Hortobágy crêpes are considered as one of the most traditional Hungarian dishes, whose recipe was created for the Brussels World Fair in 1958, although something similar was already published in the cookbook of Mrs. Kollmann in 1939. Hortobágy crêpes, which are virtually served as a hot appetizer in the restaurants, are filled with stew meat, folded up and poured over with the stew sauce combined with sour cream. Despite their fancy name, which rather serves tourist attractive purposes, these crêpes have nothing to do with Europe’s largest grassland.

Many cooks tend to use leftover stew for filling the crêpes, but I don’t recommend it – this dish is not a leftover graveyard, it deserves a fresh, savory stew, which doesn’t take such a long time to cook. The meat can be veal, pork or chicken; if you decide on chicken, instead of the dry, tasteless chicken breast use boneless thighs, so your stew will be much juicier.

Don’t use mince to make the stew, but dice the meat instead – the result will be more palatable this way. You can grind the meat afterwards, or, as I did, use a fork to mash the tender meat.
The stew sauce is drained off and thickened with sour cream and flour. Avoid adding to much flour since the goal is not to make an adhesive paste, but a light and silky sauce. The sauce can be enriched with a dash of cream, but don’t let it dominate.