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Fried liver with apples, Porto wine sauce and croquettes
Porto wine and liver are a perfect match, as if they were made for each other. Do you also cook with as little loss of ingredients as possible? Get started with a piece of liver and take this dish to the next level. Serve with apples, croquettes and a flavourful Porto wine sauce. A classic in a ‘no waste’ jacket, enjoy!
Ingredients
4 apples
30 g hazelnuts
2 sweet onions
1 clove of garlic
500 g pork or calf liver
0.50 kl curry
2 cl honey
2 sprigs of thyme, 1 bay leaf
200 ml porto wine
250 ml veal stock
1 tbsp corn starch
butter
24 croquettes
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Directions: Peel the onion and cut into strips. Peel and press the garlic.
Cut the liver into 2 or 3 large pieces.
Season the liver with curry, pepper and salt.
Melt a knob of butter in a non-stick pan and fry the liver pieces briefly until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove from the pan, add another knob of butter and stew in it the onion with a dash of water over low heat until soft (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic and let everything caramelise lightly together.
Deglaze with the Porto wine and stock and reduce to half. Season with pepper and salt.
Meanwhile, prepare the apples.
Remove the stones from the apples and cut into wedges. Coarsely chop the hazelnuts.
Melt a tablespoon of butter and fry the apple slices until lightly golden brown. Add the hazelnuts, thyme and honey and allow to caramelise well.
Mix the corn starch with 2 tablespoons of water and add to the sauce. Leave to cook for another 1 minute. Add the liver to the sauce and warm together until the liver is cooked.
Deep-fry the croquettes.
Serve the liver with the fried apples with the Porto sauce and croquettes.
Pollock with cherry tomatoes
This pollock with cherry tomatoes is a tasty, light and summery dish however it’s good for any season’s.
Ingredients
– 4 saithe fillets
– 250 g cherry tomatoes
– 1 onion
– 1 clove of garlic
– 1 tsp white wine vinegar
– 1 tbsp capers
– 1 tbsp chopped parsley
– 2 tbsp olive oil
– pepper
– salt
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Preparation
Heat the oven to 220°C.
Brush an oven dish with olive oil.
Place the peppered and salted saithe in it and arrange the cherry tomatoes around it.
Cut the onion into rings and divide over the dish. Add the peeled garlic clove.
Pour the wine vinegar into the dish and top everything with a dash of olive oil. Put the fish in the oven for 15 minutes.
Sprinkle with capers and chopped parsley and serve.
Kale meatballs in paprika sauce
Winter kale balls like you’ve never tasted them before. A base of delicious kale with an abundance of flavours. This with the delicious paprika sauce forms a small but delicate flavour bomb. Even better combined with a creamy mash.
Ingredients: 1 onion, 250 g kale (finely chopped), 1 carrot, 200 g canned white beans, 100 g almond flour, cumin powder, olive oil, pepper, salt, 20 g basil leaves, 1 tbsp crumbled Gouda Roeselare cheese
For the sauce 1 shallot, 2 cloves of garlic, 6 red peppers, 150 ml vegetable stock, 150 g cream cheese, 1 tsp paprika powder
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Directions:
Chop the onion and fry glazed in olive oil. Add the kale and stir-fry for 5 minutes. Grate the carrot and add. Stir-fry for another 3 minutes. Leave to cool down.
Rinse the white beans and drain. Add the white beans and almond flour to the kale and carrot, mix smooth with a hand blender. Season with the cumin powder, pepper and salt. Roll into balls, about 3 balls per person, and refrigerate. Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Halve the peppers, remove the seeds and place them skin-side up on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Brush them with olive oil and season with some salt. Place in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the skin is blackened. Place the peppers in a bowl, cover with aluminium foil and let rest for at least 15 minutes. Then you can easily remove the skin.
For the sauce, finely chop the shallot. Cut the grilled peppers into pieces. Sauté the shallot and peppers in olive oil. Add the stock and cream cheese and reduce briefly. Blend the sauce until smooth. Season with the paprika powder, pepper and salt. Pour the sauce into an oven dish and place the meatballs inside. Place the dish in the oven for 25 minutes, until the meatballs look nicely golden brown. Top with the cheese and basil.
Marinated ribs with potato salad and cucumber
Enjoy a culinary adventure with my marinated ribs. The marinade, potato salad and refreshing cucumber combine to create a perfectly balanced meal that is sure to please.
