Recipe video above. The national dish of Hungary! Boldly flavoured with stacks of paprika, lots of onion, garlic and capsicum/bell peppers, with fall apart hunks of beef. It's sort of a stew, sort of a soup. The broth is not supposed to be as thick as typical stews. It's naturally thickened slightly using fresh tomatoes that break down into the sauce.Serve like soup in bowls with bread for dunking. (Try cheese bread. Obsessed!).
2carrots, peeled, cut in quarters lengthwise then into 1cm / 0.4" pieces
2potatoes, cut into 1.2cm / 1/2" cubes
1tbspfinely chopped parsley, optional garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan), though you can use your slow cooker or stove instead (oven easiest! Note 4).
Season beef - Toss the beef with half the salt and pepper.
Cook onion - Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large oven-proof dutch oven over high heat. Cook onion for 6 minutes until the edges are light golden.
Cook beef - Add the beef and stir until the outside changes from red to brown, about 2 minutes. It won't go golden brown, it's not supposed to.
Add vegetables - Add garlic, capsicum and tomato. Stir for 3 minutes - the tomato will mostly breakdown.
Add paprika, caraway and bay leaf. Stir for 30 seconds.
Slow cook - Add beef stock, stir, bring to simmer. Cover with a lid and transfer to the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Add potato - The beef should be pretty tender but not quite "fall-apart". Stir in carrot and potatoes. Return to oven, covered, for another 30 minutes. Beef should now be "fall-apart" - if not, return to the oven for 10 minutes at a time.
Serve - Ladle goulash into bowls and sprinkle with parsley. Eat as is, with optional bread for dunking! (Pictured with cheese bread)
Notes
1. Beef - Also great with beef osso bucco (boneless) and beef cheeks. Gravy beef and brisket will also work but meat is a little leaner.2. Paprika - Use Hungarian or Hungarian-style if you can, the paprika is smoother than sweeter than ordinary paprika. Don't use hot paprika - we're using lots of paprika here, it will be way too spicy!3. Caraway seeds - a traditional spice used in Goulash used in central European cooking.4. Cook methods - Oven is my preferred because you get caramelisation on edges/surface = extra flavour but no worries about base catching like with the stove.Stove - Use ultra low stove heat, covered, for 1.5 hours. Stir every now and then to ensure base does not catch. Add potato and carrot, then cook 30 min.Slow cooker - 6 hours on low, add potato and carrot, 2 hours on low.5. Leftovers - As with all stews, this gets better overnight. Leftovers will keep for 4 to 5 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings.