Alissa Timoshkina’s Hungarian mushroom paprikash stew
Alissa Timoshkina’s second book, Kapusta, takes us on a journey across Eastern Europe, celebrating the humble vegetables that have shaped her cooking.
With storytelling at it’s heart, it’s full of warm and inviting recipes, including this classic Hungarian Mushroom Paprikash Stew.
From Alissa: ‘While pörkölt is a rich stew of beef in a smoky tomato sauce, a paprikash stew is thickened with sour cream, richly spiced with smoked paprika and always served with a side of noodles, potatoes or galuska dumplings. Most commonly made with chicken, here is an equally popular vegetarian alternative using mushrooms. The flavour of paprika is essential to this dish, just as it is to so many dishes of the Hungarian repertoire. It is astonishing to think that paprika was only introduced to Hungary with the Ottoman occupation in the 16th century and not used in cooking until the 1800s.’
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4
- vegetable oil, for frying
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 1 red pepper, cored, deseeded and thinly sliced
- 800g white button or chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika or 1 1/2 tablespoons sweet paprika and ½ tablespoon hot paprika
- 2 teaspoons dried marjoram
- 200g sour cream or crème fraîche
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
- Halen Môn Pure Sea Salt and black pepper, to taste
- cooked pasta, such as pappardelle, to serve
METHOD
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Heat up some vegetable oil in a casserole or heavy-based lidded frying pan.
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Add the onion and red pepper with a pinch of salt and cook, covered, over a medium heat for 15 minutes until soft.
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Add the mushrooms, with another pinch of salt, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms release their juices.
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Lower the heat, add the paprika and marjoram, and cook for 5 minutes.
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Add the sour cream and stir well to let the vegetable juices mix with the cream. Adjust the seasoning, adding some pepper.
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Simmer gently on the lowest heat, without boiling, for 2–3 minutes.
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Take the pan off the heat, stir in the parsley and let rest for a little before serving with a side of pappardelle.
Huge thanks to Alissa Timoshkina and her publishers Quadrille for the recipe and images by Laura Edwards for Kapusta.
