I went to Hungary a year or two after the Berlin wall fell. I didn't know much about Hungarian food, so everything was a really great new experience. The biggest surprise was Goulash, which in my prior American experience had been a thick brown stew with not much to recommend it other than "hot" and "nutritious," at the risk of "starchy" and "a way to use leftovers."
Authentic Hungarian goulash is a rich, delicious soup. It's substantial enough to be a meal, but it's definitely not supposed to be a thick stew. It this regard it's kind of like gumbo; a soup that can be a main dish.
When the internet started to take off, I went looking for recipes to re-create the version I remembered from Budapest. I was lucky to find some blogs in English run by two different Hungarian women. I tried their recipes, converted kilograms to US measurements, and then tweaked things a bit until I got the version I remembered from my travels. Here it is.
This recipe makes about 3.5 quarts and serves six to eight people.
1.5 to 2 lbs stew beef, cut into 1/2 inch rough cubes
1 jumbo or 2 medium yellow onions, diced
1 large or two medium potatoes, peeled & diced
2 carrots (or 1 carrot & 1 parsnip), sliced into rounds
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
2 green bell peppers, diced (this is a substitution for Hungarian green peppers, which I could not find in the US)
One 8-oz can of tomato sauce, or 1 TBS tomato paste
Two to four TBS sweet Hungarian paprika. The brand "Szeged" is what I use, since I can find it locally at Publix
1 tsp caraway seeds
One bay leaf
One quart water
2 tsp kosher salt
Vegetable oil or lard (traditional)
1 TBS white vinegar
Accompaniments:
Sour cream for garnshing
Tabasco sauce (if you want to Americanize the taste a bit)
If you serve it as a soup, it's ladled into bowls as-is. If you want to make a meal out of it, add one of the following:
Pasta or egg noodles for serving (1.5 cups dried, cooked per package instructions)
Or, gnocchi for serving. Use the 1 lb package from "Vigo" or similar store brands.
Use a 6 quart soup pot or dutch oven to make this.
Method:
1) Saute the onions in oil or lard on medium heat until they are translucent. Add the garlic & stew meat.
2) Cook the meat until it loses its red color and releases its juices. You are NOT trying to brown the meat. The Hungarians were all pretty unanimous on this point, & regard browning the meat as "Frenchifying" their national dish.
3) Add the paprika & caraway seeds. Stir frequently for 3 minutes until the paprika loses it's raw smell. Be careful not to burn it.
4) Add the water & bay leaf. Bring the soup to a simmer and add the diced potatoes. Simmer for 1/2 hour.
5) Add the carrots, celery, and tomato sauce. Simmer for another 1/2 hour.
6) Add the peppers and salt to the pot. Simmer for another 1/2 hour.
7) Check the salt & adjust as needed. Check the meat for tenderness. Simmer until tender.
8) Stir in the vinegar to finish the soup.
Serving: ladle into bowls and garnish with a spoon of sour cream in the middle.
Some notes:
Gulyas is a folk dish. There are probably as many ways to make it as there are Hungarian grandmothers. Your family recipe may be a lot different than this one. If so, I'd love to hear it!
The paprika is the star of this dish. Find good Hungarian paprika to use. Standard grocery-store Amercan paprika does not have the flavor of Hungarian paprika.
Serving it over pasta or egg noodles is probably an Austrian thing, but it's good and makes a filling meal.
Several of the Hungarian recipes called for cooking "nokedli" (like spaetzle) in the soup. That's where I go the idea to serve my goulash with gnocchi. It's sure not authentic, but it's a good meal. When I use gnocchi I cut the potato used in the recipe by half.
Enjoy!
Authentic Hungarian goulash is a rich, delicious soup. It's substantial enough to be a meal, but it's definitely not supposed to be a thick stew. It this regard it's kind of like gumbo; a soup that can be a main dish.
When the internet started to take off, I went looking for recipes to re-create the version I remembered from Budapest. I was lucky to find some blogs in English run by two different Hungarian women. I tried their recipes, converted kilograms to US measurements, and then tweaked things a bit until I got the version I remembered from my travels. Here it is.
This recipe makes about 3.5 quarts and serves six to eight people.
1.5 to 2 lbs stew beef, cut into 1/2 inch rough cubes
1 jumbo or 2 medium yellow onions, diced
1 large or two medium potatoes, peeled & diced
2 carrots (or 1 carrot & 1 parsnip), sliced into rounds
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
2 green bell peppers, diced (this is a substitution for Hungarian green peppers, which I could not find in the US)
One 8-oz can of tomato sauce, or 1 TBS tomato paste
Two to four TBS sweet Hungarian paprika. The brand "Szeged" is what I use, since I can find it locally at Publix
1 tsp caraway seeds
One bay leaf
One quart water
2 tsp kosher salt
Vegetable oil or lard (traditional)
1 TBS white vinegar
Accompaniments:
Sour cream for garnshing
Tabasco sauce (if you want to Americanize the taste a bit)
If you serve it as a soup, it's ladled into bowls as-is. If you want to make a meal out of it, add one of the following:
Pasta or egg noodles for serving (1.5 cups dried, cooked per package instructions)
Or, gnocchi for serving. Use the 1 lb package from "Vigo" or similar store brands.
Use a 6 quart soup pot or dutch oven to make this.
Method:
1) Saute the onions in oil or lard on medium heat until they are translucent. Add the garlic & stew meat.
2) Cook the meat until it loses its red color and releases its juices. You are NOT trying to brown the meat. The Hungarians were all pretty unanimous on this point, & regard browning the meat as "Frenchifying" their national dish.
3) Add the paprika & caraway seeds. Stir frequently for 3 minutes until the paprika loses it's raw smell. Be careful not to burn it.
4) Add the water & bay leaf. Bring the soup to a simmer and add the diced potatoes. Simmer for 1/2 hour.
5) Add the carrots, celery, and tomato sauce. Simmer for another 1/2 hour.
6) Add the peppers and salt to the pot. Simmer for another 1/2 hour.
7) Check the salt & adjust as needed. Check the meat for tenderness. Simmer until tender.
8) Stir in the vinegar to finish the soup.
Serving: ladle into bowls and garnish with a spoon of sour cream in the middle.
Some notes:
Gulyas is a folk dish. There are probably as many ways to make it as there are Hungarian grandmothers. Your family recipe may be a lot different than this one. If so, I'd love to hear it!
The paprika is the star of this dish. Find good Hungarian paprika to use. Standard grocery-store Amercan paprika does not have the flavor of Hungarian paprika.
Serving it over pasta or egg noodles is probably an Austrian thing, but it's good and makes a filling meal.
Several of the Hungarian recipes called for cooking "nokedli" (like spaetzle) in the soup. That's where I go the idea to serve my goulash with gnocchi. It's sure not authentic, but it's a good meal. When I use gnocchi I cut the potato used in the recipe by half.
Enjoy!
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