Ingredients:
– 800 g cutlets
– 1 red chilli
For the marinade
– 500 ml apple juice
– 2 tbsp cider vinegar
– 1 shallot (finely chopped)
– 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
– 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
– olive oil
– pepper
– salt
For the potato salad
– 600 g firm potatoes
– 1 cucumber
– 4 spring onions
– 2 tbsp mint (finely chopped)
– 2 tbsp chives (finely chopped)
– 2 tbsp mayonnaise, mustard and estragon
– 2 tbsp sour cream
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Preparation
At least 4 hours in advance
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and season with salt and pepper. Place the cutlets in it and leave to marinate in the fridge, covered, for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
Make the potato salad. Peel and dice the potatoes. Cook them al dente in lightly salted water.
Halve the cucumber lengthwise, remove the seeds and cut into small cubes.
Cut the spring onions into rings and mix with the cucumber cubes.
Drain the potato cubes and rinse under cold water. Drain well and then mix them, together with the fresh herbs, into the cucumber mixture.
Now stir in the mayonnaise and mustard, tarragon and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate.
Light the barbecue
Remove the smelt from the marinade and pat dry. Brush with olive oil and fry the meat on both sides on the hottest side of the barbecue until golden brown.
Then move the meat to the indirect side and continue cooking for about 30 minutes.
Regularly brush the meat with the marinade.
Finishing
Cut the chilli into rings. Before serving, finish the meat with the chopped chilli pepper and any additional fresh herbs.
Serve with the potato salad with cucumber.
The Hungarian Robin Hood
Everyone has heard of the English Robin Hood, who lived his life as a landless nobleman, famous for taking from the rich to give to the poor and fighting against tyranny. But I don’t think anyone has ever heard of the Hungarian robber baron Nicholas. One thing is for sure, one of his castles, Egg’scastle, still stands today. It has four gates, like the four seasons. Seven entrance arches, like the days of the week. 12 chimneys, as many months of the year. 52 rooms, like the weeks of the year. And 365 windows, as the days of the year.
In the 16th century in Hungary lived three noble young men, Menroth, Michael and Nicholas. Michael went to Italy and became a scholar, the first brother Menroth died young. He fell from his horse into the abyss when the Turks pursued him. Nicholas found his brother’s body and had it buried with his treasures in a cave in the valley, with a huge rock rolled up in front of the cave opening. The burial ceremony lasted 3 days, during which time Nicholas settled down with his brother’s army at the entrance to the valley. On the third night, the local shepherds were awakened by the sound of horses saddling and picks. It turned out that grave robbers were trying to take Menroth’s treasures, but by morning the valley had closed behind them and they had all perished.
After his brother’s death, Nicholas served as an apprentice at the royal court, and then trained in martial arts and international diplomacy under major lords. The royal couple soon took a liking to him. He became a councillor and was granted an estate with the title. Nicholas was a handsome man, with a brown hair and fiery brown eyes, and in addition to his good looks, he became over the years an excellent swordsman, feared by his enemies because he was fearless, defying the arbitrary power of kings when necessary, and a martial arts master who could win the hearts of ladies. As he lived in Hungary, which was divided into three parts, he mostly turned his sword against the Turks, although he was often attacked with an overwhelming force, a combined army of three rulers. But let us not get too far ahead of the story of the Hungarian Robin Hood.
So Nicholas got married at the age of 22. His wife was Cyleth, the beautiful daughter of a rich Transylvanian nobleman. But sadly Cyleth, died after her short earthly life, following the birth of her third son. Nicholas mourned his wife for a long time, but the estate he had acquired through his marriage elevated him to the ranks of the lords. In addition, a relative of his wife left him the Castle of the Stars. Along with the castle, he inherited fabulous treasures. Nicholas moved to the Castle of the Stars, which stood on the banks of the Danube in the Moonlight Ditch at the top of a 600-metre-high hill. It was named after its four-pointed, star-shaped plan. Nicholas initially turned it into a hunting lodge because of the wild animals in the surrounding woods, but after four years he reinforced it with a moat and high silt fill.
