The Good Life in Aggtelek National Park Part XXVIII: Dombóvári Öhön

Kata's friends from her hometown of Dombóvár, Csilla and Béla and their daughter Bori came to visit this week. The morning of their arrival Sanyi and I went at 4:30am to try and gather some mushrooms for the pot. It is strange, but the dawn air often smells like Fritos. Colleagues in Jósvafő, Szin and Égerszög have been quite successful lately in finding bay bolete and chanterelle mushrooms, but there has been nothing in our area for weeks. The weather finally turned for the better and we had high hopes setting out for Baltaszék Hill. It was a gorgeous morning, as the full moon set over mist covered hills.

Sanyi found 3 chanterelles, while I found 3 bay bolete and a beautiful green charcoal burner, but it amounted to precious little. Luckily Sanyi spotted a big witches' butter mushroom on a tree by the main forest road and that filled my bucket.

Since meeting the family last year, Csilla has been devoutly collecting túró recipes to make for me. As a surprise gift to Kata, she also brought copies of some of Kata's mother's recipes. While we fried big slabs of witches' butter mushroom, Csilla set about making fried pattypan squash balls and fried cheese from our neighbours Vince and Kati. I went out shopping in the garden and brought back a basket full of four different kinds of salad, carrots, herbs and cucumbers. Everything going into our daily salads now, with the exception of the tomatoes, come from our own garden. My first pickles of 2014 are the best yet - the secret being a pinch of fenugreek and a bunch of sour cherry leaves to keep them crisp. While the cukes have not come from our garden yet, I was able to add our own shallots.

Béla helped by collecting and spreading the dry cut grass along the garden paths to prevent weeds, while Csilla and Kata tackled the window cleaning. We are very thankful for their energy and help! In the afternoon, Csilla made some scrumptious pogacsa, and an even more wonderful Rákoczi túrós. For over a year, Kata has been talking about making öhön in the bogrács, and it finally made it onto the evening's menu. We invited our neighbours Simon and Dora over with their daughter Ema and got to cooking. Öhön, or slambuc, is a traditional Hungarian dish consisting of potatoes and squat flat noodles, onions and a little paprika. Digging up various types, our potatoes are all gorgeous! The secret of a good öhön is that the potatoes have to cook down, then the half-cooked noodles are dumped on top and mixed in - the mixture then has to be tossed 77 times by lifting the entire cauldron! Dinner was accompanied by another salad, this time with a yogurt, rosemary and honey dressing; and a chilled bottle of Ikon sauvignon blanc I have been saving for about 6 years for the right occasion.

The increasingly cheeky foxes had been visiting us throughout the day, often distracting us. It seems it was a deliberate strategy. As we were packing up, Kata discovered she was missing a slipper. A flashlight search turned up the bright pink furry, and now slightly saliva-covered footwear in the back garden. Even the normally more flexible Kata is beginning to lose her patience now.