Detva's Temper (Detvianska Nátura)
Detva is a city of some 15,000 inhabitants, straddling the Poľana mountain range located just south of my hometown of Banská Bystrica. The region around Detva is called Podpoľanie, which means “Below Poľana”. It is one of the most famous of all tourist regions in Slovakia. And for good reasons. It is famous for folklore music, fujara, baggy traditional outfits (kroje) with bare stomachs, and many folklore festivals. This region is also known for hardy men, men who don’t shy away from adding little spice to their dishes. It is part of their temper (nátura). And here is the recipe for the famous dish from this region, Detvianska nátura, which is also sometimes referred to as Diabolská zmes, the Devil’s mixture. The recipe comes from here.
Ingredients 2 beef pork round steaks (about 0.6lbs), half an onion, hot peppes, salt, black pepper, 50g mushrooms, lečo (or one bell pepper and one tomato), 1 teaspoon mustard, 1 teaspoon ketchup
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Start by cutting the meat into thin noodle strips. Do the same with the onion. Then sear it on hot oil from both sides for a minute or two.
Add the onions and cook until they start turning golden (another few minutes). Then add the remaining veggies: hot peppers, mushrooms, and lečo. If you don’t have lečo handy, you can substitute diced bell peppers and tomato.
But not having that either (the tomato, that is), I put in some four tablespoons of tomato paste. And to give it more color, I used half of a green pepper and half of a red one. Also mix in one teaspoon of mustard (I used the horseradish, chreň, kind), and the same amount of ketchup.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and continue braising until the veggies soften. I added about a cup of water to thin the tomato paste. Also, the peppers were not hot at all. So I added about a teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper. I chose those peppers as they looked very much like the kind that’s used in Slovakia, called ram’s horn, baraní roh. If I remember right, they are much hotter overseas. Serve with rice, potatoes, or potato pancakes. Or, even IN a potato pancake… Dobrú chuť.
Recipe looks delicious – can’t wait to try it.
It was 🙂 Make sure you make the potato pancake (harula) to go with it, it’s not the same without it.
try it with pork strips, delicious as well and most likely used in old times. Cow was a provider (milk etc), pig was a meat source
Oh HBTW, when I looked at a source for recipee, it says “bravcove stehno” pork butt
You are right – my bad. I fixed the recipe above. I always get hovädzie (beef) and bravčové (pork) mixed up.
I couldn’t find Detva in a map; my husband was born in Skalité, in the border with Poland and Czech Republic. I found the same characteristics in these folklore videos. I’ll try this meal, looks very tasty!
Martha, it’s here (link to Google maps), about 3 hours by car from Skalite.
I was born in Brezno, about 50km north east from Detva.
Looks like a good recipe – I will try this. Also nice to hear about a city near my grandparents’ village of Horna Lehota.
Diana – my great grandmother grew up in a house in Dolna Lehota. This house is now my dad’s cottage, and is also where my grandma Terka lives. See for instance this recipe, it was shot in the cottage in Dolna Lehota: http://www.slovakcooking.com/2010/recipes/sausages/
ouch, I made it last night, I overdid spices, it was so hot that my g-fried said “you trying to kill me”
and rightly so, not trying to kill her but overdoing it. I had upset stomack, darn, don’t use too many hot red chilly pepers, and DO NOT slice them open as that makes it really hot, and I like hot, but this one was way past my tolerance level 🙂
This is what we ( u nas na dolniakoch v Hlohovci) are calling “specialita” or specialty. My american hubby is in love with this food 🙂 The only difference is, since the recipe came from the southern Hungarian neighbors, we always add feferonky but any hot pepper will do. We also eat it inside the folded potato pancake (taco style) with shreded cheese on top that gets baked on it. My mother’s trick to prepare this dish is to cut the meat very thinly while still slightly frozen.
BTW, did you read Detvianska Natura? One of the best books about traditional Detva life.
Nie, tu knizku nepoznam. Dokonca som o nej nikdy nepocul. Chystam sa znovu na Slovensko toto leto tak ju pohladam v knihkupectve.
skor hladaj v antikvariatoch. tiez vysla volna verzia Sportove Smiechoty ale ta Natura je naozaj jedinecna. Ak nahodou natrafis na nove vydanie urcite sa pochval. A aby som nezabudla, autor je Ludo Zelienka.
I made this tonight with venison instead of beef or pork. It turned out wonderful. I also added a teaspoon of paprika and a cup of beef stock instead of water. I will definitely make this again.
Venison? Where did you get venison?
In the woods. (I’m a hunter.)
I think this is the best meal I’ve ever made. 🙂
That’s great to hear (if you are being serious)!
Totally serious! 🙂 My boyfriend agreed, so it’s not just me either!