Kedvenc ételek: juhtúrós sztrapacska vegán és gluténmentes módra

Múlt héten szerdán érkeztünk haza Pozsonyból, ahol párommal elmentünk egy szlovák étterembe vacsorázni (Koliba Kamzik), ami pár lépésre volt a szállásunktól. Hangulatos hely, látszott, hogy igyekeznek autentikusan berendezni. Párom rendelt magának egy Bryndzové halušky nevű ételt, ami gyakorlatilag egy juhtúrós sztrapacska. Mivel vegán vagyok és a tetejébe még lisztérzékeny is, én csak rozmaringos sült burgonyát ettem – jó, az is finom volt. A sztrapacska igen csábítóan nézett ki, és eltökéltem magamban, ha hazaérünk, meg fogom próbálni a vegán és gluténmentes változatás elkészíteni.

itt vacsoráztunk (Michalská utca, Delia ábécével szemben)
a vacsi: haluski és az én rozmaringos burgonyám
íme a kész vegán haluski / sztrapacska tofu szalonnával

A prove oldalról puskáztam ötletekért, ezt ajánlom, ha valaki el szeretné készíteni: Vegán “juhtúrós” sztrapacska tofuropogóssal (gluténmentes opció) (prove.hu)

A tésztához a Mester Család glutén, laktóz és tojásmentes galuskalisztjét választottam alapul: Galuskapor (mestercsalad.hu). A sztrapacska hasonlít a magyar nokedlire, mondhatni testvérek. Annyi a különbség, hogy apróra reszelt krumpli is kerül a tésztába.

Leírom, hogyan készítettem el, mert némileg azért eltértem a prove-on talált recepttől.

A “juhtúrós” szószalaphoz először vöröshagymát pirítottam, majd felhasználtam némi vegán feta sajtot, meg egy megkezdett dr Oetker vega tejfölt meleg vízzel kissé higítva, aztán egy füstölt tofut morzsoltam bele. Amint összeraktam őket, levettem alóla a lángot, és kicsit kevergettem, hogy jól elvegyüljenek a részek.

vegán “juhtúró”

A “juhtúró” után nekiláttam a pirított tofukockáknak, ők volnának ugye a szalonna növényi verziója. Marinált tofut használtam, ami már eleve ízesebb, ezt vágtam széltében három rétegre, aztán kis, kb 4-5 mm széles kockákra. Egy serpenyőbe kevés olajat öntöttem, erre rá a kockákat, plusz némi szójaszószt és piros paprikát. Közepes hőfokon sütögettem őket elég sokáig, vagy 15 percig, közben újra adagolva rájuk némi olajat, meg szójaszószt és kevéske folyékony füstöt, mikor-hogy, érzés szerint. Az eredmény igen inycsiklandóra sikerült.

fincsi tofu szalonnák

Amint ez is megvolt, jöhetett a legnagyobb kihívás: a sztrapacska, azaz a haluski. Két krumplit meghámoztunk, szeletekre vágtunk (itt párom is segédkezett), és a hagymadarálógéppel felapírtottuk szinte pépesre. Ezt egy nagyobb keverőtálba szedtük át és egy-két csipet sót kevertünk hozzá, nehogy megbarnuljon. Ebbe került a liszt, és egy teáskanálnyi olaj. Nos, a galuskaliszt igen jól szerepelt, szerintem megfelelő állagú alapanyag lett belőle. Fontos, hogy a tészta ne legyen folyós, hanem azért összeálljon valamennyire. A tojás természetesen kimaradt belőle, viszont adtam hozzá kb 1-1,5 evőkanál lenmaglisztet, hogy jobban legyen tartása.

a tészta elég jó állagú lett

Lobogó forró vízbe kell a sztrapacskát / haluskit szaggatni, ugyanúgy mint a nokedlit. Ha a víz nem elég forró, nem fog összeállni a liszt kis tésztaszemekké. Néhány perc főlés elég neki, és amikor habosodni kezdett, akkor kicsit lejjebb vettem a főzőlap fokozatát. Amint úgy ítéltük meg, hogy megfőttek a tésztaszemek, egy tésztaszűrőbe kiborítottuk őket és hideg vízzel kicsit átöblítettem. Ezután pedig azonnal zutty bele a “juhtúrókrémbe”. Alaposan el kell keverni és igazából itt készen is vagyunk. Ha kiszedtük tányérba, tegyük rá a tofu kockákat, úgy lesz igazán jó. Párom kóstolt már “valódi” sztapacskát több alkalommal például Poprádon és Kassán, de ebből egyből befalt két adagot, úgyhogy annyira rossz nem lehetett… 😀

a kész haluski – galuski

Healthy foodies: Borsch

This is my new fav soup and although I tried to prepare it in the past a few times, the result was always, hm, let’s say strange… I learned the proper way to prepare it only some months ago when our Ukrainian friend and collegue invited me and my partner for a dinner. Why she did that? Long story short, due to the war she moved to Budapest from Kyiv and we tried to help her in settling down. In the meantime we became friends and we are learning a lot from her.

