A Corner on Tasty Hungarian Fare

Otto and Son Import Store (Otto’s Magyar Import Uzlet), 2320 W. Clark Ave., Burbank; (818) 845-0433. Hours: Monday through Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

When you step into Otto’s Hungarian Market on Clark Avenue in Burbank, you’re instantly back in Budapest. Old-fashioned cookware lines the walls. Polka music plays on a stereo. There’s a comfortable clutter of jars and boxes holding the sorts of imported ingredients an Eastern European grandmother would clasp to her apron with joy.

The door opens to let in a customer--not a grandmother but a man in a business suit, one of Otto’s regulars. He inhales the store’s mixed aromas of smoked hams, garlicky sausages and freshly baked bread, letting out his breath in an appreciative “Ahhhh.”

“We don’t charge for the smell,” quips the store’s ebullient owner, Otto Huber. The customer reviews the long sandwich menu behind the deli case, ordering his favorite combination of meats on the farmhouse-style rye that Otto’s has baked for the store. Otto’s sandwiches have spoiled everyone in the neighborhood.

The store may look a bit antiquated, with its collection of potato ricers and jars of gooseberries in syrup, but there’s plenty here for modern cooks. And Irma, Otto’s wife, will counsel you on using the store’s lesser-known ingredients.

For example, lecso , a saute of garlic, onions, sweet pepper and a little tomato--the base for many long-simmered Hungarian dishes--is sold in jars. The reputation of a Hungarian cook rests on whether or not he can fry the onions for lecso to a perfect shade of gold. This takes patience and a watchful eye. But prepared lecso can turn chicken parts or veal into stews, sauced dishes or soups in a few minutes. Hungarians even serve lecso over pasta or topped with a fried egg. Although traditionally made with lard, the version at Otto’s uses sunflower oil (this one is spelled letcho on the label, rather than lecso ).

Though Hungarian cooking usually brings to mind voluptuous sour cream-laced chicken paprikas or baroque gulyas , such meaty fare isn’t eaten every day. At its heart, this cuisine is abundant with potato and vegetable dishes, cooked with small amounts of the sort of well-seasoned sausages or hams Otto’s carries. Solid, nourishing Hungarian soups also make a little meat go a long way as do all kinds of noodles and dumplings. And Irma is full of advice on the finer points of preparing these dishes.

SHOPPING LIST

When the Hubers bought this store 20 years ago, it was a barely surviving corner market. But they started stocking Hungarian sausages from their favorite source in Chicago and that turned business around. Otto kept on adding new items, and today he has one of the most complete selections of Hungarian sausages and European hams around.

HAMS:

* Hungarian and Polish ham: Cured but not smoked, these imported “boiled” hams are totally lean and barely salty.

* Gonayolt sonka: Called “string ham,” it is boned, rolled and tied with string before getting a light smoking. Slice it medium thick to serve as an entree or thin to use in sandwiches.

* Black Forest ham: Extra-long smoking gives this dense ham its deep flavor. Superb in omelets, potato dishes and on egg bread for sandwiches.

* Westphalian ham: Dry cured and then smoked, this very lean ham is the most intensely flavored of all. It resembles prosciutto with a smoky flavor.

* Fustolt karaj: This well-smoked filet mignon is like a cross between prosciutto and bresaola-- the Italian air-dried beef. The long brick-colored filets are sliced paper thin and served as cold cuts. They’re sensational with sliced ripe tomatoes or the cabbage-stuffed pickled peppers sold here.

* Italian prosciutto: Otto’s carries prosciutto from Italy.

BACONS

* Fustolt szalona: An aged smoked bacon that adds a wonderful rich flavor to all kinds of dishes from soups and stews to noodles.

* Abalt szalona: It’s boiled with garlic in the piece, and Hungarians slice it thin to eat cold on dense rye bread. One variety is dusted with a coating of paprika.

SAUSAGES

Among Otto’s collection of salami look for teli szalami , a hard “winter-style” dry salami, and Csabai or paprika salami, a spicier dry salami laced with garlic and paprika. It’s originally from the town of Csabai, whose residents like their food hot. Nyari szalami , on the other hand, has milder seasonings and is a softer “summer” salami. Turista szalami is a mild fairly firm salami that, as you might guess, Hungarians like to take with them on trips.

* Vadasz: Otherwise known as garlic salami, it is soft and closer in texture to bologna than the usual dry salami. Its smooth pink meat is flecked with a mosaic of pork chunks.

* Parizsi: A supple veal bologna with a silky texture that will encourage you to forget about conventional lunch meats. For sandwiches, Otto layers thin, bread plate-sized slices of parizsi in his specially baked farmhouse-style rye.

* Liverwurst: Otto’s stocks the fine smooth calf’s liverwurst and the chunky beef-liver style. Like his bologna, these are a far cry from standard lunch meats.

