Halászlé

The story

Halászlé, a fiery fish soup built on sweet and hot paprika, began as the food of Hungarian fishermen along the banks of the Tisza and the Danube, who cooked the surplus of their catch and the cheapest parts of the fish into a thick, well-seasoned soup over an open fire by the river. Today there are two well-known, almost rival schools of preparation: the Szeged version, thicker and smoother because the fish base is pressed through a sieve, and the version from the town of Baja, thinner, unsieved, and served with pasta, so Hungarian families sometimes carry on a friendly argument over which is the “real” one. The fish is cooked slowly and never stirred with a spoon (the pot is only shaken) so the flesh doesn't fall apart, and the paprika goes in at several stages to give the soup its rich, almost velvety color. Halászlé is most often made on Christmas Eve, because fish traditionally stands in for meat on the fast day. For Hungarian families in America, where fresh carp is harder to find, a version made with other kinds of white fish still carries the same unmistakable paprika aroma, one that takes you straight back to the kitchen of childhood.