I was excited to try Borsch and I was surprised how tasty and complex it is! I asked our friend for the recipe and I already cooked it at least 5 times. I taught it to my mom too and she cooked it already 2 times in the last month. Beetroot is king and now at least we know one more cool way to use it. 😀

my first Borsch with vegan sour cream and a gluten free toast

What I like about it most is the richness of flavours and that specific “thickness” as it contains so many ingredients. As I start eating I can feel the nutrients flooding into my body: vitamins and minerals from beetroot, carrot, onion, garlic, potato, beans, cabbage, tomato. I serve it with vegan sour cream and toast. It is a great warming food for wintertime, I will certainly cook it to cheer up our coming cold days.

I added small chunks of 827 smoked vegan ham to the soup
the simmering pot of red gold

The recipe I got from our friend:

1 onion
1 carrot
1 beetroot
beans (optional)
bell pepper (optional)
mushrooms (optional)
celery (optional)
1/4 of medium cabbage
4 medium potatoes
2 bay leaves
salt
peper
tomato paste
sunflower oil
garlic (optional)
dill (optional) in the end
sour cream (optional) to the plate

She cooked it with beans, bell pepper and dill for me as I am vegan and has to avoid gluten.

Preparation

Chop the onion, the carrots and the beetroot. Fry onions on sunflower oil till they are gold, then add beetroot, then carrots, and salt. Roast them a little, then add tomato paste with some water and stew the soup until the beetroot is semi ready.

If you cook it with beans, put them into water the previous evening so that they swell for the morning.

When the soup is boiling add more water and salt, put the beans to boil first, then the chopped potatoes. When potatoes are semi ready, add the chopped cabbage and a few bay leaves.

Serve it with sour cream and bread.

When I cook this soup I set the timer for 10 minute periods:

  • first 10 mins for onions + garlic + beetroot + carrot + 2 cup water, high fire
  • next 10 mins with potatos + tomato paste + bay leaves, medium fire
  • final 10 or 15 mins for fully cooking the ingedients, low fire

Enjoy! 🙂

Summer report

Many many things happened during this summer. People showed lack of attention to infection danger and swarmed to beaches, events and popular sights. I saw this while we were on a holiday.

I attended a lovely and great event, the Turtle Symposium organized by the TSA, the Turtle Survival Association. The videos of each session are uploaded to Youtube so that anyone can see them. I really recommend watching them! 🙂 Check their page: https://turtlesurvival.org/2020-symposium/

In summertime the vegan activists did not rest. My friend, Pitt did a few videos. I truly appreciate his work and dedication for the good cause. God bless all the people who care about animal lives. Respect. See one his videos:

one of Pitt’s videos

Guesthouse & Sanctuary

I created a site to show and explain how – and why – I imagine to create a guesthouse and a turtle sanctuary. Here on my homepage one can already find a page dedicated to this but I wanted to create an introduction page without exposing myself so much – as my person is much less important now. Here it is:

https://sites.google.com/view/turtleguesthouseandsanctuary/guesthouse-turtle-sanctuary

I work on finding partners, financiers and supporters for the plan. Because I feel this is a really important issue. I just love turtles, I can’t help it. And I want to help them, giving them a good and safe life. <3

Transylvania

In November I had the chance to travel to Transylvania – to Erdely, as we Hungarians name that old land. In fact Erdely is bigger than Transylvania, it includes 16 counties and various territories. See: Transylvania – Erdély

It was my dream long since to visit that land. It is like a wonderland with pictouresque montain sites and great woods. 

I have a good friend living there and I went to see her at her home, she lives in a village near Szekelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuiesc) in Hargita county. She waited me there, at a place called triangle near the main square, as I came with an airport transport called Vandor Szekely (Wanderer Sekler) from Marosvasarhely  Airport (Tirgu Mures). 

It was Friday afternoon when I arrived and stayed at her place for two days. Saturday we had a trip around the near landscapes and at Sunday we traveled back to Budapest together, with airplane charter. She is working at Budapest or Vienna mostly, but stays home for a few months whenever she can.

small river with yellowish sand near Homorod
wild forest

The Transylvanian lands are famed lately for the high number of bears coming near the populated areas, even walking into gardens of family houses. Normally there is no big disruption, as people are used to their presence. But the number of encounters are rising and that’s alarming. There is a ban of hunting as much as I know, and unfortunately, the forests are no more connected due to wood exploitation. The younger bears don’t easily find a new territory for themselves, so the conflict between humans and animals is imminent. During the days I’ve spent in Erdely two incidents were reported about bear attacks, one was lethal. It happened near Marosvasarhely, the victim was a sheperd guarding a herd of sheep.

