Day 35 - Körözött

My Dad is Hungarian, so I think alot of my culinary foibles are shaped by that. We always had a soft cheese spread, called Körözött to eat on wonderful rustic bread. I was craving a little bit of "home" so I whipped up a batch today to eat on some Jewish Rye bread. It is a very forgiving recipe and you can tweak it to your family's taste. As with most traditional recipes imparted to you by a grandmother/mother/aunt, etc. this one involves a lot of "just put some of xyz in" or "you know just make it look like mine". Here is my version

1 block of cream cheese or equivalent soft cheese like cottage or goat
2 to 3 T soft butter
1 to 2 sour cream or creme fraiche
minced garlic to taste (I use 2 big cloves)
grated onion to taste (I use the juice and about 1/4 of a large yellow onion)
coarse mustard to taste
paprika to taste
salt
caraway seeds and/or chives

mix all this together. It should be a very light orange colour with little specs of black and/or green. It is wonderful spread on bread, with cold cuts, hard boiled eggs...the possibilities are endless.

Growing up in Montreal, which has a sizable Hungarian population, I was spoiled by ready access to the wonderful products that make up the Hungarian diet. I have missed it sorely since moving to first Kansas, and now Texas. There is one store in California called Otto's Hungarian Import Store and Deli that I have ordered from before. Damn, now I want some Kolbasz, and Hideg Meggy Leves.


Edit - I was nursing the baby a little bit after I wrote this, and decided to watch Guy's Big Bite on Food Network. He was talking about making Spaetzle and that a friend of his makes it by pushing it through a sieve which reminded me of Nokedli which are little Hungarian dumplings you serve with Goulash or Paprikash. My mom had a special Nokedli maker (I think my brother might have it now, but I know she doesn't), but you can just use a colander or two spoons. Hmmm, honey, I see a Goulash and Nokedli in our near future.