Potato stew, cooked with bay leaf and sour cream, is one of the iconic foods of Hungarian cuisine.
Potato stew is easy to make and inexpensive, yet a very tasty vegetable stew. Sour cream and a good amount of bay leaves, both ground and whole, give it a characteristic flavor, while paprika and a touch of tomato purée and green pepper make it unmistakably Hungarian.
A Staple Food in Hungary
This recipe is not very fancy, and I’m sure you won’t find potato stew in white-tablecloth restaurants in Hungary. Still, it is a staple food in everyday Hungarian cuisine, often found on family tables and an almost inevitable part of the daily menu in schools or canteens. Luckily for parents and kindergarten chefs, this dish is among the few that almost every kid just loves.
Potato stew is a vegetarian dish on its own, but it’s often eaten with some kind of meat, especially meatballs or frankfurters, as a simple main dish.
Hungarian name: Krumplifőzelék
Potato stew
Ingredients
- 2 lbs potatoes (about 1 kg)
- 1 tbsp grated onion (1 small or 1/2 big onion)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 13 tbsp sour cream (200 ml)
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp tomato purée (or 1 ripe tomato diced)
- ½ green pepper
- 1 pinch Hungarian paprika
- 1 pinch ground bay leaves
- 3 bay leaves
Instructions
- Peel, wash and slice potatoes, grate onions.
- Saute onions in vegetable oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to burn them.
- Take off the heat, add paprika and ground bay leaves, stir. Add potatoes and stir again. Cook without adding water for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add 2 cups (480 ml) of water (won't cover the potatoes completely), whole bay leaves, tomato purée and green peppers. Cook covered over low heat for 15 minutes, until potatoes become tender.
- In a bowl mix sour cream and flour. Add 4-5 tbsp of the potato liquids and mix to distribute heat.
- Pour sour cream mixture over the dish and mix smoothly not to break the potatoes too much. Let it come to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes over low heat to cook the flour.
