Illustration by Kat Frick Miller
Welcome to The Globe’s series What’s In My Cart?, where we ask Canadians how they stock their kitchens.
As the milk in her fridge nears its expiry date, Linda Galenzoski juices a lemon, separates some cheesecloth and prepares a strainer. With her utensils and ingredients, she’ll make fresh pot cheese – similar to cottage cheese, but drained of more whey, giving it a firmer texture compared with the popular American variety.
Quintessentially Hungarian, the cheese is found in most Slavic, Baltic and Germanic countries. It features prominently in the pages of Paprika, Poppy Seed, Pot Cheese, the cookbook of Hungarian recipes Galenzoski published last December.
The manual recounts recipes for the cultural dishes from her childhood. The idea for the book began at a particularly challenging time in 2020, when Galenzoski’s brother passed away, prompting her mom to move into her Regina home.
“My mom’s passion was baking, so we started to make a lot of the recipes that I grew up with,” she says. In addition to recipes passed down from her 94-year-old mom, Galenzoski’s book features photos of her grandmother’s handwritten recipes, including one for a firm carrot loaf typically served with butter and tea.
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Many of the recipes translate well to Regina’s tradition of farming and agriculture: soups made with stewing hen broth and oxtail, dishes using parsnips and potatoes, and a cucumber tomato salad all reflect the farm-to-table cooking that Galenzoski’s family was raised on.
She often visits the nearby farmers’ market in Craven, Sask., where she buys 50-pound (23-kilogram) bags of cabbage that she blanches and freezes in ice-cream pails to make cabbage rolls throughout the winter.
But it’s not all about Hungarian food for Galenzoski. She also enjoys the leanness of bison meat – a Saskatchewan staple – and the good-old bison burgers that are easy to find around Regina.
How I save money on groceries: I use points through President’s Choice, buy in bulk at my local Co-op and use the Flipp app, which helps me find the best deals of the week.
How I splurge on groceries: I buy higher-quality extra-virgin olive oil. I just bought some in Croatia at a truffle farm: a half-litre bottle for about $35. I use it on salads or to finish my dishes, so the taste makes a difference.
The hardest shopping habit to keep up: Eating as much meat as I used to. The price of meat has gone up significantly over the past five years, so I now look for deals on beef and chicken.
How I’ve changed my eating habits recently: Hungarians love to eat dessert after every meal, which I have cut back on. I’m trying to be healthier and eat less sugar.
Five items always in my cart:
- Unbleached flour – Robin Hood – $11.99 for 10 kilograms: Regularly priced, the flour is $18.99, but I wait until I find it on sale. Bread is a staple in the Hungarian diet: I make my own bread, buns and galuski dumplings with the flour.
- Paprika – Pride of Szeged – $9 for 113 grams: Paprika is essential in Hungarian dishes. One traditional stew I really enjoy is lecsó, a vegetable ragout with tomatoes, onions, sausages and lots of paprika. It’s good because it’s a complete meal on its own.
- Sour cream – Dairyland – $3.49 for one litre: Sour cream is used in a lot of our food. We add a dollop on top of soups and stews to make them creamy.
- Cabbage – $20 for about 50 pounds, or 23 kilograms: We use cabbage in both sweet and savoury dishes. You can make a cabbage strudel by cooking the vegetable with a tablespoon of sugar, which makes a sweet filling.
- Hungarian sausage – Fortinos – $10.84 a pound: I had this shipped to my home in Regina from a Fortinos in Burlington, Ont. It’s a dried spicy sausage made with a lot of paprika. We eat quite a bit of meat. Sausage is economical because you can freeze it or dry it, and it keeps for a long time.
This interview has been edited and condensed.