Flavours of home is a series of recipes from around the world cooked by people at home in Otago. They are accompanied by a video on the ODT website so you can see how the dish is made. This week Michal Rozenberg, from Slovakia, shows us how to make Hungarian goulash.
Michal Rozenberg and his family came to New Zealand in 2000 looking for a change from Slovakia. Trained as a photographer, he changed tack to work as a chef before leaving Europe. Having worked in a restaurant in Greytown, he moved to Dunedin on a whim and two years ago opened Mamma Mia Pizza, now located beside The Clean in Crawford St.
Goulash, a slow-cooked stew or thick soup, is a common dish in central Europe, especially in the area that was the Austro-Hungarian empire.
The flavourings vary from place to place and people think their family recipe is the only way to make it, and disapprove of others, he says.
He comes from Bratislava, which is close to Vienna, and this recipe is like a Wiener goulash, he says.
Thanks to Afife Harris and Taste Nature.
1-1.2kg gravy beef, or other stewing cut such as blade, topside, shin
2-3 large onions, diced (about half the meat volume)
1-2 Tbsp ground paprika
1/2 Tbsp caraway seed
4-5 Tbsp neutral cooking oil or lard (pork fat)
4-5 ripe tomatoes or 1x400g tin
salt and pepper to taste.
Chop onions roughly. With long cooking they will dissolve.
Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and allow onions to soften but not colour over low heat with the lid on.
Cut the meat into large chunks about 2cm thick and the size of about 2-3 bites. If the pieces are too small they will disintegrate during the long cooking.
Remove large pieces of fat and any tough connective tissue, but include any marrow bones as they will add flavour.
When onions are translucent and becoming soft, add the meat.
There is no need to dust it in flour.
You can sear the meat if you like, but there is no need. Add the spices - paprika and caraway - and salt, and stir to mix.
Cut tomatoes in half and place on top of the meat, cut side down. This saves skinning them first as the skins will lift off easily later.
Add enough water to barely cover the meat, put the lid on, turn the heat low so it just simmers, and leave to cook. Check it is not sticking after about 30 minutes. Don't stir as the meat will break up. The skin will lift off the tomatoes and they can be squashed into the stew.
Allow the stew to cook for 2 to 3 hours.
The meat will be so tender it will break apart. Avoid stirring. Remove the lid and allow the liquid to evaporate but don't turn the heat up. Watch - it may take only a few minutes.
When you can push the sauce aside and see the bottom of the pan, it is reduced enough.
To finish, add a little water so it barely covers the meat, to get consistency of a rich, thick gravy that coats the meat. Bring back to a simmer and adjust the seasoning.
Serve in a soup bowl and garnish with chopped parsley if you like. Eat with robust, crusty bread to mop up the sauce. The sauce is the most enjoyable part and is often eaten first, he said.
Tips
• Many people in Europe to use a pressure cooker to cook this dish more quickly, but slow-cookers are uncommon there. Families generally have a favourite wide, heavy-based stew pot which may have been passed down from earlier generations.
• There are many variations on the goulash theme. It can be made with pork, mutton, veal or venison, as well as beef. The best cuts are those with shorter fibres and more connective tissue such as shoulder or shin ends of rump. It's also good made with potato and chorizo and there's even a beggar's goulash which has no meat.
• If you like, you can add hot paprika or chilli to give a bit more bite.
• Flour is not part of a traditional goulash. The thickening comes from the long cooking of the onion and the meat.
• Michal says vegetables such as carrots, celery or parsnip dilute the flavour. Serve vegetables as a side dish if you like.
• He says it's important to resist the temptation to stir or poke the stew as it's cooking. Just leave it alone.
• Where Michal comes from, the favourite way to eat goulash is with some robust, crusty European-style bread. In winter a beef goulash is often served with a pickled gherkin or raw sliced onion. In summer a pork goulash, which is lighter, is good with tomato.
• Goulash keeps well and people may eat it with bread one day, rice or dumplings the next, and perhaps pasta and sour cream the following day.
