Death in a Budapest Butterfly by Julia Buckley

They will almost immediately rise to the surface and float. The dough will sink, so after you have flicked in several dumplings, use your wooden spoon to make sure the dumplings are not sticking to the bottom of the pot. When you have a rolling boil, lift your dough above the boiling water and, using the tip of a standard coffee spoon or teaspoon from your silverware drawer, flick round bits of dough into the boiling water. Let dough rest while waiting for water to boil. With a wooden spoon, stir in eggs and enough water (½ to 1 cup) to make a wet, lumpy dough. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and paprika.

If more gravy is required, add ½ pint of sweet cream to the sour cream mixture.īoil water in a large pot. Add dumplings (recipe below) and place chicken on top of dumplings. Remove chicken (place temporarily on plate or platter) and add sour cream to the spices and drippings mix well.

Add water to the mixture, cover, and simmer until chicken is tender. Add paprika, pepper, and salt and stir well lay chicken pieces in pot and simmer for about 10 minutes. Sauté the onion in either shortening or butter. Of the four printed, I chose to try these related two: Chicken Paprikás Ingredients Of course, another factor in my enjoyment of culinary cozies is the quality of the recipes included. With this debut, the Hungarian Tea House mystery series has jumped on my list of all-time favorites, and I’m very excited to see where it goes next. It is both absorbing and, in parts, genuinely spine-tingling. Buckley wove Hungarian legends and traditions into the narrative. The romance is both sweet and believably beset with obstacles, while the mouth-watering food descriptions had me looking up Hungarian restaurants in my vicinity. The mystery is solidly and cleverly constructed, with an unusual motive. I am wildly impressed with the way Julia Buckley incorporates so much into this culinary cozy. But as the investigations continue, Hana and Detective Erik Wolf find themselves increasingly drawn to one another, even as a murderer-or perhaps one of the evil witches of Hungarian legend-prepares to strike again. She shakes it off, intent on showcasing her prized Budapest Butterfly teacup at the event for the Magyar Women’s group, but disaster strikes when that very cup is used to poison one of the guests.Īt first, the detectives in charge rely on Hana, her mother, Maggie, and her tea-leaf-reading grandmother, Juliana, to help translate Hungarian-language testimony and explain cultural peculiarities.

Proud as she is of her Magyar heritage, she doesn’t necessarily buy into all their superstitions-until a strong sense of foreboding before a tea service one day literally stops her in her tracks. Hana Keller is the third generation of her Hungarian-American family to run Maggie’s Tea House, the popular Illinois establishment that serves European-style teas.

Death in a Budapest Butterfly by Julia Buckley