He lived here luxuriously, but his great wealth made him the rival of several war lords. One of them went to the king until he obtained that the inheritance should not be granted to him. But Nicholas took the case, which cost him a lot of money, because he needed a strong army to resist with arms, and of course he had to find something to pay the soldiers’ wages and armour. The case dragged on, and Nicholas’ money was running out. Then he had the idea of raiding the merchants. As the fairs were several days long, he realised that the best time to raid them was on the last day, when the merchants had already collected a lot of money and the merchants were busy drinking their pseudo-gifts. It was a daring plan, for the fairs were defended by a stronger force than the forts, but Nicholas’s Hungarian soldiers were often successful, and they plundered enough to last them for a year. He always made the booty available according to the unwritten laws of the ends, and the proceeds were shared by Nicholas’s raiding men. Thus the noble lord became a knight-errant, who, when the ground was burning beneath his feet, moved his residence to his second castle. This castle was called the Great Castle of the Foal. It is now a ruin, of course, but in his time it was a unique mountainous hollow, with its unique mountain huts hidden in the hollow, making it an excellent place to be invisible to the enemy at all times. In addition, the castle was cleverly constructed, with four underground paths between the roads covering halls and a rectangular pool of water, so that if the enemy got inside the castle walls, there were four ways of escaping the castle, with pursuers dying in the pool.
During the raids, Nicholas managed to accumulate new wealth in the area of Buda in a few years, and since he had 3 sons, he had a castle built here, the Castle of Egg. This was the most unusual of the three castles, because he placed an egg in a glass vase, took it down to the castle cellar and hung it in a secret chamber (which he had specially made for the purpose). After this, the legend spread that as long as the egg remained intact, the city would be safe – but if it broke, the city would be destroyed with it. The ‘Egg Castle’ thus functioned as a means of protecting the town from external danger.
Despite the egg legend, however, Nicholas’s raids and hostage-taking began to be frowned upon by both kings (Ferdinand I and John Szapolyai of Transylvania) in a Hungary divided into three parts, especially after a year of harassing the fairs and the Turks, and one day, when he and his sons had robbed a caravan, the Turkish chief officer swore revenge against him. He soon arrived within the walls of the Egy Castle. Nicholas tried to escape by the time-honoured ruse of throwing gold in front of the besiegers, and while they were collecting it, he tried to escape with his sons. The Turks captured him and took him under heavy guard to Istanbul, where he was imprisoned in the notorious Turkish fortress of the Seven Tower or by the origin name Yedikule Fortress. His sons were released. It seemed that the gates of Yedikule had closed behind him forever, because Nicholas was too rich, too powerful and too famous a warrior to be released by the Turks. Even though his brother in Italy had sent money, the Turks would not give him back his freedom, even for a ransom, because he had already done them too much harm. His sons tried mediation, but the Turks refused to negotiate with any of them. At last his favourite son, little Nicholas, who had grown up to be a fine young man, -beating his father not only in appearance but also in daring and audacity, -conceived the idea of taking the magic egg with him to the Yedikule, which his father would then hide in the dungeon of the castle, and then spread the rumour that its breaking would bring about the destruction not only of the prison but of the whole town.
And after much, much bribery, he finally managed to get the egg into the dungeon with a greengrocer, which the Turks thought was just an ostrich egg. When the inmates started whispering about disaster because of a certain egg, the Turks still didn’t believe that an egg could do any damage to the solidly standing Seven Tower. But a few days later, when a terrible earthquake shook the Yedikule Fortress, the vault in the cells near the Nicholas collapsed, sparing only three towers of the Seven Towers, the rest collapsing. Panic broke out among the people of Istanbul, and the Sultan was forced to swear by Allah that he would release Nicholas if he placed the egg in the Tower of Blood at the base of the castle. And Nicholas, under the supervision of the guards, placed the egg in the cavity at the bottom of the Tower of Seven, where those unfortunates who were about to die were kept.
And so they released Nicholas, the Hungarian knight-errant, with the help of his youngest son. It was thanks to him that the superstitious Turks did not dare to execute Hungarian prisoners from then on.
Incidentally, the Turks never found the egg, but it is said to still be in an underground cell or cave, in an iron cage hanging from an oak beam, in a water vessel in Yedikule Fortress!
Don’t be a frog!
There was once a castle near Weißbrunn, known as the Frog’s Castle. It got its name from the fact that, as it was situated in a wet and marshy valley, the lakes around the castle provided a pleasant habitat for frogs.
