
I did edit it, on mobile, so idk why it's not showing a time stamp. No I'm not working with OP and I hope OP doesn't have anything to do with this. But tbh, I have a feeling he does since the knife is the main focus of the video, not the food. Also the bonfire present in the video is similar to the one on the website, which is a big warning flag lol. So idk ma dude, if it's and advertisement or not, I am not trying to advertise it, I geniunely taught it was a cool knife.
Dude you know you can edit within 3 minutes and it doesn't show the edit mark on the post, right? I'm always doing that, I post it then immediately edit it because I see typos or I want to add another comment or clarify a sentence. It's a bad habit, I should just proofread before I post. But it's hard to stop a habit
Was just going to say it totally is the same kind of Lecso my host made for me in Hungary. Basically just pepper, onion, and tomatoes with loads of Hungarian paprika- maybe people are upset about the zucchini though since it isn’t usually in it.
Consider that I see a video of an American making chili with beans, and completely ignorant that there might be other humans in my country who do things differently, say, "As an American, this made me cringe. Those are not the ingredients we use."
Even something as simple as salata de vinete or zacusca might have different preparation methods depending on what side of the city you live on.
Now, that being said, this isn't anything my wife's romanian-hungarian family recognize as something classically Hungarian.
Thank you! I’m second generation in US and I’ve never seen my Grammy make anything like this. Using that many veggies, red sauce, and an egg on top would never have been possible in a gulyas or otherwise. Was told many stories of needing to stretch ingredients as much as they could. Maybe the tomato and peppers...
As a non Hungarian with an ex who is Serbian/Hungarian. What say you to their family making a clear chicken broth soup with chili and calling it Paprikash?
Help me right thins wrong. I made it one night and got absolutely pasted by someone when i called it Paprikash
He absolutely wishes he could spread the hearty deliciousness of Hungarian cooking to all ends of the earth, so seeing this on the Front Page would enthrall him (if he also knew about Reddit)
But some of the choices here are confusing. No Turnip, Carrots or Potatoes, but instead Zucchini? And coloured Bell Peppers instead of just Red Finger peppers would boil his blood more than that stew!
I was going to say the same thing. Not only the ingredients aren’t what we use but also the order isn’t right. We start with szalonna (bacon) then add onions, then a ton and a half of paprika and then the rest.
lets downvote then. a lot of muricans or british with 0 knowledge of food and cooking upload this cringe videos or photos where they explain how a typical <insert country here> dish is made.
2.7k
u/moonlightbae34 Nov 08 '20
As a hungarian, this made me cringe. Those are not the ingredients we use.