Gulyás (Gulash)

As I mentioned last time, our next dish will be the famous Gulash. Even if it’s a soup, Hungarians don't eat it as an appetizer, but as a main dish.

Ingredients

40 dkg (14,11 oz) beef (marhahús)

one medium-sized onion

1 sweet pepper (zöld or TV paprika)

1 tomato (paradicsom)

2 tablespoon cooking oil (étolaj)

1 coffee-spoon ground red pepper (pirospaprika por)

12 dkg (4,23 oz) carrot (sárgarépa)

12 dkg (4,23 oz) chard (fehérrépa)

30 dkg (10,56 oz) potato (burgonya/krumpli)

1-2 pinch ground caraway seed

How to become master or the Hungarian kitchen #3

First, wash the meat and cut it into little pieces. Clean the onion and cut it into pieces. Then wash down the sweet pepper (take out its seeds) and the tomato (pull down the peel). And now cut them up, too. Warm up the cooking oil, and steam the onion in it. Then pull down the onion from the hot plate. Put 1 coffee-spoon ground red pepper and the beef in it. Now, please cook it on stage 9 (if you have a 9-stages hot plate). Brown it for a few minutes, but please stir it continuously in order not to burn it.  Add the sweet pepper, the tomato, and a little salt (as much as you like) to the meat. Cover the pot with a topper and steam the beef on stage 3 till it doesn't become tender. It will last for about an hour. 

During your meat is being cooked, peel the carrot, the chard, and the potato. Cut them into pieces and after the meat is almost half-cooked, add them with a little caraway seed to the beef. Fill up the pot so it covers the meat and the vegetables. Now that everything is in the pot, cook your Gulash on stage 3 for until the meat doesn't become soft. After your Gulash is ready, serve it in plates, and if you like put spicy red pepper in it. Enjoy it with a slice of white bread! 

Notes from the writer

If you are in Hungary, you can buy dried spicy red pepper at the grocery (see below). If you intend to cook a real Hungarian gulash, you need to use spicy pepper, because this is what gives a dominant taste for the whole soup.