Cooking for the Family

Usually when I stay at the home of my Mexican family I do some cooking to give Alejandro and Sandra a break from preparing meals.  For last Sunday's dinner I made something that I prepared on my previous trip in the winter of 2020.  I had found a very simplified recipe for a paprikash sauce, and I made a bastardized version of chicken paprikash for them.  I am sure that a Hungarian would have judged it an atrocity, but the whole family seemed to like it.  

After all this time, the recipe card was still on the fridge in Alejandro's house.  The container of paprika that I had brought from the States was still in the cupboard and it was within its "best if used by" date.  So I sautéed some chopped onion and mushrooms (the mushrooms were not in the original recipe), added diced tomatoes, sour cream, and, of course paprika.  I threw in shredded chicken and some cooked baby carrots.

 It looks like slop, but it tastes good.

I would have served it over wide egg noodles, but I could not find those in the supermarket down here.  Instead I served it over bow-tie pasta.  My "chicken paprikash slop" once again received the approval of everyone, especially Alejandro's nephew Ezra.

To go along with that, I prepared a simple salad that my mother used to make... sliced cucumber with sour cream and dill.  That was met with mixed reviews.  Alejandro liked it, but Ezra gave it a "thumbs down".  That's OK.  I have told him to be honest with me if he doesn't like something so that I won't prepare it in the future.