Haydenei

Goulash is one of those recipes of which you can find gazillion variations. Originated in Hungary the recipes are passed on from generation to generation. Even though they vary considerably from one family to another, they all have bell peppers in common and they taste fabulous. Especially in the cold time of the year they are a welcome dish to counter cold and bad weather outside the house, because they bring warmth to body and mind. And like chilli con carne, it is suitable for occasions, on which you have to feed a crowd, have to prepare in advance, keep it warm and heat it up again if you guests only eat part of it. As an alternative you can freeze it and thaw it later on.

Like many others, my parent told me how to make a good goulash. This recipe even enabled me to convince my wife, who had her reservations when it came to goulash.

Recipe for 4 servings

• 700g beef
• 700g onions
• 200g bacon
• 2 bell peppers
• 1 Tablespoon of hot paprika
• 1 Tablespoon of sweet paprika
• 2 Tablespoons of tomato puree
• 250ml broth
• salt
• pepper
• butter

Preparations
Step 1:
Cut the beef to 4 cm cubes and sear it in portions.

Step 2:
Get out the hankies and dice the onions and bell peppers (they don’t have to be too fine). Put the onions in a heavy sauce pan and roast them with butter until they are glassy. Add the diced bacon, the diced bell peppers, the paprika and the tomato puree and roast it a little more. Add the seared beef and pour the broth until it just covers the beef.

Step 3
Simmer it with medium heat for about 40 minutes until the meat is tender. Add salt and pepper. If you like, pimp it with a bit of sour cream. But the sour cream is purely optional, I don’t use it.

Spätzle as a side dish
At home, my parents used to make bread dumplings to go along with the goulash. If you don’t want to prepare them, try Spätzle instead. They make a pretty good side dish. The convenience food industry offers a variety of Knöpfle and Spätzle here in Germany, which you just have to heat up, but they are nothing compared to home made Spätzle. And they are so easy to prepare. Knöpfle and Spätzle are just different in the way they look, but are more or less the same.

Recipe for 4 servings

• 250g all purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 50ml milk
• 10g salt
• 1 Tablespoon walnut oil (optional)

Preparation
Step 1
Sift the flour and beat it with salt, eggs, milk and oil until it forms a smooth batter, which builds bubbles. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Step2
The easiest way to do it is to use a spätzle press or potato press. Put the press over some boiling salted water, put press some of the batter into the boiling water. After a short while, use a skimmer or perforated spoon to get the spätzle out of the boiling water. That’s it. You can also use something which might be literally translated as spätzles fad. Or you can cut or scrape the spätzle. The latter one is the traditional way to prepare spätzle. You use a kind of scraper and every time you cut of a piece of the batter into the boiling water. It takes practice to get good at it, but it’s supposed to be as easy as the other ways. But if you just want to try it, just use a spätzle or potato press. It’s easy and tastes great.