Halászlé / Halaszle

Halászlé refers to Hungarian Fish soup. Halászlé is one of the typical dishes from Hungarian cuisine. It is made of fish, but said to be very different from ordinary fish soup. Halászlé is made in many different ways, but all Halászlé recipes have basic ingredients, such as, onions, green peppers, and ground red paprika (orölt pirospaprika). The red paprika is added in copious amounts as it not only gives a distinct color and flavor to the soup, but also plays an important role in creating the true consistency of the soup. Halászlé is always served with fresh, white bread. Pasta mixed with sour cream and cottage cheese (túrós csusza) is traditonally served as a main course following the Halászlé. There are two main types of fish soup (Halászlé) and each one is conencted to a town: (1) from along the Danube called Baja Fish soup (Bajai Halászlé). When making the Baja fish soup, the fish and the stock are cooked together and then thickened by adding long, wide strips of cooked pasta. (2) from the banks of the River Tisza is known as Szeged Fish soup (Szegedi Halászlé). What is special about the Szeged fish soup is its strong stock which is first made by passing a mixture of thoroughly cooked small fish, onions, and paprika through a sieve. The soup is made of this stock and served with big slices of cooked fishand Both towns are proud of their own soups and their Annual Fish soup cooking competitions became a popular festivals and atrract thousands of visitors yearly.