* Cserkesz: Known as “boy scout sausage” because it’s skinny and easy to carry. Since cserkesz has been both smoked and dried, it keeps a long time without refrigeration.

* Roppanos virsli: The noble ancestor of the hot dog, this fresh veal sausage has natural casings. It’s better to steam the sausages than boil them. Eat virsli with mustard on a roll or use them in soups, potato or bean dishes.

* Csabai: This spicy, very firm smoked sausage is eaten cold or used in cooking.

* Paraszt kolbasz: A heavily smoked home-style sausage with lots of garlic and paprika.

* Gyulai: Densely packed and mildly seasoned, this lightly smoked pork sausage can turn cabbage or potatoes into a savory meal. Gyulai make fine munching sausages too.

* Liver sausage and blood sausage varieties: Majashurka , a pale liver sausage made with rice, and vereshurka , blood sausage made with barley, are best known as part of disznotoros , a sort of Hungarian version of choucroute garnie where vegetables and various meats are cooked together and served on a wooden platter. Sutnivaldo kolbasz or roasting sausage is another delicious element in the disznotoros.

NOODLES

Noodles are as much a staple in Hungary as they are in Italy and Otto’s imports several kinds. Hungarians not only use them as a side dish or in soups but often as dessert, sprinkled with sugar and dusted with ground walnuts or poppy seed paste, or baked in a casserole with cream, sugar and lemon zest. Made from high gluten Hungarian wheat flour and yellow with egg, these are noodles with character.

* Valodi tojasos teszta: Half-an-inch wide and only about an inch long, these are rolled thicker than regular fettuccine-sized egg noodles. Such dishes as cottage cheese noodles and noodles mixed with sauteed cabbage and onions and sour cream are just not the same without them. Valodi tojasos teszta are also great in chicken soup.

* Kiskocka: This tiny circular noodle, like a miniature dumpling, is used in soups and with gravy dishes.

* Tarhonya: One of Hungary’s most famous noodles, these little egg dough pellets are made by pushing noodle dough through a coarse sieve. They’re sometimes called “egg barley,” because they resemble the grain. Tarhonya are most frequently served with stews but some make a meal of them simply mixed with a little meat gravy or sauteed in butter or bacon fat and sprinkled with crispy slivers of smoky Hungarian bacon ( fustolt szalona ).

* Finom metelt: A fine angel-hair egg pasta.

* Metelt teszta: These fettuccine-sized ribbons of egg noodles are best known in makos teszta , where they are sprinkled with sugar and ground poppy seeds. Another version of the dish is made with ground walnuts and both are traditionally eaten on Good Friday or when the meal is light.

BREADS

* Feher kenyer: Baked especially for Otto’s, this oblong farmhouse-style white bread has a good, dense crumb and excellent mellow flavor. A row of diagonal slashes on its top crust give the appearance of barber pole-like stripes. The crust crisps nicely when the bread is warmed.

* Paraszt kenyer: A farmhouse rye that’s a great sandwich bread; its delicate rye flavor allows the taste of cold cuts to come through.

* Bohemian rye: A light sourdough rye.

* Zsur kenyer: Most of Otto’s customers order their sandwiches on these long, thin French-style rolls. Irma says most Americans like them soft so she keeps the rolls wrapped in plastic, but heating will restore their crisp crust.

* Zsemlye: Sold only on the weekends, these are round potato dough rolls, somewhat larger than a baseball, with a crisp exterior.

* Fonott kalacs: This eggy twist, similar to a Jewish hallah , comes both with and without raisins.

VARIOUS INGREDIENTS

* Lekvar: European cooks prize lekvar , a fruit butter, for a concentrated fruit taste that is not too sweet. Central Hungarian apricots and plums are well known for their intense flavor, and there’s really no substitute for these imported preserves. Otto’s carries peach, plum and apricot lekvar . Try them in the palacsinta or as fillings for cookies, cakes or tortes.

* Preserves: Among Otto’s huge stock of imported jams and jellies you’ll find quince, both red and black currant and rose hip.

* Acacia honey: Good for sore throats, in tea and in cooking, this uniquely flavored honey comes from flowers that bloom in Germany and Hungary in May.

* Sweetened chestnut puree: Mention chestnuts and Hungarians’ eyes fairly mist over with nostalgia as they rhapsodize about their favorite chestnut puree dessert. It’s made by pushing the puree through a small ricer to lighten it. Then each serving is topped with whipped cream. Some cooks like to mix a little Cognac into the puree before ricing it.

* Cabbage stuffed peppers: Otto’s stocks all sorts of pickled peppers. The waxy yellow Hungarian kind that resemble yellow bell peppers come stuffed with sauerkraut or red cabbage in either a tart or a mellow brine. Irma, the resident pepper expert, will help you pick out the appropriate one for any meal.

