Pork stew in Bakony style

by | Jul 17, 2015 | Meat dishes

There are several dishes in Hungary that are made in Bakony style, named after Bakony, the westernmost and largest member of the Transdanubian Mountains. It is located north of Lake Balaton and lies almost entirely in Veszprém county. Bakony is a treasure house of various wild mushrooms, this is the reason why Bakony style dishes are always made up of a mushroom-(sour)cream sauce.

The following recipe presents a simple pork stew souped up with mushrooms and a sour cream thickening. Wild mushrooms should be primarily used, if we insists on traditions, but they are not always available because of seasonality, so cultivated mushrooms are also acceptable. It is served with boiled noodles, but opinions vary on its kind: some people think that homemade nokedli is the sole admissible side dish that fits for this stew, others simply use store-bought noodles. I belong to the latter group, I don’t make a fuss about it, the stew is amazing with both.

Pork stew in bakony style
Pork stew in Bakony style – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg (~2 lb) pork leg or shoulder, diced
  • 70 g (~2,5 oz) smoked bacon, chopped
  • 1 big onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 3 dessertspoons ground paprika
  • 2 dessertspoons salt
  • 1 l (~4 cups) water
  • 1/4 dessertspoon caraway seeds
  • 1 tomato, sliced
  • 1 wax pepper, sliced
  • 200 g (~1/2 lb) mushrooms, sliced

For the thickening:

  • 100 ml (~1/2 cup) water
  • 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp sour cream

Fry chopped bacon until it releases enough lard. Add finely chopped onion, a bit later chopped garlic, and sauté over medium heat. When the onion is translucent, add the pork and fry until all sides turn white.
Remove from the heat, sprinkle paprika and caraway seeds over the meat, stir to cover the pork evenly. Pour in water and return to the heat. Bring it to a boil, add salt, tomato and wax pepper. Cook over medium heat until the meat is almost tender. Add sliced mushrooms and keep cooking.

In the meantime make the thickening. Place flour, water and sour cream in a bowl and whisk until smooth and lump-free. Pour the mixture in a fine stream into the stew while stirring constantly. Cook further for 5 more minutes.

Serve hot with boiled noodles.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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