At some time in the mid-16th century, the lord of the castle was a count named Antony Paul, who married a noble girl of German origin, Elisabeth von Wiede. The story goes that after the wedding feast, the Count was eager to retire with his beautiful bride to the sleeping room of the castle. Count Antony fell asleep and even began to snore, but Countess Elisabeth had only just fallen asleep, but was soon awakened by a horrible noise. Outside a loud, but not very pleasant-sounding concert began: the croaking of hundreds of frogs roused her from her sleep. The Countess was so annoyed by the frogs croaking in the moat around the castle that she nudged her elbow, not gently, into her husband’s ribs. When the Count awoke from his deep sleep, Elisabeth said to him:
“Antony, why didn’t you ever mention that there are so many frogs here?-and then she continued. I’m very sorry, but if this goes on, the frogs’ croaking will sooner or later make me deaf. Tomorrow I’ll go back to my father!” Count Antony did not understand at first what his new wife was talking about, but when he understood, he said:
-Dear little wife, it’s not so bad, I’m used to it, I grew up croaking like the rest of the town. What’s more, the inhabitants would wake up if they didn’t hear this noise.”
But the Count did not succeed in convincing Elisabeth, for the young woman continued in a hysterical tone. Antony must do something, or you will lose me. I’ll tell my father that I can’t live here any longer in this noise, and I’ll solemnly announce to him that I’m dissolving our marriage contract!” said Elisabeth, now trembling with nervousness, and at the same time she rang the bell for her servant to pack her things, for she was going home to her father, unless Antony did something about the noisy amphibians.
Count Antony, sighing heavily, rose, and, wishing to keep his lady of his heart, rang for his servant, who immediately sent for the court-master, who summoned the court council, and all men assembled together to await the count’s orders. And Count Antony announced: We, the leaders of Frog’s City, must act for peace, either by exterminating all frogs or by driving them out of our city. This is my command.”
And the chief magistrate immediately ordered the castle bridge to be lowered and trotted into the town to rouse the notary, who ordered the alarm bells to be rung. The citizens, half-dressed and sleepy, rushed into the streets calling that there was a fire. As was customary, they gathered in the main square, some with crossbows and armour, some with pickaxes, others with ladders and fire buckets, believing that a stray cannon shot had caused the fire. But nothing at all could be seen, and nothing could be heard, except the usual croaking of frogs from around the castle. Then the mayor appeared, and, before the whole crowd assembled there, announced the count’s orders:
“In order to preserve peace between the newlyweds, and to maintain the vital political union between Count Antony Paul and the House of Wied, all frog and toad must go! Attack the frogs!”-he cried.
And so it was. Men and women, young and old, and even children without breakfast, equipped with buckets, baskets, pliers, fish traps, nets, ropes, hooks and wires, set off for the moat; ready to fight the frogs.
And what did the frogs say? Well, they could hardly believe their eyes and wondered at the strange behaviour of the citizens. Still frozen from the morning chill, they saw no reason at first to leave their favourite spots, ready to catch their first flies in the morning sunshine. But then all hell broke loose. The men and women formed a line and then approached them by wading across the watery ditch. They caught anything that moved, anything that scrambled. The baskets and buckets were soon filled with the green creatures. Then they were all taken to the marketplace. The frogs had no chance of escape. Besides, the children were the most skilful, catching the amphibians in nets, putting them in baskets with lids and carrying them to the market, where the soldiers were there to keep the noisy beasts under guard. Gradually, the roar around the castle died down, and by the time the midday sun had beaten down on the castle tower, not a sound could be heard, and with the great concerted effort, the whole city was pacified in a matter of hours. Countess Elisabeth stretched out in her bed, soothed, and called her lady-in-waiting to help her braid her hair before she breathed a forgiving kiss on Count Antony’s cheek.
The Count, needless to say, was beaming with happiness, and murmured rapturously, “I can always count on the citizens of Frog!” All around the castle was silence, but in the marketplace the noise was unbearable. The chief marshal could barely control the commotion caused by the green frogs. Something had to be done, so the town council went to the Swan Inn to deliberate. How could they get the frogs out of the city?
Leave it to the fire brigade,” suggested one of the magistrates. But the frogs were too wet to build a fire under them, and fried frogs’ legs were not people’s favourite either. “Then the butchers will have to help,” suggested the count. But the butchers politely drew the Count’s attention to their guild rules, which he had personally approved, and which made no mention of frogs at all. This is when the archers came into the picture, and they proved to be the last resort, everyone agreed. But the chief archery master argued that his archers only practised target shooting and that the number of crossbows available was strictly limited to the defence of the city, not to mention the issue of the mass disappearance of frog corpses. In desperation, the city council retreated to an adjoining room for further deliberations. Finally, the decision was taken and the mayors appeared in the marketplace: ‘We have found the ecologically perfect solution,’ they said. The frogs will be drowned in the lake Balaton.
