Traditional Hungarian Goulash-YUM

 From time to time, I will share some of the lovely recipes that I collect as I travel around the world. Today I will share a traditional recipe for Hungarian Goulash. 

Growing up in the Midwest, goulash was a staple of pot lucks. Typically it was made with hamburger, tomato sauce or paste, and pasta to make a casserole. Imagine my surprise when I discovered this was not, in any way, what 'real' Hungarian Goulash is. 

Real Hungarian Goulash is not a casserole dish at all, but rather a soup or stew. 

Each region has it's own variations, but all are based upon the recipe I will share below. A great soup recipe for those cold nights that will soon be upon us! 

This recipe I got from Sandra, who was our tour director on my trip through the Bohemian area of Europe and a native of the area. She graciously shared this family recipe with me. 

This original recipe makes about 8 servings. 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil

3 onions sliced or chopped

2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

1-6 ounce can tomato paste

1 1/2 cups water

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook onions in oil until soft, stirring frequently. Remove onions and set aside 

In a medium bowl, combine paprika, 2 teaspoons salt and pepper. coat beef cubes in spice mixture and cook in onion pot until brown on all sides. return the onions to the pot. pour in tomato paste, water, garlic and the remaining teaspoon of salt. reduce heat to low,  cover and simmer, stirring occasionally 90 minutes to 2  hours or until meat is tender. 

Garnish with sour cream.

To this base recipe you can and whatever vegetables you like, most common are potatoes and carrots which does alter the taste of the base recipe. Cheap cuts of meat work well as the soup mixture simmers for some time and will make the cheap cuts nice and tender as if  you used premium steak. 

TIP: after having made this a few times, I decided to try putting the spice mixture into a large gallon sized baggie and then put the cut up meat in, shaking the bag until all coated and then putting into the pot as directed. For me it saved time rather then rolling each piece in the mixture to coat.