MILK: At the end of the village we are lucky enough to have a large dairy farm. When we first arrived in Hungary we bought all our milk from the local supermarkets. Just by chance one of the villagers mentioned you can buy fresh cow’s milk at the farm. So with a couple of empty plastic bottles, we made a visit to the farmhouse. The milk was stored in a huge refrigerated milk vat and continually machine stirred so the milk did not separate. We paid a small amount of money for our bottles and took them eagerly home. Obviously, we had to pasteurise it ourselves before drinking it. In a large pan, we slowly heated the milk to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring frequently to avoid scalding the milk. Kept this temperature for exactly 30 minutes, then, turned the heat off and cooled quickly, bottled and refrigerated immediately. Then we sat back and enjoyed a wonderful cup of super creamy coffee.
CHEESE: Once we had become friendly with the farmer we also discovered he made his own cheeses too. What luck, we love cheese and were eager to order some from him. The cheese was either plain, or with added red onion or added garlic. We have tried all three and like the plain with red onion the best. It tastes delicious on its own and works well in cooking dishes like Soubeureg which is an Armenian Cheese Pastry. https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/801549-soubeureg-armenian-cheese-pastry We replace the akkawi cheese with the farm cheese and serve it with a fresh mixed salad.
MEAT: The last thing we buy from the farm is fresh meat. The farmer will tell us in advance when he has a cow or a lamb ready and go and buy whichever parts we want. Sometimes we wait awhile as he needs sufficient people to buy the animal. It works very well for us. Eric has the butchering skills needed when the meat comes home. We bag and label everything and put it in our freezer all ready to eat.
We are very happy to support our village farm by buying milk, meats and cheeses, we know where our food is coming from and in turn, it helps him too.
Making Hungary Home 