Hungarian Goulash

Okay, yes, the name is redundant because yes, I know, goulash is a Hungarian word for stew or soup. But that’s what my mom called it and this is mostly (but definitely not) my mom’s recipe, so that’s what I’m calling it. My mom was a fan of the old Betty Crocker style of cooking that often involved things like bisquick and cans of soup. This is not one of those recipes. No recipes on this site are.

Goulash is really a simple dish; no fancy ingredients or dexterous methods. It’s basic home food. So why my mom’s version included convenience foods is beyond me. This is also one of the cheaper ways to make something a little different than your typical beef stew.

The ones I ate as a kid were simmered on the stovetop, but I was on a roll with the “once a month cooking” thing and my tiny stovetop was already occupied so I did this one in the crock pot.

What you need:

1 lb stewing beef, or some other tough-ish cut that will stand up to simmering

2 tbsp flour

Salt and pepper

1 onion

1 red pepper

3 cloves garlic

½ tin (~1/4 c) tomato paste

½ tsp Wostershire sauce

1 tsp paprika

2-3 c beef broth (or water, if you don’t have any broth handy)

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp brown sugar (optional)

 

What you gotta do:

Chop the onion and red pepper into pieces. Size and shape is your preference, if you make them too small they’ll disappear into the broth after simmering all day. If you’re trying to feed this to a kid, that might be a good idea actually.

Finely mince the garlic.

If it hasn’t already been done, trim any excess fat from the beef and dice into cubes. 1 inch or so should do.

In a largish bowl, toss the beef with the salt, pepper and flour until it’s coated. Dump the beef into the crock pot. Don’t put the bowl in the sink just yet.

Dump the garlic, onion and pepper on top of the beef, in the crock pot.

In that largeish bowl that once had floury beef in it, combine the tomato paste, Wostershire sauce, paprika, stock (or water), vinegar, and brown sugar (if you’re using it). Stir gently until it’s kinda soupy looking.

Pour the soupy tomatoey, brothy mixture over the beef and veggies.

Put the lid on the crock pot, set it to high, and find something to do for 3 or 4 hours. Or set it to low and occupy yourself for 6 to 8 hours.

I like mine over noodles, usually wide egg noodles, but I’ve seen it served over rice or potatoes too. I’ve even seen recipes that include potatoes and carrots and mushrooms and any other veggie that’s handy. I mean, really, it is a basic throw together dish, so you can add or subtract just about anything. The one thing you can’t do away with is paprika.

Paprika is a dried and ground capsicum. Yup, it’s a pepper, kinda like cayenne, but it’s not as spicy, in fact, it’s more of a sweet pepper, and it’s got a kind of smoky flavour since they’re usually dried by smoking. Paprika is a natural food colourant (like when “natural colour” is listed in the ingredients) and sometimes used in henna so try not to get it on yourself. Or am I the only one who needs this kind of warning? It’s got betacarotene, which your body turns into vitamin A, and also has strangely high amounts of vitamin C in it, but that’s usually cooked off.

The dish itself is a nice rich meal. It’s got almost no fat in it, but if you were to quickly fry that floury beef in bacon fat before putting it in the crock pot.... hey, I’m just sayin’.

It freezes really well too. I did this as part of my once a month cooking thing at the beginning of the school year, and I got four meals out of it, 2 dinners and 2 lunches. I cooled the pot in a sink of water then ladelled the goulash into sturdy freezer bags. The medium size Glad brand ones hold a lunch and dinner if I make noodles to go with it. If you’re going to save it like this, lay the bags flat to freeze then, once they’re solid, stand them up like books on a shelf. Mine fit handily into the spaces on the rack in the freezer.

 And when you're too busy studying electrical circuts to make dinner, you can just boil some noodles and suddenly have dinner.

Spanikopizza!

Okay so this is the first official post. There's one before this but it's the contest and I'm sure you're not interested in the free stuff. ;)

First post is a little nervewracking. I had a few recipes I could have put up here, but I figured I shouldn't start with a complaint about my mom's crappy cooking or an epic failure.

I decided to go with a craving. Because I'm fickle and I'm a slave to my own whims.

So, I was totally craving spanikopita. You know, the Greek things with spinach and feta in them, usually little phylo pastry triangles served with tzaziki to dip? Fabulous appys in a Greek restaurant and really not tough to make. If you have phylo pastry. And a few hours to fold them into triangles.

Which I didn’t.

But I did have spinach.

And a few other things.

Notably, bacon.

Spinach and bacon. Works for me.

University students living off of pizza is one of those stereotypes that are based on fact. I eat pizza on a regular basis. But not the greasy thick crust 5 dollars a pie delivery kind. (Even if I wanted to, the buzzer to my apartment is broken and I’d have to do pick up, and if I’m ordering out, I’m not getting off my lazy ass to go get it).

I make my own.

Sometimes I do it from scratch and make my own dough by proofing yeast and letting the dough rise and all that, but I rarely have time for that, particularly during finals so instead, I make them on pita bread. Those flat Mediterranean breads that people sometimes cut in half to make pocket sammiches. Yeah, them. I make pizza on them.

It works! Really! No, really.

The friend who suggested I make and eat spanikopita filling to satisfy my craving had never had a pita pizza and didn’t think it would work. He’s now a believer. Try it. You will be too.

What you need:

1 pita bread

olive oil

1 clove of garlic

¼ of an onion

¼ tsp oregano

2 cups of raw spinach

2 strips of cooked bacon

1 tbsp finely chopped sundried tomatoes

½ cup of crumbled feta cheese (or chevre or mozza)

Dammit, I forgot to take a pic of the ingredients... okay, right here, imagine all those thing arranged all pretty on the counter about to be turned into yummy 'za.

What you gotta do:

Mince the garlic, dice the onion and chop the spinach.

I know it looks like a lot of spinach, but spinach loses close to 90% of its volume when you cook it. (And it looks like even more than a lot in the pic because I actually made 4 cups and froze half once it was cooked so I’d have some ready to go the next time I craved spinach or pizza)

Sautee the garlic, onion and oregano for a few minutes in a bit of olive oil, then add the spinach and watch it shrink. It’s done when it’s dark green and no longer losing volume.

Scoop the spinach onto a pita bread and spread it out evenly. (or, if you made as much as I did, scoop half onto the pita and the other half into a freezer bag for pizza another day)

Top with chopped bacon and sundried tomatoes.

Cover with cheese.

Bake at 375 until the cheese starts to brown, but before the edges of the pita get too brown. Really only about 12-15 minutes.

Much faster than delivery.

Enjoy while studying for your calculus final. Remember, the derivative of sin(x) is cos(x) but the derivative of cos(x) is –sin(x).

I got a B in Calculus. What grade would you give the pizza?

Oh, and don't forget to enter the contest! If no one wins, Taneasha's going to have to send that adorable little egg flipper to me!