The citizens agreed that yes, it was indeed the perfect solution. Why didn’t they think of it right away? A messenger from the Fanfar Brigade was sent to the castle to humbly ask the honourable Count and Countess to take a seat on the Mill Gate Bridge to witness the spectacle of the frogs being ceremoniously released into the river. And once again people filled baskets, buckets and sacks with frogs and carried the restless amphibians to the Mill Gate Bridge. Then, at the Butcher’s Chair, the contents of the sacks were thrown into the river. The water rippled briefly, then nothing could be seen. The frogs were submerged. It’s working!” shouted the delighted citizens of Frog. And they went home.
In the evening, there were still faint croaks voices from here and there. But according to the mayors and the town council, it was only the echoes of the few remaining frogs that had been carried downstream towards Weißbrunn. The mayor and the other chiefs of the town hailed the operation as a great success, and this was recorded in the Municipal Record Book. If you don’t believe me, check it out.
And as for Countess Elisabeth, she seems to have liked this ingenious solution from the city’s leaders. At least there is no record of the frogs bothering her any further, but could it be that she got used to the evening concert and became a true resident of Frog? One thing is for sure, Elisabeth ended up staying in the Frog Castle, so much so that her happy marriage to Antony resulted in 7 children.
But before I forget, it was also recorded in the Municipal Record Book that a week later the town was finally declared a frog-free zone, and to celebrate the occasion, Count Antony Paul and Elisabeth announced a competition to create frog artwork to record for posterity an almost failed episode in their lives.
Oh, and the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages call the people of Frogland “Croakies”. This title, in turn, is considered an honour by the inhabitants, who are very proud of what they have done (not everyone could have got rid of the frogs in such a wise way). Only the frogs have complained bitterly ever since about being driven out of their favourite swamps: hence ther is an old saying:-“Don’t be a frog!” The meaning is, don’t get upset, don’t get angry!
The Salt castle and the septuplets
Not far from the castle of the last Avar queen, Opal’s Salt Crystal, stood a magnificent stone castle, probably named Salt Castle because of its proximity to the salt mine. Its ruins lie on a high hilltop among the oaks, for there are hardly any stones left now, the winds and many battles having long since blown them away. Only one wonderful story of its inhabitants has survived.
Once upon a time there lived a mighty lord of the castle. King Andrew, the Hungarian king’s main man, was called lord Micz. This famous warrior fought everywhere in the king’s army, even going as far as the Holy Land, so he spent little time at home. So his young wife was bored alone in the castle halls, or wandered in the castle gardens, always wondering why she had no children, why she could not bear her husband an heir. As she walked through the woods one fine autumn day, she met a young beggar woman who said the next:
Give me some change, lady, my two little children are hungry! It turned out that the woman had twin children, which in the old days was considered a disgrace, because women who had twins were called unfaithful, deceitful women, who were told that to have two children at once you had to sleep with two men. In any case, it meant a misfortune for the beggar woman to have twins, so the lady was frightened and cried out:
‘Away from me, shameless creature!’
The beggar woman then cursed the Lady Micz for her stinginess, saying: God bless thee with seven children, proud woman, if thou hast two!
Then she disappeared among the bushes. Soon the lord of the castle came home. His wife wept and told him of the beggar woman’s curse.
“Even if it’s seven, don’t be sorry!” the lord of the castle consoled his wife. The king called her to war again in the spring, and she was alone again, but in a blessed state. And the beggar woman’s curse was fulfilled, for when the time came for her to give birth, she had not one but seven twin children. The woman wept and wept and wept, wondering what people would say.
My good news is over, I shall be dishonourable in my husband’s eyes, to be so cursed!- she tormented herself, day after day.
She looked at the seven little sleepers, not with joy, but with sorrow, and did not know what to do. Then the midwife said to her what to do.
One boy was kept, the other six the midwife put in a huge basin and put them in the Tarca river. The basin floated with the babies, the water carried them along, bobbing them dangerously to and fro. The babies cried because they were hungry. A fisherman heard them crying and caught the fish. He was amazed when he saw the 6 little chubby babies in it. They were lying on a soft pillow, with the coat of arms of lord Micz sewn into the pillow. The fisherman didn’t tell anyone about it, except his wife of course, and raised the six little boys quietly.
