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Marzipan

I know this type of sweet thing is widely used in Europe. Generally it is a kind of confection made of ground almonds, sugar, and egg white, made into a paste. You can use it as a decoration variously shaped and colored, or you can simply eat it as a piece of chocolate. In many countries it is also used as a covering for birthday or wedding cakes. The reason why I chose marzipan, because in Hungary we have a very old tradition using it, what’s more, we have a marzipan museum in a fancy, little tourist city called Szentendre.

We are also very proud of a family established company „Szamos”, who made their high quality marzipan products an international trademark. I will bring you a special box of marcipan, flavoured with cherry, put in a very nice paper wrap, of course from Szamos. J

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Tanja Weßbecher –Springerle: a must in the south German Christmas biscuit variety

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Tanja Weßbecher –Springerle: a must in the south German Christmas biscuit variety

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https://www.kochbar.de/rezept/522738/Plaetzchen-Springerle.html
Springerle are very traditional (south) German Christmas biscuits. You need a special kind of wooden mold to stamp on the top before cutting them out. The preparation of “Springerle” takes a bit of time, because the cut-outs need to dry overnight before being baked. The special flavour comes from the aniseeds at the bottom of the “Springerle”. The one who bakes them faces the challenge that the “Springerle” are white when they are baked, that they have “feet” (see first picture) and that they are soft when you want to eat them. In our family it is the first kind of Christmas biscuits we bake.

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Jutta Gless - Southern German cooking philosophy

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Jutta Gless - Southern German cooking philosophy

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In southern Germany the person who is doing the cooking should know how to make Spätzle. The ingredients for the dough are basically flour and eggs, but you need the right consistancy. Southerngermans can discuss which shape and which tool is the best - or let's better say - the real one. And because I grew up in a village I was given  a similar tool as the one below for my wedding. In the meantime we bought two others as we haven't been quite content with the shape yet.
You can have them with lentils or with meat and gravy or gratinated with cheese and onions or just with butter in a pan or...

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I am a very passionate fisherman and I am very lucky that I live in a place with a lot of fresh water lakes, streams and rivers. We love eating fish, the ultimate dish being grilled or fried fish with polenta and smashed garlic. In the South there is also a mean fish borscht. I am lucky that there are a lot of angling passionates among Romanians. We have different clubs and competitions. It's a big thing in Romania... Spending hours, days on the pond is absolute Heaven!

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Tamara Elena Iftemie - Romanian traditions

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Tamara Elena Iftemie - Romanian traditions

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Romanians have a lot of traditons, but I think the most diverse are those related to Christmas. I especially like the carolling before Christmas. We have the tradition that children gather in groups, with masks and constumes and carol, dance and sing to all their neighbours. There are different themes, like: the Goats, Bears, the Old Lady, the Oficer, etc.The children make their own costumes with things they have around their household. As you will see, they wear their fathers'  lamb hats, national shirts, our national flag, horns, skins, etc. The custom is to leave the costumes to the next generation.

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Judit Emma Tóth - Goulash soup from Hungary

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Judit Emma Tóth - Goulash soup from Hungary

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If you hear Hungary maybe the first thing come to your mind is our well-famous soup, the goulash. Traditionally it is made with beef meat but nowdays a lot of people prefer pork meat. It is also cheaper and also easier to prepare. Most dishes in Hungary starts with onion, paprika, pepper and fat. If you have this four you cannot make anything wrong. The same with the goulash. You need to fry the onion on fat add pepper, salt, paprika, beef meat cubes, garlic and than some water. You need at least 2-3 hours if you prepare beef meat till it gets tender enough. Than you add potato, carrotts, zellery and you boil it gets ready to eat. The secret spicy is the cumin and the bay leaf.
We hugarians love to eat and we eat a lot :) if we talk about a traditional sunday lunch when the whole family get together, we like to start with some short drink (pálinka-spirit of the fruits) to have the appetite to start the three course meal. It starts always with soup, than comes some meat with side dish and salad. You may think this is the end of the lunch but don’t forget about the dessert what we never miss :)

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Francisca Agnes Purice - Food and traditions in Romania...

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Francisca Agnes Purice - Food and traditions in Romania...

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There is a lot to say about these...I can write someting comprehensive like from a textbook or I can tell you something simple like what I have today. This is a photo of the jellied smoked pork leg I have for today. The meat is boiled a lot with vegetables and then it is let to coagulate durign the night. It is done usually during the winter. As you can see, it is not lean... When we slaughter the pig, in the countryside, before Christmas, the meat is smoked and preserved in pots with lard. So it easy to make such dishes later on during the winter.
I also have some borscht made with some meat from the same smoked pork leg. It is a sour soup with home made noodles and vegetables. Borscht is a dish which necessarily needs to be in ones fridge, all the time...In the summer it is made only with vegetables.