{Fermented Cucumbers}
In Hungary, this hot stretch of summer in which the city empties and not much happens is known as cucumber season. The markets, of course, are also full of small, bumpy gherkins. With the gherkins, bunches of half-dried dill are sold, much stronger than the standard variety, with thick stalks and flowers. Many of cucumbers will get stuffed into three-liter jars with the dill (and sometimes garlic), covered with salty water, and topped with a piece of stale bread. The jars will be set in the sun on window sills or terraces in the city, or in the grass of a countryside garden. The yeast in the bread helps preserve the cucumbers through the process of lactic acid fermentation (the same process used for creating kimchi and sauerkraut).
It takes about three days, and the pickles should still be slightly crunchy with a pleasant sour taste. They are often served with meat dishes, or just eaten on their own. I love them sliced and eaten with bread and good házi butter. Some people like to drink the juice, and in the old days, it was added to wine to make a sort of spritzer. As you can see in the photo, I made just a half batch as they don’t keep as long as regular pickles.
See also my recipe for cucumber salad.
Kovászos Uborka
{Fermented Cucumbers}
Gherkins, cleaned, enough to fill whatever size jar you are using
Dill, a few stalks, preferably the strong kind
Salt
Pinch of sugar
Garlic, optional
1 slice of bread (stale is fine)
In a clean jar, arrange the gherkins upright, fairly tightly-packed, in the jar. Add the dill stalks and garlic, if using. Meanwhile, add the salt and sugar to a pot of lukewarm water, using two tablespoons of salt for every one liter (approximately one quart) of water. Pour the water over the cucumbers, ensuring that all of them are covered. Place the bread on top, and cover with a plate or a loosely-secured lid (some air should be allowed in). Place the jar in a warm spot, but not under strong direct sun. After the second day test to see how the pickles are doing. They should be ready after three or four days when you should transfer them to smaller jars and store in the refrigerator.
Tips: Be sure the cucumbers are fresh (one bitter one could ruin the batch). If the cucumbers are thick, slit them length-wise a few times so the liquid can make better contact with the interior. I was also advised to bring the jar inside during the night in case it gets chilly out, which could slow the fermentation process.
–Carolyn



















Tamás Bereznay’s Greek Lemon Cake
Görög Citromos Süti
{Greek Lemon Cake}
I have a pretty big collection of old Hungarian and Transylvanian cookbooks—both in English and Hungarian—which I love for the insight into the periods when they were written and the many recipes which are hardly prepared anymore. Most of the books, I have to say, are just decorations on my bookshelf since I have not had the patience to actually cook from them. I’ll compare several recipes from different cookbooks, but the recipes are brief to the point of being unusable. There are no cooking times or temperatures, and practically no description. The recipes are basically lists of ingredients, written for housewives who learned to cook from their mothers and grandmothers, lived at their stoves, and knew from the sight, smell, and feel when something was done. Even though I am a pretty good cook with a culinary school degree, I like my recipes to hold my hand more, especially when I’m preparing something I’ve never tasted or seen before.
Recently I got two contemporary Hungarian cookbooks (which were lacking in my collection) which I couldn’t wait to get home and start cooking from. Author Tamás Bereznay is the chef at Budapest’s Karpatia Étterem as well as the chef for the Hungarian President. The books—Mai Magyar Konyha (Today’s Hungarian Kitchen) and Süteményeskönyv (Book of Desserts)—are both beautifully photographed and present Hungarian cuisine in a contemporary and casual way, the way that I like to cook my Hungarian dishes at home. But Bereznay doesn’t do anything crazy with the food to make it “modern”—you won’t find anything like deconstructed pörkölt or radical Dobos torta. He presents his recipes the way Hungarians eat and cook now, making sure that he don’t forget the many strong traditions of the past. He counts his grandmother as his greatest culinary influence.
A few months ago I sat down with Bereznay to talk about modern Hungarian cuisine (more on that topic later), which may restaurants nowadays in Budapest tout on their menus. “I hope that in a few years we will have more modern Hungarian cuisine to talk about,” he said. “We’ve made a few starts.” There are some dishes, he noted, that just shouldn’t be messed with, such as töltött kaposzta (stuffed cabbage) and gulyás (goulash). “These dishes have proven to the world that Hungarian gastronomy is good in itself.”
I’ve cooked several recipes from the books so far. Since I have such a sweet tooth, I’ll start with an adaptation of Bereznay’s Görög Citromos Süti (Greek Lemon Cake) from Süteményeskönyv. I used significantly less sugar (both for the cake and the syrup) than the recipe called for, and it turned out sweet enough for everyone. This moist lemony cake is perfect for summertime. It is even better the day after it’s prepared, once the syrup has fully been absorbed.
Görög Citromos Süti
{Greek Lemon Cake}
This recipe is adapted from Tamás Bereznay’s Süteményeskönyv (Boook Kiadó)
For the Cake:
1 lemon, with the rind grated (reserve the juice for the syrup)
3 eggs
300 ml (10 ounces) plain yogurt
200 grams (slightly less than 1 cup) sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
120 grams (1 cup) semolina
200 grams (1 1/2 cups) flour
Pinch of salt
For the Syrup:
100 ml (1/2 cup) water
100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar
3 lemons, with the rinds grated
For the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F). In a small bowl, combine the eggs, yogurt, and grated lemon rind. In a large mixing bowl, combine the baking powder, flour, semolina, sugar, and the salt. Stir the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes, until golden brown.
For the Syrup:
Add the water, grated lemon rinds, lemon juice, and sugar to a small saucepan. Cook on a low flame, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes.
To assemble the Cake:
Prick the cake all over with a fork. Pour the warmed syrup evenly all over the cake. Let the cake fully absorb all of the syrup before serving.