Halászlé

Ingredients

• Carp — in steaks1.5 kg
• Small river fish — for the broth800 g
• Onions800 g
• Sweet ground paprika4 tbsp
• Hot paprika1 tsp
• Hot cherry pepper1
• Tomato1
• Bell pepper1
• Roe or milt — optional150 g
• White bread — to serve400 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cut the carp into steaks, salt them and chill them an hour; the salt firms the flesh.

   65 min

2. 2

   Put the small fish, heads, backbones and all the sliced onion into the cauldron and cover with water.

   12 min

3. 3

   Cook an hour over medium heat, until the fish and onion have completely broken down.

   65 min

4. 4

   Press the broth through a sieve, working the flesh through, and return it to the cauldron. Discard the bones.

   15 min

5. 5

   Take the cauldron off the fire and stir in both paprikas until the colour is even.

   5 min

6. 6

   Return it to the fire, add the tomato, pepper and the hot chilli and bring it up.

   8 min

7. 7

   Lower in the carp steaks and the roe and cook twelve minutes, only rocking the cauldron. Serve with white bread.

   15 min

About the dish

The base is a broth of small fish and heads pressed through a sieve. It supplies the body and the colour; pieces of larger fish go into the finished broth for the last minutes only.

The paprika is stirred into a cauldron taken off the fire. On the heat it turns bitter within seconds and the whole pot has to be thrown away — the chief danger of the dish.

The cauldron is rocked rather than stirred. The fish falls apart at any movement, and in Hungarian practice no spoon enters a halászlé until it is served.

Worth knowing

• — The paprika has to be fresh. Stale paprika loses colour and gives a brown soup instead of a bright red one, and the flavour goes dusty.
• — Use roughly as much onion as small fish. It dissolves entirely and works as the thickener, and there is no economising on it.
• — Halászlé is not reheated twice. On a second heating the fish falls into fibres and the soup clouds.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

480 kcal

Protein

46 g

Fat

14 g

Carbs

38 g

More from Hungary

• Goulash — Beef stewed with onion and paprika. There is as much onion by weight as meat, and it dissolves into the sauce.
• Lángos — A yeasted flatbread deep-fried, rubbed with garlic and buried under soured cream and cheese.
• Dobos torte — Five thin sponge layers with chocolate buttercream under a caramel lid.