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Coping with quarantine
Eurail colleagues share their coping mechanisms
Curious how we're spending our time at home and what we're doing to stay in touch with our loved ones? Some lovely Eurail colleagues, from all over the world (we have more than 40 nationalities at the office!), have taken the time to talk you through their coping mechanisms. From cooking delicious meals to escaping through virtual travel, there's enough for you to get inspired by!
Slavena (Online content intern)
I’ve started making a list of all the places and countries around Europe that I want to see with an Interrail Pass and working from home has made it so much easier to make a colourful bucket list. The places I've added so far are:
- Lisbon, Portugal
- The French Riviera
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Luxembourg weekend trip
- And many more!
Also, since in the Netherlands we’re still allowed to go out for a walk, I’ve decided to satisfy my wanderlust by going to areas in my city (Arnhem) that I’ve never been to before. It’s basically the quarantine version of finding hidden gems!
Need to be inspired and get some more destinations on your to-go list, just like Slavena? Check out our inspirational itineraries!
Click the photographs for more inspiration!
Zsófia (E-mail marketeer)
I cook. Whenever I want a taste of Hungary, I make a dish based on some of the most typical ingredients: lots of onions, sweet paprika powder and sour cream.
Whether the dish ends up as a soup, a stew (yes, could be goulash!) or something else, I get to visit my parents and homeland twice in my mind: while cooking and while consuming the end product.
Want to dream away to Hungary as well? Below you'll find one of my favourite traditional recipes: Lecsó (pronounced as "leh-choh").
Lecsó is a traditional simple vegetable stew made of tomatoes, pointed peppers, onions and Hungarian sweet paprika powder. It's typically consumed with fresh white bread. Hungarians normally eat something light like this for dinner, lunch being normally the main meal during the day.
- Traditional Hungarian Lecsó
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Lecsó - tomato and paprika stew (for 4 people)
Preparation time: approximately 25-30 min
Ingredients:
1.5 kg (pointed) pepper, cut into rings
3 large onions, sliced
4-5 large tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon (Hungarian) sweet paprika powder
Lard (traditional) or vegetable oil1. In a large skillet, sauté the onions on some oil until they become translucent (8-10 min). Make sure to cook them, don't fry or burn them. They should be nice and soft.
Here comes the secret of cooking with paprika powder. This step is missing from many English language recipes you can find out there, but in fact makes or breaks a dish that uses paprika powder. Without this, you won't really taste the sweet paprika flavour and the end result could be underwhelming. Here it comes: the paprika powder needs to be dissolved in oil or fat in order to bring out its real flavours. Remember this whenever you cook a dish that contains sweet paprika powder. There is, however, a specific way to do this. I'll explain in the next step of our recipe.
2. When the onions are soft, add the paprika powder to the hot pan, stir it for 2-3 seconds and remove it from the heat. You need to be quick with this, the paprika powder will burn and taste bitter otherwise.
3. Add the chopped peppers with some salt, cover the pan with a lid and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. Stir it occasionally. If it's starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, lower the heat and/or add very little (1-2 tablespoons) water to prevent it from burning.
4. When the peppers are somewhat soft, add the chopped tomatoes and cook on low heat for another 15 minutes.
As a result, you should get a soft, silky stew. Enjoy it with plain white bread or throw some eggs over it to have an upgraded scrambled egg. My favourite way to eat it, however, is how it's mostly done in the eastern regions of Hungary: with sour cream (you can replace it with creme fraiche or yoghurt) and crusty white bread.
And some more ideas:
Click the photographs for more inspiration!