The population of the Partium, Banat and Hargita county kept to be Hungarian in identity as they are mostly Seklers, even with the numerous repopulation after that the Romanian state was created. Over the North-Eastern corner of the Carpathian curve is Csango land (Chango, they too speak Hungarian). Chango people are considered as the oldest folks in the area – or maybe in whole Europe, with identical cultural traits and astonishing musical legacy. Northern from their place one can find Moldova on the map, where many people they still have their traditional Hungarian language, enrichened with their own, curious sounding words. Those folks are keen to preserve their unique culture which is sometimes quite hard. 

magical Csango song

What I particularly liked here were the breath-taking landscapes and the typical carved Sekler gates.  Though life is not any easy here for Seklers, as Romanians don’t accept their having an independent identity or any claim of a higher independence level (see the autonomy movement). Under Ceausescu these people suffered a lot from the poverty, the discrimination and the oppression. Well, I guess whole Romania suffered…

All with this, knowing some history I dare to state that these tough, obstinate mountain people are made to survive. Even in the times when Erdely was part  of the Hungarian Kingdom they enjoyed some independence. They proved to be really talented in staying alive among all the hardships, yet, Erdely was considered a wealthy land. I wish they could have a better and easier life today, they’d deserve it.

Sekler gate with special carvings
beautiful landscape with the typical stepped hillside
the Hargita mountains’ line of the South-Eastern Carpathians in the far

Unusual and lovely warm sunshine greeted us on all the three days, it was like a blessing. Together we traveled through Parajd, famous for its gigantic salt mine, and Korond, a place famous for high-quality ceramics. We haven’t met a single bear, though my mom asked about them when I called her in the evening. We ate a lot, my friend proved to be a generous host, cooking real good meals for me. All was vegan! Well, she’s vegan too.

our abundant breakfast

The third day we took a ride with the already known Vandor Szekely airport transfer to Tirgu Mures aka Marosvasarhely. At the airport, after a scrutinous and somewhat unfriendly examination we were to wait for our depart. There was a small shop of souvenirs but we couldn’t find up anything with Hungarian text, like “Welcome from Seklerland”, only Romanian stuff. This is quite typical, my friend explained. Romanians have the tendency to make Hungarians feel unwelcome, and the same is true about Seklers or other ethnic groups in the country. I don’t know if this will change, but that would be great. I photoed some of the items in the shop: 

Drakulas were everywhere, here some wine for the thirsty
national folk items, magnets and toys with Romanian flags

Altogether I enjoyed the journey and I feel honoured to be able to go to Erdely, to feel its mystical air and see those ancient mountains with my own eyes. It was like a dream come true, I burst into smiling anytime it comes in my mind. I brought with myself the silent wish&hope that life will improve for the people living there, and for all people in the world.

Dear December

Sadly, again, I only have time to summarize the past one month. So, let’s see.

The Meetup to meet up with readers took place at 27th of November, where I had the chance to talk more about the book and about the whys. It was a great experience! 🙂

The animation course I attend came to its end this week, and we’ve created a montage from our works. I will post it here as soon as I’m done with it (at place the sound needs some editing). 🙂

one of the projects 🙂

Also, I cold participate in shooting a little sequence for SMTV again, which was really a honour. 🙂

ready for the shooting

Interview first part on air

The 1/2 part of the Supreme Master TV interview is available:

Remembering Past lives, episode 1/2

It can be downloaded: http://suprememastertv.com/en1/download/p.php?f=0407-SS-Remembering-Past-Lives-an-Interview-with-Annamaria-Furedi-P1o1-2m&fbclid=IwAR1lVIGmAqXhrLIvWsq2xagzy-TD_ZCVeZH7cWyR4yu8ZQqo3UwWt2hd1FM

Interview on Supreme Master TV

Wow, the interview is divided into two parts and the screening of them is scheduled!! 🙂

14th November: Remembering Past Lives: An interview with Annamaria Furedi Part 1/2

21th November: Remembering Past Lives: An interview with Annamaria Furedi Part 2/2

http://suprememastertv.com/en1/


Meditation Retreat

I’ve spent fifteen days in a very special meditation retreat near a southern Taiwanese city, 10000 kilometres away from my home. We were doing karmakiller meditation for many hours each day, to help elevating ourselves, our loved ones, and the planet. I learned here that the island gave home to numerous saints and Buddhist (and non-Buddhist) masters in the past. We glimpsed shrines and temples wide around wherever we went. One could feel something sacred being present in the air… This is one of the most famous Buddhist places close to our retreat:

Buddhist monastery
Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Monastery and Museum (wikipedia)

I saw a lot of gekkos and lizards on the walls and the trees, almost every day. They were so cute!

Taiwanese lizard (not my photos – I did not make photos during the retreat)

This one might be the same lizard but a female one (my guess)

Common house gecko – they could be seen everywhere

Our flight was pleasant with the Emirates and quite long, the whole journey took more than 25 hours: Budapest – Dubai, Dubai – Taipei, Taipei – Kaohsiung. We ordered vegan meals when booked the seats and we were happy to see they could cook for us – our food was labeled as strict vegetarian.

Airbus 380

Dubai Airport

Taoyuan Airport, Taipei

tasty vegan meals (bottom left: it was our welcome meal)

My fear from flying almost fully disappeared and on our way back I sat to the window. I could see huge part of Mesopotamia, the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, and the lines of mountains as we progressed towards (and through) Asia Minor. Many of the places where I once lived lied under us… I am so grateful for the experience!

Mesopotamia (wikipedia)