Years went by, many waters flowed down the Tarca and the Hernád, and the one son of lord Micz’s became a handsome 16-year-old boy, raised to be a brave by his proud father. They were celebrating his birthday, when suddenly six handsome lads in same uniforms and lutes in their hands came in. They asked the master of the house for permission to sing a song for the young lord’s birthday. The lord of Salt Castle had grown old, and the lady of the house had more grey hair than brown. The young lute players were allowed to sing a song. They lined up and struck the strings. They sang songs about King Attila the Hun, St. Stephen, King Lazarus, and finally a heartless mother.
Warrior Micz didn’t understand why his wife was starting to tear up, only as he stared at them her eyes grew wider and wider, for he noticed that all six boys looked alike, and what surprised him was that he couldn’t tell them apart from her own son, the young lord of Salt castle! And then the six lute’s player boys began to sing about a cruel mother, and Mrs. Micz cried out!
Don’t go on, you are all my children! My precious kids! A sound of astonishment and consternation broke out from the celebrating crowd. The seven children and lord Micz were looked at in confusion by all the guests.
We are not your children, madam, but the children of a fisherman, and we are on our way to Buda to join the king’s army!” said the six boys.
You won’t go until I embrace you!- their mother ran to them, sobbing. She didn’t know which one to start the embrace with, which one to kiss first. The six lads stood frozen, staring at lord Micz, no one could understand. Then the fisherman stepped out from behind the door, his moustache now curled in grey, and told the story of the six children. How he fished them out of the river and brought them up with honour.
‘Forgive me, my lord,’ she fell at the feet of her lord and husband, ‘I did not know what I was doing when I gave birth, but I suffered cruelly for it. I was cursed by that beggar woman, I thought, and I was afraid, for I did not want to be disgraced.
“This shame has become your glory, wife!” said the magistrate, who was also present at the ceremony, “I beg you, Micz, forgive your wife, she has done enough penance.
I forgive you!” said lord Micz, smiling, “for the curse has turned for good. And he looked with delight at his sons.
And now hear my sentence, my first son will stay here in Salt Castle, and the others will be lords of Eszeny, Rátka, Purustyán, Zemplén, Szerdahely and Kövesd. Divide among yourselves who wants which town, and all I ask is that you love each other!
Thus ended the birthday celebrations in Salt Castle. From them descend the Csapy, Bocskai, Szirtes, Ráskai, Eszényi, Kövesdy families, and from the first son the Soós family.
Ella and the mermaid in the lake Balaton
Ella lives in Belgium most of the year with her parents and her brother Milo, so we always go on special trips to Hungary in the summer. This year, for example, we got a glimpse into the magical world of Lake Balaton. And we managed to have exciting adventures with mischievous ghosts, the fish-scaled water man, Leland, but especially Corally, the beautiful mermaid whose enchanting voice is best heard on summer nights. Not to mention less fascinating creatures like the evil Queen Carla.
The whole thing started when Ella wanted a mermaid dress. A pink one with a gold trim. We had no luck however we went to all the swimsuit shops, but none of them sold the kind Ella wanted. We didn’t give up, hoping to get one before the summer was over. After a week, we forgot about it, because we had so much fun that we didn’t bother with the mermaid’s dress any more.
But then one evening during our walk we went to the harbour to see the boat Benedict leaving for Badacsony. And Ella took lots of photos, first of the boat, then of the snowy egret in its flight, the bridge-keeper’s flower, and the sunset, when a big fish suddenly darted over a rock, disturbing a fisherman.
What was that? Ella asked as she gave a startled shove that almost made us both drop our cameras into the water.
“Well, that was the Corally!” said Grandpa.
What?
Well, a fish from Lake Balaton. It’s also called a wheat-eye, because of its big red eyes.
But it wasn’t a fish, it was a girl!-Ella and I exclaimed at the same time.
Did you also see that she was wearing a greenish blue dress and had reddish fins?
Yes, I saw it too. So it was the same Corally, the mermaid who lives here in Lake Balaton.
I never heard of her, Lulla, will you tell me?
You’re welcome.”, I said as we settled down on the pier.
