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| Slow-Cooked Beef Goulash |
It was the perennial question - "what to cook for dinner". I had fresh beef. That helped a lot. At least it narrowed down the recipe search. Eve suggested that I make Goulash out of it, a paprika based stew with spices.
G-o-u-l-a-s-h ....sounds exotic. Why not!
I was skeptical about having only paprika in the stew. It seemed ...harsh somehow. There were many tug-of-wars in my mind about adding tomato into the mix - pureed, mashed, chopped and more tomato related thoughts. But I stuck it out and stayed on the paprika course. I was trying to be as "Hungarian" as possible! There were no regrets. It turned out fabulous.
Who knew that paprika could be more than just a pinch on anything...
A lot of flavours went into this stew so it's hard to describe the taste. I'll try! It's a little spicy but not as hot as I'd imagined and not the curry kind I was used to. A cross between chilli and pepper spiciness. Am I making any sense? All I can say is that it's addictive and goes nicely with the likes of naan, flatbread and even rice.
The recipe.
Ingredients:
- 500g beef (for stews, cut into chunks)
- 3 medium potatoes (peeled and diced)
- 1 cup diced pieces of pumpkin
- 1 red chili (halved and sliced into squares)
- 1 clove garlic (chopped)
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 2 tbsp paprika powder
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 stalks fresh coriander (chopped)
- 2-3 dried bay leaves
- Salt, to taste
- 1-2 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 cups hot water, or more
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| The ingredients |
How-to:
1) Season beef with a bit of salt. Leave aside.
2) Heat oil in pan. Saute the onions and garlic.
3) Add the beef. Fry until it's browned a little. Then, add the potatoes, pumpkin and chilli. Stir well.
4) Add paprika and brown sugar into the mix and stir well. Transfer all the ingredients into a slow cooker.
5) Add 3 cups hot water or more, along with fresh coriander and bay leaves. Cook on high for 3½ hours or longer. Into the second hour, I mashed some of the pumpkin pieces in the slow cooker using a spoon.
6) Taste and season with more salt if necessary, in the last ½ hour of cooking
Note: 3½ hours was enough for me. Meat is tender, but not falling apart.
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| Paprika goes in. Mix it well. |
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| Into the slow cooker it goes, along with some water, coriander and bay leaves |
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| Beef goulash and flatbread! Yum! |
