I have wonderful memories of cooking with my "Grammy" ( my mom's mother) as a kid. I think it was with her that I learned to enjoy cooking from a young age. She was always so patient and and let me actually try to make things,even though she knew that I wouldn't do it "just right." With her, it didn't matter.I was about 8 years old when my mom went back to school for some graduate work, so my brother and I were with Grammy and Granddad (AKA-Hotdog)two nights a week while my mom was away. My dad had the restaurant at that time so he wasn't able to be with us at night/after school, so my grandparents stepped in those couple nights. I used to LOVE going to Grammy's house during the week. My grandma had this big collection of recipes that she kept in a large binder, and I was allowed to go through it and pick out what I wanted to make for dinner. It gave me a feeling of being so grown up, and being in charge of what we were going to eat that night seemed like this huge deal at the time.
Anyways, one of my absolute favorite meals that Grammy made was chicken paprikash. My Grammy is 100% Hungarian, born to two Hungarian immigrants who came to The States around 1910. Chicken paprikash is the Hungarian version of chicken and dumplings. For me, this is total comfort food. I always requested either chicken paprikash or Hungarian chicken soup for my birthday dinner as a kid. I think the next thing I try to master is going to have to be Hungarian chicken soup...stay tuned for that adventure!
I stumbled across a recipe for chicken paprikash in the latest issue of Real Simple. I was instantly drawn to it and was reminded of how much I love it. It seemed easy enough, so I thought I would try it out and make it for dinner. After I looked at the recipe closer, I realized that this wasn't the paprikash I was used to. For starters, it had green bell peppers in it and fresh dill. While I like both green bell peppers and fresh dill, I just couldn't imagine having it in my paprikash. Later that day, I was over at my mom's house and asked if she had the recipe for Grammy's paprikash. She did, so I made of a copy of it, along with Hungarian dumpling recipe that you serve with it. Originally, I had planned to serve it with egg noodles like the Real Simple recipe suggested, but I thought I would give it a try.
After I read through Grammy's recipe, I realized that it wasn't that hard,and I thought to myself...'I could so do this!' My only concern was the dumplings. I have watched dumplings being made countless times, but to make them on my own, without any guidance or coaching seemed daunting to me. But I decided I would try it, and if they turned out like little dough-bullets I would just cook up the egg noodles as a back up plan.
So, I set out to make my very first chicken paprikash. I started by browning an onion and garlic in some oil. Grammy's recipe calls for bacon grease, but since I didn't have any on hand ( bad girl!), I went with vegetable oil. After that, I added a whole cut up chicken and let that brown a little bit. Then I added 3 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1 can tomato sauce, 1/4 tsp. paprkia, and a dash of S&P. I let this cook down for a good bit, covered over medium heat.
Now, let's get down to business and talk about the dumplings. Dumplings done right are a thing to savor, done wrong, they will sit in your stomach for what seems like days like little lead bullets. At least that's been my experience....
Take 4 cups of flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup cold water and a pinch of salt. Make a hollow in the center of the flour and crack the eggs, pour the water and add the salt in the center. Slowly work your wet ingredients into your dry, adding more water as necessary ( but be careful not to put too much water or you will end up with a runny mess) until your dough is in a ball and is a stiff-sticky consistency. Then, drop the dough by small balls ( I prefer mine smaller than bigger) into boiling water. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain, and rinse with cold water.
Now, put your focus back on the bird stewing in that lovely tomato sauce. Remove the chicken from the sauce and set aside. Bring the sauce up to just before a boil, and then remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup sour cream. Don't use the low-fat stuff either. My philosophy is if I just stood at the stove and hand dropped enough dumplings for 5 people, by gosh I'm going to eat real sour cream as a reward!
Once the sour cream is stirred in, add the dumplings to the sauce and coat them with the sauce. At this point, I took a taste and was amazed that it actually tasted what Grammy makes! For some reason I was thinking that no one could make it except for her, and although hers is way better than mine, I think for a first timer I did ok!
It was an event that definitely would of made Grammy proud, so I had to call her and tell her of my success. I'm also sure that Grammy's mom, Mamaw, was looking down on me from heaven as I was dropping those dumplings in the water and smiling. It feels good to be keeping the Hungarian ancestry alive. Grammy was just as pleased as I was, so now I have to have the family over for chicken paprikash so that they will actually believe that I can make it. I bet it will be the first time in a long time that Grammy will have paprikash that wasn't made by her. I am so thankful for my family being so close and still in such good health. What a blessing not only to have such great memories of my family from childhood, but to also be able to create new memories with them everyday!
Cheers and happy cooking,
Rosie
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