Lately, Jason and I have been hitting old episodes of PBS’s Finding Your Roots, because we’re basically elderly people masquerading as thirty-somethings. Besides leaving me with a pretty hardcore Cory Booker crush, it makes me wonder if I’ve been remiss in not exploring my lineage more fully.
Me being me, my impulse is to celebrate those ancestors through food, but unfortunately, my people come from lands that don’t boast the most delicious vegetarian cuisine. I’ve never had any real testing done, but family lore has it that I’m primarily made up of genes from the mushy-pea-and-haggis-rich British Isles. There is one branch of the family that is Hungarian, which remains mostly shrouded in mystery. Could I be related to Attila the Hun? It’s possible. And since I’m too lazy to actually do the research, let’s just say that I am.
You can see the resemblance in the eyebrows.
It’s true that the Hungarians, too, are tremendously fond of meat, but I think they have a couple of advantages, culinarily speaking, over my Irish/Scottish/English forebears: 1) all of the Eastern European countries make some bangin’ pastries, and 2) they have a serious thing for sour cream. The first fact I realized when I went to the Hungarian Pastry Shop on the Upper West Side. Though the staff was somewhat baffled when I asked them about Hungarian specialties and then offered up a Linzer torte, which I’m pretty sure is Austrian, I have to say that the cheese and sour cherry strudel was no joke.
The second fact I have always unwittingly embraced, but it was driven home to me recently when I got a craving for this mushroom stroganoff for which my mother (note: not at all Hungarian) gave me the recipe.
I know what you’re thinking: stroganoff is a Russian dish, named after a Ukrainian family. How smug but also correct of you. However, it involves onion, sour cream and paprika, so as far as vegetarian food goes, I’m going to say that it’s at least within striking distance of Hungarian. So go on: serve yourself a big plate and curl up with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. You know you want to.
Mushroom Stroganoff
- 1 smallish onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound mixed mushrooms
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 small container sour cream (or low-fat yogurt, if you hate your ancestors)
- Egg noodles
- Paprika
In a large skillet, sauté the onion in the butter until nice and tender. Chop the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces and add them to the skillet, seasoning them with the salt, pepper, basil and lemon juice. Cook and keep the mushrooms hot on the stove until the egg noodles are cooked. Remove mushrooms from heat and gently stir in the sour cream until combined. Serve over the hot noodles and garnish liberally with paprika.