Hungarian Goulash

Back in March of 2007, I did a post about lesço, a Hungarian peppers-and-tomato dish that Keith's mother made often when he was a child. He's said that he doesn't remember her making goulash, but even so, seeing as how he's half Hungarian, and seeing as how goulash involves meat and potatoes, I figured we should probably have it in the repertoire.

Thus, when I saw a discussion of the dish in the March issue of Saveur, I studied it eagerly. The one-page "Classic" feature was called Soup of Ages, and it explained that real goulash has no truck with tomatoes, sour cream, or a flour thickener, as the "goulash" you run into in the United States often does. The real gulyás (pronounced GOO-yash) is a traditional Hungarian soup—not even a stew.

Paprika is the essential ingredient; that and slow simmering gives the soup its silky texture and deep, rich flavor. The other basic ingredients are beef and potatoes, and sometimes dumplings (csipetke). Some traditionalists include caraway seeds, while others feel it spoils the flavor. The formal recipe in the Saveur article was the author's mother-in-law's, and it called for not only the caraway seeds but also marjoram, garlic, carrots, parsnips, a pepper—and even a tomato.

The author herself didn't provide her recipe per se, though she explained, in the text of the article, how she makes her version. I chose to follow her method, though I didn't add the dumplings, as she said she does, and I did use some ingredients from the mother-in-law's version (the garlic and the carrots).

Hungarian Goulash
From recipes by Carolyn Bánfalvi in Saveur magazine, March 2009

4 tablespoons bacon fat or canola oil (I used the bacon fat)
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 1/2 pounds beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup Hungarian sweet paprika
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a 5-qt. Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.

Increase heat to high. Add beef and season with salt and pepper. Cook, uncovered, stirring only once or twice, until the meat is lightly browned, about 6 minutes. Stir in the paprika and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add carrots and about 5 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium. Simmer, covered, until the beef is nearly tender, about 45 minutes.

Add potatoes and cook, uncovered, until tender, about 20 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve with rye bread, if you like.
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I used one more potato than was called for in the mother-in-law's recipe, and I mashed some of the potato pieces against the side of the pot once they were tender, so my "soup" was actually rather thicker than that shown in the photo accompanying the Saveur article. We loved it. Once we had a crisp Romaine salad dressed with a lemony vinaigrette on the side, and another time ate it with steamed broccoli. And crusty bread, of course.

Thanks to Ms. Bánfalvi for the recipes for this traditional Hungarian dish. We'll make it again and again in the cold months ahead, I'm sure.