Hungarian Beef Goulash and Spaetzle
"I received this in the mail - the paper was old and so was the handwriting. There was no return address and no signature, so here it is to enjoy! I have made some adjustments & a few changes. We made it here and it was superb, it tasted just like my mom's. The timing is what may need adjusting, even though we made it - I honestly could not tell how long it took. I also added a few "modern methods" to the cooking and making of the spaetzle."
- Ready In:
- 3hrs 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 30
- Serves:
-
8
ingredients
-
GOULASH
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cups onions, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons caraway seeds, toasted and ground
- 4 slices bacon, chopped
- 2 1⁄2 lbs beef shank or 2 1/2 lbs beef shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
- kosher salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 roasted red peppers, peeled and sliced
- 3 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
- 1⁄2 - 3⁄4 teaspoon of minced fresh thyme (optional)
- 1⁄2 - 1 teaspoon minced fresh marjoram (optional)
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 (15 ounce) can whole canned tomatoes, hand crushed
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth or 6 cups low sodium beef broth
- 3⁄4 cup sour cream (add more if necessary)
- chopped flat leaf parsley, for garnish
-
SPATZLE
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- 1 3⁄4 cups milk
- 1 lb all-purpose flour (about 3 cups)
- 1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- 3 ounces unsalted butter or 3 ounces unsalted margarine
directions
-
GOULASH:
- In a large heavy pot over medium heat add the bacon and fry for about 5 minutes until crisp and remove to paper towel and reserve.
- Sauté the onions and sugar until caramelized.
- Add the garlic and caraway seed.
- Cook for one minute.
- Add the sweet paprika, thyme(if using), marjoram(if using), and bay leaf.
- Sauté another minute, until fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes, red peppers, and 3 cups of broth.
- Bring to a boil and then simmer 10 minutes.
- Remove bay leaf.
- In a Dutch oven, add the oil and sauté the beef and brown evenly on all sides, turning with tongs; season generously with salt and pepper.
- While beef is searing, sprinkle the flour evenly in the pot and continue to stir to dissolve any clumps.
- Deglaze with vinegar and the remaining broth.
- Pour the contents of the other pan into Dutch oven and bring to a boil, then lower to simmer and cook about 1-1/2 hours until very tender, stirring occasionally.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning.
- Remove from heat and stir the sour cream into the goulash just before serving.
- Garnish with chopped parsley and broken pieces of crispy bacon.
- Serve with freshly made spaetzle.
-
SPAETZLE:
- In a small bowl, beat together the egg yolks, egg and milk.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
- Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix with hand until well blended.
- Do not overmix at this stage.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate.
- Allow the batter to rest for at least 1 hours.
- Bring salted water to a boil.
- Place the batter on the end of a cutting board and cut small slices of batter into the water.
- Cook for 4-5 minutes, until done.
- Transfer cooked spaetzle to a bowl, with a strainer.
- OR (edited 02/26/06)Place a perforated hotel pan on on top of the pot. Place the batter on the pan and force it through the holes to form spaetzles. Cook 4-5 minutes. Transfer the spaetzle to a different bowl with a strainer.
- Over high heat, place a large sauté pan until it gets very hot.
- Add butter and the boiled spaetzle.
- Sauté until golden.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve with the goulash all in one large platter(the spaetzle all round and the goulash in the middle) sprinkle with a generous amount of parsley, over the goulash as well as the spaetzle.
- Serve with warm loaf of bread so as to sop up all that yummy gravy.
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Reviews
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This is the first review I have ever written for a recipe as I usually change it up too much to bother saying anything about the original... let me say that hands down, this is THE best goulash I have ever eaten and I followed it to the letter EXCEPT that I used lean hamburger instead of cubes. This was incredible. -
Delicious! This is truly an old-fashioned recipe -- thanks for posting. I made this goulash for friends -- not the spaetzle, too tired at the time, though I may try someday. I added some red wine for depth, and used green peppers instead of red, for a bit of color. Took some shortcuts instead of sauteeing everything separately, but it turned out fine. I simmered it much longer, around 5 hours, and the beef really was fork tender then. I served it over wide egg noodles with crusty bread, and it was a hit.
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Made this for dinner tonight. Followed recipe as written. My boyfriend slurped it all down and had seconds. It was good!!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)> </p>
<p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p>
<p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p>
<p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>
