Kevin's Watch

Anybody have a failproof recipe for Hungarian goulash? I had some in Hungary and thought it was just about the best beef dish I'd ever tasted. I brought back some authentic Hungarian paprika and have been meaning to find a recipe and try it, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I heard they use an equal amount of meat and onions.

I usually sweat the onions slowly in butter fat, sear the meat (beef cut in bite sized chunks) in a different pan over high heat, deglaze with a bit of wine, put beef and onions in a pot, add salt, pepper, oregano, a generous amount of paprika, a bit of ground caraway, some concentrated tomato puree, can of tomatoes and beef stock and let simmer it for at least an hour. In between I add diced bell peppers (green and red) and if I feel fancy some mushrooms. Depending on the wine (I always prefer white wine for cooking because the taste is fresher) and the tomatoes a bit sugar won't do any harm. Feel free to add sour creme or similar at the end.

Because of the long and slow cooking process and the amount of onions the sauce will get thick all by itself. Frying the meat first is not essential, but I like the roast flavors on the meat. When done the meat should almost fall apart.