BEEF GOULASH - LOVE AT FIRST TASTE
“Love at first taste” is a blending of sautéed green peppers, onions and sweet paprika with cubes of beef. Just like other lovely things in life, a little fat is delicious! For the best taste, use chuck beef with its higher fat and collagen content, producing a more succulent stew than lean sirloin would.
INGREDIENTS
2½ pounds beef chuck cut into small cubes (less than an inch each cubed)
2 Tbsp. flour for dusting meat
1 cut green pepper, sliced into 1 inch strips
1 large Vidalia sweet onion, chopped
4 Tbsp. sweet paprika
Optional: 1 ripe, red chopped tomato (purists never add tomato to the classic dish)
2-3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. brown gravy mix, like Bisto, dissolved in ¼ cup water for thickening
1½ cups water
HOW-TO
1. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in PC
2. Dust beef cubes with flour and brown in batches; add oil as needed
3. Sprinkle meat with paprika and salt during browning. Set browned cubes aside
4. *NOTE: Use very little oil! Dry brown the cubes of beef as much as possible to enhance the tasty Maillard Effect
5. Add oil to PC to brown onions. Scrape any brown bits left from meat into onions. Sprinkle onions with paprika and sauté until golden in color.
6. Add peppers and continue browning for 2-3 minutes
7. Stir in chopped tomato if desired
8. Return meat to PC and stir so vegetables are evenly mixed with beef
9. Add 1½ cups water to PC
10. Cook on high for 18 minutes; let sit for 2 minutes on stovetop before quick releasing under cool water
11. Check for tenderness. Beef cubes should be soft and unbroken. If not soft enough, re-cook for 2-3 minutes
12. Dissolve brown gravy mix in ¼ cup boiling water and stir into beef
13. Sprinkle on 1 Tbsp. fresh paprika
14. Serve goulash with steaming rice (either white or brown). It is traditional to mound rice on plate and spoon the beef cubes and gravy on top
15. Optional: serve stew over thick noodles like German spaetzle
COMMENTS:
To savor this momentous PC encounter, prepare a double batch of Goulash. Just pack up the second portion in the freezer, ready for another day’s craving. Moist cooked meat dishes freeze well and can be stored frozen for three months.
Beef Goulash partners easily with other grains and vegetable salads. However, to be true to the Budapest tradition, serve goulash with cucumber salad, especially in summer when cukes are most flavorful.
For Hungarians, goulash is a soup, more broth than stew. This thickened version, which Americans call goulash, is really called “porkolt,” meaning “singed,” derived from the charring of the beef cubes. Be cautioned when browning meat; you can seriously burn the bottom of your PC with extreme heat. Recipes like goulash ask for small amounts of oil during the browning process; you must keep a watchful eye. Sear the beef cubes just enough to seal in the juices, leaving the meat with a wonderful grilled taste. The browned specks of beef that remain in the pot give the gravy a distinctive taste, but if the specks turn to charcoal, the stew picks up a nasty burnt marshmallow taste, especially when you use an electric stovetop. Be sure to turn the electricity to medium to avoid burning.
