Gulasch, a Hungarian traditional stew, also famous in Austria, in some regions of northern Italy and in the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Made with big chunks of beef, in a stew flavored with onions and plenty of great paprika. The secret of this recipe is to have as much onions as the meat. Many traditionally use beef muscle for this recipe, we prefer to use beef cheek because it turns out very soft and result in a melt in the mouth hearty winter meal!
Cooking time: 2 hours | Prep time: 30 mins | Ingredients for 4 people |
What do you need?
1 kg of beef cheeks cut into large pieces (6/8 pieces each cheek).
1 kg of yellow onions.
2 tablespoons lard (can be replaced with 2 tablespoons of olive oil).
1 tablespoon of paprika or more as desiered.
A bunch of well-tied rosemary, sage, marjoram and bay leaves.
1 tablespoon of concentrated tomato (optional).
Salt to taste.
How to proceed?
Cut the onions coarsely.
In a saucepan over medium heat add the lard or olive oil, add the onions and sauté till soft.
Add the meat and salt. Cook over high heat, stirring often until beef is well browned on 2 sides, about 10 minutes.
Add the paprika, the bunch of herbs and the tomato paste previously diluted a little warm water. Mix well and cook over low heat for about two hours.
Notes
The stew should not need water because onions and beef cheeks release a lot of juices. If you use less onions or muscle meat it will be necessary to add hot water during cooking.
The traditional dish does not include tomatoes but only a lot of paprika which gives this dissh the red color. We really love paprika but it would take too much for our taste to color the recipe so we prefer some tomato paste which also taste as good.
There are many variations to this recipe:
Half an hour before the end of the cooking time, add potatoes cut into cubes.
You can make the stew more dry and serve it as a sauce to season gnocchi or pasta.
You can serve it as well with yellow polenta.
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