Recipe: Tejfölös Káposzta (Sour Cream Cabbage Soup)

 

Ingredients:
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2-3 kilo pork
2 kilo sour cabbage
3 onions
2 quarts sour cream
salt & pepper
1/2 cup Sweet Hungarian paprika

Optional:
Caraway Seeds
Bay leaves 

 

To Prepare:
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Sour Cream Cabbage Soup

In a 10 liter “thing” boil 3 kg of sour cabbage (sauerkraut works well).
Half rinse the sauerkraut (to make less sour). Cut 2-3kg pork (leg or shoulder) into cubes and separately cook 3 onions in oil until caramelized. Add the salt, pepper and red paprika (Hungarian Paprika works best and is not spicy) and pork. Put a little bit of water to ease stiring and keep from charring the ingredients. Lightly cook the pork. The mixture should be thick and red. Cook slowly to infuse the flavors into the meat.

When nearly finished cooking, mix in the cabbage and fill with enough water. Cook the soup on low heat, the longer the better as the meat will soften. This will also prevent the cabbage from over cooking. Add the sour cream** and turn the heat even lower as you don’t want to cook the cream.

If my English didn’t make sense, or if you prefer, the original Hungarian:

Tejfölös káposzta,

10l fazekba kb. 3 kg savanyú káposztát feltenni fozni, félig tenni csak vízzel. 2-3 kg sertéshús combot vagy lapockát összevágjuk kockákra és külön megsütjuk: 2-3 hagymár olajon megpiritunk, ha kész beletesszuk az összevágott húst erre sót, borsot pirospaprikát. Felöntjuk egy kevés vízzel és sutjuk.

 Mikor már majdnem kész beleöntjuk a káposztába. Ha a hus teljesen megpuhult, ontunk rá bkét tejfolt.

 

**Hungarian sour cream (tejföl) is not sour at all and is different from American sour cream. It’s instead a heavy solidified cream (same consistency as sour cream, just not as sour or salty). We used organic sour cream as the differences are very slight.