Rakott krumpli

As we sometimes joke to each other, my husband and I are both very much "ethnic wannabes."  We each have one immigrant Polish parent-- in his case, born in a Siberian gulag during the war; and in mine, born in a DP camp in Germany, where my grandparents had been deported for forced labor.  My husband's mother is half Polish and half German; and my father is half Polish and half Hungarian.  On either side, no ancestor arrived in this country before the twentieth century... Although my husband and I don't speak Polish, have never been to Poland (or Hungary, or Germany), and are decidedly "American" in our attitudes (as we always discover when speaking with actual Europeans!), still we cling to the idea of ethnic identity-- and admit that the attempt is, well, half pathetic.

Now, inevitably, our immigrant parents are aging; and our immigrant grandparents are dying.  Someday that direct link to the past will be severed...

While we've always been eager to claim our heritage in small ways (i.e. the framed Polish eagles on our walls), lately I've grown a little desperate!  Along with a great uncle on my father's side, I've been dabbling in Hungarian genealogy.*   I've also been reprinting family photos, displaying deceased family members' cherished personal effects, and-- the true topic of this post-- experimenting with Eastern European recipes.

For dinner last night I made a version of Hungarian rakott krumpli, which is an extremely simple-- but incredibly rich!-- potato casserole.  Basically, it consists of sliced boiled potatoes layered with lots of melted butter; sliced hardboiled eggs; meat (ham and/or bacon and/or sausage); and finally, sour cream, or a sour cream sauce, topped with a sprinkle of paprika.  Then, bake in a medium oven for about 30 minutes... The dish can be varied in many ways, including omitting the meat for a Lenten dish.  I used diced ham and added a layer of chopped cabbage for extra nutrition.

Here's one recipe; and here's another; and another.

The hardboiled egg and sour cream give rakott krumpli a very distinctive, old-world flavor (and I never would have considered using hardboiled egg in a baked casserole!  But try it-- it's delicious.).  I found that sliced cucumber and a glass of wine provided a fresh, pleasant contrast to the casserole's richness.

As I continue to mine my Hungarian and Polish cookbooks, I'll post about the results.  In the meantime, my husband agrees-- we're definitely making rakott krumpli again!


*Ironic, considering that my children are not genetically related to me!  But I'll save that reflection for another day.