Well, the story of Corally began with a gloomy, wild palace – called the Black Palace – standing in the Adriatic Sea, just a few hundred kilometres from here. It takes its name from the former black colour of its roof, and others say from the black-painted doors and windows. It is not a ruin, but a palace never finished; it has not collapsed, nor will it ever collapse, for the strong, stormy winds harden and brown the walls, for the waves of the sea are not vile like those of lakes and rivers, they assail but do not corrode. Every year when I visited there with my parents, the tall, wide, glassless windows resembled unthinking eyes; at the gates, where the threshold steps disappeared, the blue whirlwind entered, joking and laughing, spreading its shells criss-crossing the stone, setting up an arena in the courtyards, leaving a green and shiny seaweed plantation behind. And every night the palace turned black, pitch black; a great contrast to the serene sky above, with its shining stars, and the phosphorescent Adriatic Well, in this palace once lived the mermaid Corally, who was originally the daughter of the Pannonian king, but later became known in her country as the “Sunrise Goddess” because of her beauty. Her father, the king, despite having this beautiful daughter, still lamented the fact that he had no son to succeed him on the throne. When Corally’s mother died, the king looked for a new wife. He soon married Princess Carla, an Italian-born princess who bore him a son. And that’s when the trouble started, because the queen naturally wanted her son to be king, and tried to get rid of her. One day, she asked her husband to ban Corally from the palace. But the king loved his daughter very much, and when the queen dared to say such things, he was angry with her, and declared that he would not allow anyone to do her any harm. On hearing this, the queen quickly changed her countenance, smiled graciously, and began to flatter the king with kind words, until he forgave her.
But in fact the wicked queen was angry and determined to get rid of the girl by some magic spell. The next day, before sunrise, she sent one of her inner servants to summon the most famous shaman of the land of Pannon to the palace, and asked him to put a curse on the girl. And the spell succeeded, for by evening Corally’s body was full of stinking poxes that itched terribly and her skin shed like a snake’s. The girl cried, disgusted from herself. The king summoned his best doctor to cure Corally, who consulted other doctors until he finally concluded that the illness was not natural, but could be the result of a curse. On hearing this, the queen forced the king to ban her daughter from the palace, because her daughter’s illness could bring bad luck to the whole kingdom. Since the king did not want this, he was forced to agree to the queen’s proposal and banished his daughter from the kingdom.
Sick, alone and aimless, Corally wandered through the woods and meadows, not knowing where she was, because her miserable fate made her cry until her tears had dried up. But, curiously enough, she did not resent his stepmother, however wicked she might be, for he thought that she would sooner or later be punished for her deed. Finally, after seven days and seven nights, Corally arrived at Lake Balaton. The tired and weary princess began to feel better for the sight of the clear, transparent water had a soothing effect on her soul. And as she dipped her hands into the lake, she suddenly heard a supernatural voice that told her to dip her feet in it. And Corally did so, splashing into the water, she felt so good that she began to swim around happily, and her poxes disappeared without a trace in Lake Balaton, and what is more, the soft water made her even more beautiful. But when she wanted to come out of the lake to dry herself, a strange thing happened, for Corally’s lower body had turned into fish, and only her upper body remained as a girl. But before she could despair that a fin had grown up where her legs should have been, little waders, egrets, mallards, ducks and other waterfowl gathered around her and brought her all sorts of treasures from Lake Balaton. Green seaweed was woven into clothes, and shells were made into head tiara’s and necklaces. And from then on Corally became the queen of Lake Balaton. Otters and other creatures joined her court, but the story doesn’t end there.
For in a small town on the shores of Lake Balaton there lived a boy named Léland, who spent all his time swimming, until one day his mother, disappointed in her good-for-nothing son, cursed him, “If you love the water so much, why don’t you become a fish!” she cried in anger. And the boy was cursed, for the next morning, when he went swimming, he became half fish, with duck’s feet and frog’s throat, but from the waist up he remained a man, and at sunset he regained his full human form until sunrise. And the boy became a good water man. He always appeared to fishermen and warned them of an impending storm, and informed them of the wonders and treasures to be found on the seabed. Treasures, yes, because some of the villages and towns built on the shores of Lake Balaton had been submerged or raised over the centuries, and their ruins were visible at the bottom of the lake. After Léland’s reports, fishing legends began to circulate that Lake Balaton hid a village that had sunk in Roman times, and that some of the objects used were hidden in the mud of the lake. Of course, word of this spread abroad. It also reached the ears of Carla, wife of the King of Pannonia, who, on hearing that Léland had found treasures in the lake, immediately put her in a carriage and drove her horses to Lake Balaton, never stopping. When she arrived in Léland’s village, the boy was bringing to the surface a Roman-era jar full of gold jewellery and coins. When the greedy Carla saw this, she immediately ordered him to bring up more. Léland then dug some shells out of the mud and gave them to the queen, who angrily threw them in his face and forced him and her attendants to dive to the bottom of the lake again and again, even when a great storm broke out. Léland reluctantly dived under, because for the sun was about to set. He sent a few gems to the surface, but he did not return, for he had regained his human form at sunset and was almost drowning when Corally, who had been able to influence the storm, calmed it down and quickly came to his aid, rescued him to a distant shore and hid him in the reeds. The queen waited a while longer for the boy to emerge, but Corally was now causing such a storm that the queen thought it best to hurry home. She got into her carriage and beckoned to the coachman to drive off, when a great gale of wind blew a tree out of its bark, and it fell with a great thud on the Queen’s carriage… and the rest, Ella, you can guess…. here’s the end of the story!
