Winter #2: Red Scare / 冬＃２：赤狩り

Hungarians have a strong affinity for the color red. The one spice in all of eastern Europe is crimson Hungarian paprika. Hungarians can boast a strong Marxist philosophical tradition, from Lukács to Mészáros. And now, in the wake of the end of actually existing socialism and with the rise of free market liberalization, red sludge.
 父の生まれ育ちハンガリーが赤と深い関係持ってる。赤いパプリカは東欧中１つだけのスパイスである。ルカーチなどの優れたマークス主義学者の出身である。８９年の共産圏の国はそれぞれ自由市場に入ってから最近の災害の赤泥流もある。

It's probably too soon to make light about the red sludge, the name of which implies a slow-moving mass. The footage of which, however, makes it clear that it was much much more terrifying. And also really similar in appearance to gulyás (goulash, for you non-magyars).
たぶんちょっと冗談に早すぎるかもしれないが、この本当に大変な赤泥流の撮影を見て。。。えっ、ちょっとハンガリー料理の有名なグーヤシスープと似てるじゃないかっと（わるいけど）思った。

Now that there is a chill in the air, it's finally soup season for reals. So I thought I'd make up a paprika pot. And as a traveling companion... what more fitting than to create a red-green alliance?
東京は本当に冬に近い天候になったばかりので、本当のスープ季節じゃん。だからこそ今日のパプリカスープ。でも赤緑連合でいかがですか？

I ran into this amiable fellow one night in Shibuya.
ある夜、このかわい子ちゃんとであって。。。

Ah, romanesco from Hokkaido! あっ！北海道産のロマンエスコ！

Exactly how a green should be. Resilient, open to complexity, complimentary to red. And a little weird.
こんなような緑が好き。強い。複雑。変。

Oh yeah, and photogenic. Doesn't hurt to be photogenic.

So, I assigned the greens to the toaster oven. Olive oil, butter, parmesan cheese, slivered almonds accompanied them.
緑はトースターオーベンに。オリーブオイルとバーターとチーズとアーモンドと。

Then, I turned my attention to the Red. それで、赤に戻りました。

There are two keys to Hungarian stews, from gulyás to paprikás: make the onions sweat, and don't burn the paprika. First, I set about making the onions sweat.
ハンガリーのパプリカ料理を作るなら、２つのルールがある：第一、タマネギが「汗をかける」までソーテこと。それから、パプリカを焦げないことだ。まず、タマネギを。。。

Dice those onions. Your tears are nothing in the face of the struggle ahead. So dice them.
タマネギをきる。涙が出ても、きるしかない。

Then saute them over low heat for a long time. I mean like thirty minutes minimum. Get out your reading, and stand over your slowly sizzling pot. Theory and action, people. Fight on two fronts.
それでせめてせめて３０分ぐらいをかけてソーテする。がまんだよ。がまん。

After a while, the onions start to look like this:
しばらくタマネギはこの感じになる：

Don't even dream that you are done. Your long march has not yet reached its destination. Make those onions sweat. They will become milky and caramelized, and something different completely. A transformation! But it takes time. Oh, and I like to also add a little lard, too.

まだまだだよ。まだまだ。でもこのところに私は豚バラも入れる。

This is what I mean. These are sweated onions.

こんな感じになるまで、がまんを！

Now: to adhere to the second rule, remove the onions from heat and add the paprika. I don't measure but I always use more than I think I need. Make these sweated onions good and red. Stir in the paprika so it adhere to the oils. Then, you can return to heat (still careful with the paprika until some liquid has been added) and add what you wish. Gulyás is traditionally beef-based (the word itself indicates a Hungarian cowboy, so...), but anything will do. This time I went with chicken and winter vegetables.

それで、第二目のルール：パプリカを焦げないように、なべを火からとって、パプリカ（思うより多め！）を入れて、油に溶かすまで混ぜて、また火に戻す。これで好きなもの（今回は鳥肉、人参などで）と少しだけお水も入れて。。。

And simmer.

とろとろ煮える。

Nothing like a stew to steam up an apartment on a winter's eve. Well, actually, I guess there are other, equally fascinating ways to steam up an apartment on a winter's eve. But...

この部屋のスチーム暖房はスープ。

Still in my top five.

とろとろ。。。

And the red-green coalition?

それで。。。赤緑連合は。。。

Temporary as it was (I ate it right up), it was also...tasty.

おいしかった！ごちそうさまでした！

Winter #1: Drunken French Toast / 冬＃１：酔っぱらったフレンチトースト

The days keep getting shorter and shorter. In this land of the rising sun, the setting sun knows no daylight savings.
毎日の日暮れが早い季節に入りました。

But in this season of darkness, there is light, and you don't even have to wake up at six a.m. to catch it. It is the light offered by the simple things in life: simple sugars, and simple starches. And you may as well sleep in, since it's best served for brunch.
それでもこの闇の季節に光が見える：お砂糖とお酒に作られた光だ。

Japan has some delicious bread. True, it resembles the cake more than your standard rye. But even if it doesn't really fill you up or otherwise behave like "real food," it make real mean french toast.
日本のケーキのようなパンはおいしい。ちゃんとした食事にならないけど、せめてフレンチトーストに適当だと思う。

Japan also has great apples. Crisp, a little tart, and nothing like any mealy Red Delicious you may have had the misfortune to stumble upon.
日本のリンゴもおいしー。

Ah: these lovely little spheres, glistening and bright. These particular apples were ones I'd dragged all the way back from the Japanese Alps.
きれいね。このリンゴは日本のアルプスから持ち帰りにしたもので。。。

Also from the Japanese Alps, I had some leftover Japanese cognac-style brandy. Japanese bread, apples -- even beer -- may be wonderful. Japanese brandy is to be considered a last-resort beverage. It is okay, I guess, to sip it from a paper cup in the bath up in the freezing mountain air, but once I got back to civilization I couldn't really bear to take it straight.
軽井沢産ブラデーも持ち帰りで。まっ。日本で作られたパンもリンゴも（ビールも勿論けど）うまいけど。。。日本産のブランデーは。。。まだです。

The only thing to do, of course was to core the apples.
ですからリンゴの芯を抜いて。。。

After my messy job of coring these apples, I began to understand why people invest in apple corers.
何となくできたけど。。。

And then I soaked them in the brandy. After all, it may be morning, but I felt half-soaked in alcohol myself. I let them marinate until just sniffing the apples induced tipsiness.
ブランデーにいれた。香りだけで酔うまで入れた。

In the meantime, I grabbed hold of my day-old bread. The slices were so thick, that there were only three to a loaf.
それで、パンを。。

Soaked in egg and milk, I began to fry them up in butter, as I also got the apples going in another pan. Out of curiosity, I added black pepper to the apples.
パンと卵と牛乳に入れて、焼いた。リンゴもコショウいれて、バターで焼いた。

I barely burned off the brandy on the apples, and just one bite chased away the winter blues.
お酒の香りが残ったリンゴ。一口だけで冬のブルーズを忘れる。。。

 

Add walnuts, maple syrup.

くるみとメープルシロップで完了。

Life is quite simple. And in a world that expects us not to hibernate, at least we can do the next best thing and lean on sugars to render us semi-comatose all winter long. To those of us raised post-religion, this is the mass opiate.

人生ってシンプルじゃないですか。ま、酔ったらそんな感じがすれけど。

Oh, and I'll take my opiate with an egg on the side, please.

お酒と卵さえあれば、冬でもおいしい人生で幸せ。

ごちそうさまでして！