Monday, August 19, 2013

Slow Cooked Beef Goulash


Slow-Cooked Beef Goulash

It was the perennial question - "what to cook for dinner". I had fresh beef. That helped a lot. At least it narrowed down the recipe search. Eve suggested that I make Goulash out of it, a paprika based stew with spices.

G-o-u-l-a-s-h ....sounds exotic. Why not!

I was skeptical about having only paprika in the stew. It seemed ...harsh somehow. There were many tug-of-wars in my mind about adding tomato into the mix - pureed, mashed, chopped and more tomato related thoughts. But I stuck it out and stayed on the paprika course. I was trying to be as "Hungarian" as possible! There were no regrets. It turned out fabulous.

Who knew that paprika could be more than just a pinch on anything...

A lot of flavours went into this stew so it's hard to describe the taste. I'll try! It's a little spicy but not as hot as I'd imagined and not the curry kind I was used to. A cross between chilli and pepper spiciness. Am I making any sense? All I can say is that it's addictive and goes nicely with the likes of naan, flatbread and even rice.

The recipe.

Ingredients:
- 500g beef (for stews, cut into chunks)
- 3 medium potatoes (peeled and diced)
- 1 cup diced pieces of pumpkin
- 1 red chili (halved and sliced into squares)
- 1 clove garlic (chopped)
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 2 tbsp paprika powder
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 stalks fresh coriander (chopped)
- 2-3 dried bay leaves
- Salt, to taste
- 1-2 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 cups hot water, or more


The ingredients

How-to:
1) Season beef with a bit of salt. Leave aside.

2) Heat oil in pan. Saute the onions and garlic.

3) Add the beef. Fry until it's browned a little. Then, add the potatoes, pumpkin and chilli. Stir well.

4) Add paprika and brown sugar into the mix and stir well. Transfer all the ingredients into a slow cooker.

5) Add 3 cups hot water or more, along with fresh coriander and bay leaves. Cook on high for 3½ hours or longer. Into the second hour, I mashed some of the pumpkin pieces in the slow cooker using a spoon.

6) Taste and season with more salt if necessary, in the last ½ hour of cooking

Note: 3
½ hours was enough for me. Meat is tender, but not falling apart.

Paprika goes in. Mix it well.

Into the slow cooker it goes, along with some water, coriander and bay leaves

Beef goulash and flatbread! Yum!

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4 comments:

  1. Sharon, you've got my mouth watering - this looks so rich and delicious. I'm always a bit dubious about using paprika as a main flavour too, but it's so sweet and smoky it works, doesn't it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Smoky! That's the word I was looking for. Thank you, Abbe xx

      Delete
  2. I always add sour cream to mine. My Hungarian Mother-in-law did, so that is how I always do it. And the only kind of Paprika I use is Hungarian Paprika (for this dish, that is)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooo..thanks for the tip. I'll do that on my second try! ^.^

      Delete

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