Rust, the city of the storks
The town of Rust on Lake Neusiedl at the border of Hungary and Austria hosts very special summer guests every year: storks. From spring to summer, around 15 pairs delight locals and tourists alike with their stork cackling.
While spring sprouts from the earth elsewhere, in Burgenland it comes flying in with wide wings. The town of Rust on the western shore of Lake Neusiedl, near the Hungarian border, is a favourite destination for the storks returning from Africa. They move into their summer quarters at the end of March to the beginning of April.
The town of Rust hosts very special summer guests.
Every year, around fifteen pairs of storks settle in Rust and raise their offspring. Then sixty or even more storks populate the town and become an attraction for locals and tourists alike.
The main street and the town hall square are their preferred residential areas. This is because the old Renaissance and Baroque houses of the picturesque historic old town – which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001 – still have voluminous brick chimneys that are perfect for a large stork nest.
The fact that the storks are particularly fond of Rust and are almost always the first to be sighted there in spring is also due to the helpers of the local stork association, who spare no effort to make their summer guests’ stay as pleasant as possible. Shortly before the season starts, they climb onto the roof of the storks and spruce up the “guest rooms”.
The Stork Association provides for a pleasant stay and physical well-being.
A 53-metre high crane is used to clean out the nests where the storks of the previous year have piled up kilos of soil, twigs and rubbish – from plastic bags to pants. Some nests have grown from the original 40 to 100 kilograms when the stork family moved out.
Cleaning the house is important because it prevents diseases that can be dangerous for the young birds.
For the physical well-being of the stork families, the Rust Stork Association also grazes 12 hectares of meadows as feeding grounds for the animals, whose diet includes insects, larvae and earthworms, snails, mice and frogs.
The parents produce four to six kilograms of food a day for themselves and their offspring, which means that a stork family needs about 20,000 square metres of wet meadows to survive.
Lake Neusiedl is a unique natural paradise
“In our meadow something walks, wades through the marshes, wears a white skirt and red stockings …” In spring and summer, the spectacle from the old children’s song can be marvelled at every day around Rust. To the delight of holidaymakers who enjoy sharing Lake Neusiedl, Austria’s largest lake, with the elegant birds.
Not only because of the storks is the lake a unique natural paradise: Its extensive reed belt is also a habitat for other rare bird species such as the Great White Egret or the Goosander, which, with a little luck, can be spotted in the Seewinkel National Park.
But the stars in Rust are and remain the storks, whose family life can be followed all day long – the webcam pictures here on this page are live!
The stork parents lovingly care for their young
Once the young have hatched after a good 30 days of breeding, they are lovingly cared for by both parents. While one parent searches for food, the other looks after the offspring. The instinct to never leave the young alone goes so far that the storks in the eyrie would starve to death if the breadwinner did not return.
In Rust, of course, they are also prepared for such catastrophes: In 1987, after a stork was no longer able to feed itself following a flying accident, it was nursed back to health by the people. This action resulted in a care station for flightless storks, where many a young stork has been raised by hand.
The storks’ winter quarters are 10,000 kilometres away
With so much luxury, it is of course hard to say goodbye at the end of August. One or the other stork forgoes the exertions of the 10,000-kilometre journey to Africa altogether and instead makes itself comfortable in Rust for the winter. The reunion with their fellow storks is only a question of time, because the next spring is sure to come.
Peanut butter pie
I made this several times during the first few months of lockdown, and now it’s my new favorite pie recipe. And the filling is like the perfect balance between creme brûlée and gooey butter cake.”
Ingredients:
- 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened or greek joghurt
- 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 6 tablespoons whole milk or coconut milk
- 1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed
- 1 graham cracker crust (9 inches) or oreo biscuit
- 1/4 cup chopped peanuts
Direction: In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in sugar and peanut butter. Gradually add milk. Fold in whipped topping; spoon into the crust. Sprinkle with peanuts. Chill overnight.
spajzgirl 