The food called goulash in the United States is a variation of the Hungarian gulyás, which developed from a tradition of kettle cooking in Hungary. This version uses beef, but pork is also very common in Hungary and could be used in this recipe as well. One of the notable differences in this stewing method is that the meat is not colored, which yields a less strongly flavored broth, but the copious use of paprika provides both flavor and color to the resulting stew.
Ingredients
- 2 oz Lard
- 10 oz Yellow Onion, diced small
- 1 oz Garlic Cloves, minced
- 1.5 lbs Green Peppers, seeded and diced medium
- 1/3 cup Hungarian Paprika (sweet paprika)
- 1 tsp Ground Caraway
Bogras Gulyas
- 1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 3 lbs Beef Stew Meat, cut into 1.5-inch cubes, with heavy fat and connective tissue removed
- 2 lbs Diced Tomato (concasséed, if fresh; diced and peeled, if canned)
- 1 qt Chicken Stock
- 1 qt Beef Stock
- 1.5 lbs Boiling Potatoes, diced large (Red Bliss, Yukon Gold, or other suitable varietals)
- 1 Tbsp Fresh Marjoram or Oregano, minced
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
How to Make It
- Add the lard to a heavy-bottomed pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients, and place the pot over a medium flame.
- Once the oil has gotten hot, add the diced onion, minced garlic, and diced green peppers. Sweat the vegetables in the lard for 10–15 minutes, or until they become very tender and the onions are translucent.
- Once the vegetables are tender, add the paprika, caraway, black pepper, and salt, and turn the heat up to a medium-high flame. Cook, while stirring constantly, until the spices become very fragrant but do not caramelize.
- Once the spices have become fragrant, add the stew meat, the tomatoes, and the stocks to the pot, and turn the heat up to a high flame to bring the mixture to a simmer.
- Once the stew reaches a simmer, turn the heat down to maintain a very gentle poaching temperature. Cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid, and check the contents every 10 minutes or so to make sure the pot doesn’t overheat. Cook covered for 1 hour.
- Once the stew has cooked for an hour, uncover it and add the potatoes and marjoram to the pot. Re-cover and cook for another 45 minutes, at the same temperature as before.
- Once the stew has cooked for 45 minutes with the potatoes, remove it from heat and taste it for seasoning. Add salt and pepper, if necessary, and serve.
