This is what Hungarian Gulyas (a.k.a. Gulash, Goulash) is supposed to look like (for real!)
You may or may not know that my twin brother Steve and I are first generation born Americans.
Yep, we grew up in the kitchen, breathing in the delicious aromas of my mother's and grandmother's Hungarian cooking.
Feel free to trust me when I tell you that there is absolutely NOTHING better than a big old steaming bowl of happiness, served up with some crusty bread, on a cold, wet, gloomy, or slightly sad sort of day.
Hungarian comfort food, baby!
You know that reddish-brown-gravy-laden stew-type dish served over noodles and featured as "Hungarian Goulash" in cookbooks and cooking magazines?
Nope, that is actually called Pörkölt (purr-curlt) although, also filed under Hungarian comfort food, it is very versatile and can be prepared using beef, veal, lamb or chicken (a.k.a. chicken paprikash!)
Gulyas (ghoul-yah-sh) on the other hand, is a soup.
Backstory: Gulya in Hungarian means herdsman, or cowboy. Gulyas (a.k.a. Gulash, Goulash) means "of the herdsman," who would have prepared this dish in a cast iron pot hitched over a stone fire pit while working the puszta (pooh-stuh) or the Hungarian prairie, if you will.
Although, they probably didn't include dumplings in their recipe (I don't think.)
I mentioned something on Facebook about making Hungarian Gulyas (et al) yesterday and then promised to share my family's recipe here with everyone, too!
So, to set the record straight:
Gulyas Leves (Hungarian Goulash)
INGREDIENTS:
1 large diced onion
3 carrots (chopped)
3 chopped stalks celery
3-4 cubed potatoes
2 diced frying peppers, a.k.a. cubanol
1 tomato
1-1/2 to 2 lbs. cubed stew beef
6 cups beef broth (can be diluted to 3 cups water and 3 cups beef broth or just add 6 cups of hot water if you don't have any broth at home )
2 tsp. paprika
2 cloves garlic
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
2 TBS. vegetable oil
1 tsp. caraway seeds steeped in 1/2 cup of hot water
dumplings
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1. Heat oil in large stock pot, saute onion for 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the cubed meat and stir until well browned.
3. Stir in chopped onion, carrots, peppers and garlic, heat through for 3-5 minutes.
4. Stir in tomato.
5. Add broth (or, water) paprika, salt, black pepper and bring to boil.
6. Lower heat and simmer for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until meat is fork-tender.
8. Steep caraway seeds in a 1 cup of boiling water, strain caraway tea into soup.
7. Add potatoes and simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are fork-tender.
[Note: My family prefers adding the caraway tea, rather than putting the seeds directly into the soup. If you can find caraway powder, all the better, just add 2 TBS and you're good to go!]
9. Add dumplings (recipe to follow) to simmering soup, stirring constantly.
10. Simmer on low a for another 3-5 minutes and serve hot with crusty bread.
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Dumplings
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cups of water
1. Add flour to bowl, making a well in the middle of the flour.
2. Add the eggs, salt and water in center and then mix well until combined.
[Note: The mixture will look like a very loose and sticky dough]
3. Use a spaetzle maker
4. Simmer uncovered for another 3 to 5 minutes.
[Note: You can easily substitute uncooked egg noodles for the dumplings and add directly into soup with potatoes.]
PHEW, there ya' go. The REAL deal.
Aaaand, if you're STILL reading along...well...I will love you until the day I d'ugh...um...stop remembering my name!
[knocking on wood until knuckles bleed]
Did I mention we Hunkies are a superstitious lot!?!?
[raises glass]
EGESEGEDRE (to your health!)
© 2003 - 2011 This Full House
[Cross-posted to my other blog: where I write about more family-related junk and other stuff, because the world NEEDS a good Gulash recipe straight from the old country, just sayin']