* Paprika: Of course Otto sells paprika. He imports his favorite kinds in 100 pound bags and packages them conveniently. The sweet rose paprika contains a considerable amount of natural sugar from the pepper, so Hungarian cooks warn it should be added when the cooking pan is off the heat; if overheated the sugar turns to caramel that spoils its color and flavor. The hot paprika isn’t quite so delicate but does require a discerning hand.

* Paprika paste: This blend of five kinds of seasoning peppers, comes in a tube and may be squeezed into any dish the last few moments of cooking.

* Raspberry syrup: Several brands imported from Poland, Austria and Hungary have a concentrated, fruity flavor. Use these in yogurt, in desserts or as a drink mixed with sparkling water.

* Polish sauerkraut: Some prefer the more mellow flavor of this imported variety.

* Turkish coffee: The conquering Turks first brought coffee to Hungary and Hungarians still enjoy the strong brew made by boiling coffee in a long-handled Turkish coffee pot. Otto’s sells these pots as well as Turkish coffee in vacuum packed bags.

* Rum balls: Otto loves to offer his customers rum balls as they browse around the store. He keeps the candies in a jar and scoops them out with a little shovel. They look like semi-sweet Milk Duds but the center is filled with rum. You can find all sorts of beautiful European foil-wrapped candies here too. Each is like a little work of art.

COOKING IMPLEMENTS

* Nut grinder: Finicky bakers know the importance of having ground nuts with an even texture for their nut tortes, strudels and cookies. Nuts chopped in a food processor inevitably come out ground almost to a butter while some remain in quite large hunks. This easy-to-use hand grinder, imported from Italy, will give you evenly ground nuts.

* Spaetzle maker: It’s easy to make your own spaetzle with this handy gizmo that looks like a grater. Just plunk the dough into the little frame and run it back and forth across the blades.

* Rolling pins: Truly fine noodles must be rolled and stretched at the same time to develop a silky texture with tooth. For this you need the long thin dowel-like noodle rolling pin. It’s different from the wide pastry rolling pin, also carried here, which rolls freely from its handles so you can gently roll the pastry dough into a shape without pressing out the butter.

* Torte pans: Spring-form cake pans with removable sides come in sizes from eight inches to 20 inches in diameter.

* Goose feathers: Hungarian cooks brush egg wash or butter on their pastries and breads with a tool made of several goose feathers tied into a “brush.” “You don’t get any shedding bristles and you also get a lighter coat of wash this way,” says Irma.

* Potato ricers: Experienced cooks know you can’t mash potatoes in a food processor, whether for dumplings, gnocchi or plain mashed potatoes, because the circular motion of the blade makes them gluey. A potato ricer quickly turns into a light, heavenly fluff. A miniature potato-type ricer sold here is used to make the traditional Hungarian sweetened pureed chestnut dessert.

* Sausage stuffer: This works like a spritz-type cookie gun. Just put the sausage meat in the tube and the casing over the long nozzle and push the meat into sausages.

HUNGARIAN WINES

* Otto’s carries about 20 kinds of Hungarian wine and even a Champagne called Torley, a semi-dry variety at $5.99. Among his non-sparkling wines are Tokaji Aszu, a sweet honey-like wine (aszu means syrupy) considered to be the country’s finest. This and the Somloi Furmint wine are made from grapes having the botrytis mold that draws off the grape’s moisture, leaving an intensely sweet juice. Alec Waugh calls botrytis “the fairy godmother of sweet wines and the enemy of dry wines.” There’s also Badacsony Grey Szurkebarat and Badacsony Keknyelu, rich heavy Pinot Gris wines from the Badacsony region near lake Balaton, and Egri Bikaver or bull’s blood, a heavy grapey red.

HUNGARIAN CHEESE

NOODLES

1/4 pound fustolt szalona or regular bacon

1 1/2 cups farmer cheese or low-fat ricotta cheese, at room temperature

About 1 cup sour cream, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/16 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1/2 pound valodi tojasos teszta or broad egg noodles, broken into short lengths

Fry fustolt szalona until crisp. Drain, reserving bacon fat. Crumble bacon and set aside.

Crumble cheese with fork or put through sieve. Blend cheese, sour cream (use 1 cup with farmer’s cheese and 3/4 cup if using ricotta), salt, white pepper and 2 tablespoons reserved bacon fat.

Cook noodles in boiling salted water until al dente, then drain. As noodles are cooking, heat 3/4 of cheese mixture in skillet over very low heat (do not allow to simmer).

Working quickly, pour noodles into baking dish and stir in 2 tablespoons bacon fat. Pour heated cheese mixture over cooked noodles and gently stir just enough to blend. Blend in remaining cheese mixture. Serve sprinkled with crumbled bacon. Makes 4 main-dish servings or 6 side-dish servings.