Traditional hungarian goulash...

original Hungarian goulash

Today I am cooking an Hungarian recipe, the national Hungarian recipe to be more precise - goulash. It's a spicy, hearty stew made from meat (there are lamb, pork, veal and horse goulash recipes) in combination with paprika and onions. It originated from Hungary and found its way into many countries, most likely via the Austrian army that used to cook this dish for its soldiers in the beginning of the 19.th century. The German army took this habit from the Austrians and used to cook this goulash soup on its stoves for its soldiers. From this the Germans derived the expression "Gulasch Kanone" = goulash canon, that still exists in the Germany language ever since. The recipe is easy to make, tasted hearty and the ingredients are easy to find in China, so its a no brainer that I cook this dish rather frequently. Here is a picture of my version and the translated my favorite recipe, which I found on this web site (the author got the recipe from his Hungarian co worker and it is my favorite goulash recipe so far): http://www.kochproben.info/data/65.php

Ingredients:

• 1 kg Beef (the meat from the neck works best for me)
• 1 kg onions
• 3-4 red chili pods (hot) cut in small pieces
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• Red wine
• Paprika powder
• 3 diced bell peppers (my addition)
• ca. ½ liter Meat stock (you need enough of it to cover all the ingredients)

Goulash seasoning:

• Marjoram
• Cumming
• Lemon zest
• 3 cloves of garlic

Cut the meat in cubes, the onions in stripes. Now you heat up oil in a pan and fry the onions in it until they are golden brown, then you add the chili pods (if you like it spicy, add the seeds inside the pods, if you cannot eat too spicy, maybe you want to reduce the amount of chili to two pods). Now you add the meat cubes, season them with salt and pepper and let them brown from all sides equally. Doing this the meat will emit juices, don't throw them away but continue to cook the meat until the juices are completely reduced and the meat is starting to fry again. In the meantime we prepare the Goulash season by grinding the marjoram, Cumming, lemon zest and garlic. Now we are adding the diced bell peppers, a generous dose of paprika powder and the goulash seasoning to the meat. Let everything fry up shortly (don't let it fry for too long or it will turn bitter) and right after we deglaze it with a generous portion of red wine. We stir everything in the pan, especially everything that sticks to the bottom of the pan so that it can cook now evenly with the red wine. We let the red wine reduce now before we are adding the meat stock up to the level so the whole meat is submerged in the broth.
Now we let everything simmer on small heat for 1.5 to 2 hours (the longer you cook it, the better and richer the sauce will be). I even think that the taste is best when I reheat the goulash on the second or the third day after cooking it. You know that everything is cooked through at the moment when you are able to split the meat effortless with a spoon, without having to add too much pressure, which is when the meat is ready. Serve the goulash with Spätzle, Noodles or Bavarian style dumplings. Enjoy...