Snow Cream - a Southern delicacy

I'm learning that Southerners and snow have a complex relationship - part fascination, part dread and part unfettered joy. Sometimes all 3 at the same time.

Where I live in North Carolina, we'll get a little snow once or so each winter, and it's now something we look forward to because it usually means a day or two at home and some frolicking in the snow. Now I have another reason to look forward to it - snow cream.

It turns out that when it snows, Southerners make snow cream. They venture outside with a bowl and fill it with snow, bring it inside and drizzle it with vanilla extract and sweetened condensed milk (or evaporated milk and sugar) and then eat it.

What you can do is take about 8 - 10 cups of snow, 1 tablespoon of vanilla and a small can of sweetened, condensed milk and - voilá! Snow Cream!

I've attached a short video about snow cream by the über-talented Michael Fortson. It's short and fun.

Go give it a try - it's fun and delicious.

Enjoy!

Hungarian Garlic Soup

Known as Foghagymás Leves, this recipe is an old favorite of mine because it’s warm and flavorful, and most of all because it reminds me of my grandmother. Like much of home cooking, I am not sure you could ever order this in a Hungarian restaurant, so here is the recipe for you to enjoy.

                                                      Ingredients

2 whole heads of garlic

1 large onion

¼ cup of olive oil

1 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp paprika

1 gallon of Swanson’s chicken stock or broth

½ package of linguine

Start by peeling the garlic – it needs to be fresh garlic or the taste will not come through. Once peeled, mince them finely and set them aside.

Next, make the “rántás” – the basis for all Hungarian stews and savory soups.  Rántás” is finely minced onion, slowly sautéed on a low flame with 3 – 4 tbsp of olive oil. The French and foodies know this as "roux." 

Once the onions are ready, raise the flame, sprinkle in the paprika and mix it up so that the paprika gets toasted to bring out the flavor. Then, sprinkle in the flour (hand sifting with a wire mesh strainer works great) and mix it very well with the spatula. It comes out better if you first mix the flour into a runny paste with a little water and a hand blender and then pour that mixture into the sauteed onions and paprika to finish the rántás. The correct consistency of rántás is thick and pasty, and it should be reddish-orange in color.

At that point, add the minced garlic and lower the flame, stirring occasionally as it cooks slowly for about 10 – 15 minutes.  Once the garlic is soft and transparent, then add in the chicken broth and bring it to a boil.

Once boiling, break the linguine into thirds (so each piece is about 2 inches long) and add them to the pot. Lower the flame and cover the pot – let it slowly boil for 10 minutes or so until the linguine is cooked through. The finished soup has a bisque-like pinkish color.

Serve hot to warm up even the coldest nights.  Jó étvágyat!  Enjoy!