Palascinta in Budapest
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Palacsinta was my mother's claim to fame. We had them about once a week in my house. Apricot jam was, of course, the best but she also filled them occasionally with a soft cheese mixture - sort of a "farmers" cheese, mixed with a bit of sugar, some lemon and sometimes vanilla. I learned to make them from my mother who was able to turn over a palacsinta using a butter knife - so this is the way I do it. It's a tricky skill but, to be honest, it's the only way I know how to do it.
A few brown spots, not too dark, and spongy rather than eggy. I have no recipe but can only make them by mixing together milk, egg and flour. And of course the first one is for the cook (or her daughter).
I'm going to Budapest for the first time in a couple of weeks and will definitely hunt down the place farago mentioned. How far is it from the center?
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On great palacsinta in Budapest: The place near Ors Vezer ter is far from the center at the very end of the Red Metro line (the Ors Vezer ter stop); the Red Metro is disrupted for a for a few more weeks I think and you can't take it all the way but instead have to switch to a bus midway (back in full service August 19 I believe). It's about a 10-15 minute Metro ride when all works well, probably 30 minutes now. Once there, there if you exit straight out and continue out the end of the pedestrian underpass at the opposite end, there's a big mall with a Match market on one side of the street (the left); there are food stands along that side of the street as well and one sells palacsinta and langos (fried dough with various toppings, notably cheese, garlic in melted fat, and sour cream; if planning to try these, and you should, bring your own cardiologist); the palacsinta crepes are excellent, and until the last time i was there the apricot jam was thick and just the right balance between sweet and tart...the last time it was not so great, but once does not a trend make
on whether palacsinta are crepes; are tissues Kleenex? are photocopies Xeroxes? if one calls all thin rollable pancakes crepes because it's a generic term, then palacsinta are surely crepes; but if one uses the word as it is used in France -- for a flour or buckwheat thin-battered pancake cooked on one side only on a very hot iron griddle and filled with almost anything -- then palacsinta are not crepes at all, though both are surely species of the same genera
the difference is that palacsinta are eggier, and hence thicker (though still thin) and softer and chewier; a good crepe has an almost paper-like thinness, a good palacsinta has a tiny bit of springiness to it and more elasticity; it's cooked on both sides and flipped as people have described...a crepe never is (although americanized recipes, making up for the lack of crepe griddles in the USA tend to make crepes seem the texture and consistency of palacsinta)
on another great palacsinta source if you happen to be in Hungary...we just ate at a not so great restaurant (but very pleasant place to sit) in Szentendre, a tourist suburb 30 minutes outside Budapest (filled with churches and museums and local artists); the place is on the Danube and called Promenade; the palacsinta is my mother's ... absolutely perfect; skip the meal and have the dessert
for more details about places to eat you can check out my rambling listing on my budapest blog (http://web.mac.com/farrago/iWeb/Welcome%20to%20Budapest/Budapest%20--%20The%20City/26BEF7E5-F707-44AF-9C32-30C3494C0AAA.html) or the links section of my budapest website (http://bvr.hu
)and as to alternative palacsinta fillings...has anyone mentioned Hortobagy Palacsinta filled, essentially, with chicken paprikas?
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re: hungry_pangolin
Ah so many Hungarian dishes I never had because my mother kept a kosher home. Palacsinta can only properly be made with milk, therefore never have a meat filling. Nor would we ever have eaten paprikas of any sort with sour cream - another travesty, I realize. Strangely enough, I still prefer my csirke paprikas without sour cream - I guess because that's what I know best. I absolutely can't wait to go - it will be so weird to be surrounded by Hungarians.
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re: hungry_pangolin
The sauce wasn't thickened the same way a sour cream sauce would be. My mother would often cook rice in the same pot, so that it soaked up much of the liquid. Otherwise, she made nockerle to soak it up. (My favourite!). It's true there isn't the same tang without the sour cream, but it isn't as rich either. My mother had a particular dislike of sweet flavours with meat or chicken, so she might add some vinegar or lemon juice or even sauerkraut or pickle juice to a dish to add that tartness. I don't think she ever did that with chicken paprikas, but definitely with cabbage rolls and often with goulash.
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Nyleve - Your mother and my mother might have been culinary twins separated at birth. For the filling, my mother also used a dry cottage cheese or farmer's cheese, mixed with a little sugar, an egg yolk and some raisins. And yes, the pancakes had a few brown spots and an eggy texture (which I never thought about until I read it on your post).
