Saturday, February 6, 2010

The Gabor Sisters and the Law


Before there was Paris or Nicki Hilton or Lindsay Lohan: there was you. The original Beverly Hills celebrity. Happy Birthday Zsa Zsa.

I hope birthday girl, now that you have a more formal name- Sári Prinzessin von Anhalt- I hope you don't mind a little gossip about your early "run-in" with the law. Not the one in Beverly Hills.
This was much earlier than that one. Much more pleasant . With one Reserve Deputy Sheriff Lou Stark (d 2006).

According to a reliable source, Deputy Stark and Eva may have dated a bit in Budapest. But he definitely took credit for teaching your mom, Magda, Eva and you how to cook Hungarian Goulash.

You are reported to have said this is "THE BEST" Hungarian Goulash ever..

1 ½ pounds boneless pot roast of beef, chuck or blade or stew meat cut
into 1 ½ inch pieces. (Use lean meat)
1 ¼ cup beer or wine (rose or dry white)
½ cup tomato paste
3 ½ tablespoon paprika (red Hungarian)
1 green pepper chopped
3 medium size onion chopped
salt and black pepper to taste
2 T oil or lard or bacon fat

In a pressure cooker add oil and onion. Brown slowly.

Add meat, brown on all sides, add paprika, salt and black pepper, mix well.

Add beer or wine, tomato paste, green pepper, mix well.

Cover pressure cooker, bring to full steam and cook for 20-25 minutes.

About 4 servings

Reader- Thank the beautiful Oregon Sue for permission to reprint the recipe and little story
.
For those with a fear of pressure cookers- Sue reports putting in a crock pot for the day or in a pot on the stove for 4-5 hours will also work.
With all the rain (3.2" here in Diamond Bar overnight) this seemed like a good story to pre-empt the "how to clean cactus" based on article The Huntington sent.

I'm pretty certain my husband is much happier to have his wife playing in the kitchen than out with the vacuum cleaner in the rain. Dont misunderstand. He likes when I garden- but like most husbands, he loves it when I cook.

Ciao!
Unable to source image of Zsa Zsa and her prince. The peppers image was found on Wikipedia.



4 comments:

  1. I have to say that Lou Stark was one of the NICEST people you could ever know. Rest in peace, Lou. Love your recipe and the story that went with it. Lydia is honoring you with this blog. I honor you by telling everyone that you were my friend.
    Thanks for this Lydia.
    xo Oregon Sue

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  2. Lydia, thanks for posting Sue's wonderful story. It's nice to hear something positive regarding Zsa Zsa, even though it's only a nice comment she made about the officer's recipe.

    I've never had a very high opinion of her. She doesn't need my approval of her, though because she thinks so highly of herself! lol, I've heard, her sister Ava was a very nice person, though.

    The California Cutie
    Seal Beach, CA

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  3. Very nice homage to a good friend of Oregon Sue. It sure triggered lots of memories of the day a deluxe Presto Pressure Cooker arrived in our kitchen. Cooking was not my Mom's favorite activity and it was advertised as a time saver. So my two sisters and I began our life living with "the monster" on the stove. We were warned that it could blow up and was to be used by adults. It certainly shortened cooking time on ordinarily slow, long cooking foods. It was magic and dangerous all at the same time. When that toggle on the top started dancing, it meant that dinner was not far away. It was long before the magic of the crockpot, micro wave ovens and all of the high tech items we enjoy today.

    Personally I love to cook and have never owned one of them although I have a special shelf for my collection of Rival crockpots. Love them.

    How nice to honor Sue's friend because she shared this wonderful recipe. Hungarian cooking is somewhere in between German and Polish cooking it seems. Great post Lydia.

    Frozen in Time
    E

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  4. Lydia,
    Don't know how this one got by me as I am usually the first comment! lol
    Love that photo of Zsa Zsa and "Prince" hubby. I thought it a hoot when she started calling herself Princess Zsa Zsa!
    Love that you posted Oregon Sue's recipe. I put it on Word and printed it out for my big recipe notebook. Will email it to Debbie for her to add to her notebook that I made for her.
    Very nice!
    Hugs, Trisha

    ReplyDelete

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