Lots if not all Hungarians know this one! A paprika spiced spread with finely chopped zingy onions and caraway seeds. Best eaten simply with fresh crusty bread, tomatoes, peppers, spring onions. It’s mostly made with quark from cow milk but also sometimes made with quark from sheep milk, or a mixture of the two. (Feta cheese comes close to sheep milk quark, the Hungarian “gomolya túró”)
Hungarian quark cheese, túró, is crumbly and dry compaired to cottage cheese with a fat content of about 7-10%. I usually buy it at the Eastern European isle in bigger supermarkets or local specialist shops in the UK, only thinking in America and Canada similar is available too.
Ingredients:
- 250g quark cheese
- 2 tablespoons of sour cream
- half of a medium red or white onion very finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon of Hungarian paprika powder
- 1 teaspoon of salt approximately (depends on taste and if the cheese salted already)
- half a teaspoon of caraway seeds
- black pepper to taste
How to make – easy :-)
- Chop the onion finely, mix the ingredients together and stir well.
- Refrigerate for at least an hour in the fridge
- Serve with crusty rye bread, spring onions, tomatoes, green peppers
Tip: As an alternative, a quick low fat snack version can be made from cottage cheese (might need a bit less sour cream depending on consistency) or use ricotta or mix feta and cottage cheese, delicious.
My Hungarian husband made this with cream cheese and it was wonderful! From what I understand, quark cheese is similar to “farmer cheese” in its crumbly dry consistency and slight tang. It can be found in a paper wrapped package about the size of a cream cheese packet. I remember a pastry made with the quark cheese that I had at a Hungarian wedding. I appreciate all your authentic recipes and detailed explanations.