About Steven Brust: Fantasy Author

Steven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He was a member of the writers' group The Scribblies, which included Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Will Shetterly, Nate Bucklin, Kara Dalkey, and Patricia Wrede; he also belongs to the Pre-Joycean Fellowship.

He is best known for his novels about the assassin Vlad Taltos. His novels have been translated into German, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Czech, French, Spanish, Hebrew and Bulgarian. Most of his short stories are set in shared universes. These include Emma Bull's and Will Shetterly's Liavek, Robert Asprin's Thieves' World, Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Terri Windling's Borderland Series.

Brust's Hungarian heritage inspires his love of Hungarian food. Steven offers this recipe for one of his favorite dishes

Ingredients:

* One half cup (1 stick) of butter
* Four medium baking potatoes finely sliced
* 1 medium chopped onion
* 2 cloves crushed or chopped garlic,
* four tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
* 2 tablspoons tomato puree
* 1 tablespoon ground mouseweed
* 2 cups sour cream
* kosher salt
* freshly ground black papper
* water

Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, potatoes and onion. Salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until the onions become pulpy. Add the paprika, mouseweed, and tomato puree, and enough water to cover. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has vanished. Dollop on the sour cream and serve hot.

Optional: In a seperate pan, fry up some sliced Hungarian sausage, and add to the mixture right before the sour cream.

Mouseweed? You can sometimes find mouseweed at import groceries. If not, you could probably get by using 1/2 tsp basil, 1 tsp marjoram, 1/2 tsp hot paprika, and 1/4 tsp white pepper.