Recipe Part I / The Goulash

There is a key scene in Tim Burton's Ed Wood movie

[Ed Wood] Is anything I could bring for you, water or a blanket?

[Bela Lugosi] Goulash. *sad sigh*

[Ed Wood] Sorry, I don't know hot to make Goulash...

Poor Mr. Lugosi. I couldn't die without tasting Goulash anytime in the last period of my life anywhere I could be. We are not some tradition freaks or whatever but indeed we can be very sentimental over a bowl of soup for example if it is "ours". Unbelievable. I don't know why, maybe our history was too sad, too many families were torn apart because of world wars and later hundreds of people must emigrated everywhere in the world because of political and other reasons, so they lived half of their life with deep homesickness... [as Mr. Lugosi as well] and yeah we are proud, hothead etc. so we can clung on every little national things easily [if somebody cares about these things at all of course]. When I was a teenager it annoyed me how my parents could be sensitive on smaller things. Then I just realized it last year how is it feel that you were belonged to something/somewhere what from now on only will live in your memories. 

I tried to accept it, but I can't...

At home my father was the main cook of the family. He made great soups. We always had something tasty on our table, especially at Christmas. He loved to cook and kitchen was the place where he was his real himself. When he felt ill [oesophagus cancer] and needed to stay in bed because of the horrible pain, I would take his place to make him his favourite soups, especially Goulash. Although he was ill he could quarrelling with me about little nothings like salting. I hate salt. Every time when it comes to salt, my father voice is in my head that if I not care the dish will be unedible - and as we know this is the most important thing in the world... Poor old chap, he was just a perfectionist.
He always tried to teach me cooking the family way:

-Now my daughter, you must learn how to make your national dishes too. 

...not just the Asian ones which - according to him - I mastered enough to this country. But in the last two years my approach has changed completely.

His condition recrudesced worse and I wanted the family recipes to keep in safe, because maybe I wasn't really care about the Hungarian foods before, I loved to eat them but only how my father made them. So from time to time I just kept asking him how to make this and that. At this point he just looked at me with his big frightened Donald Duck-like eyes. He loved to live, he afraided of death like a child. He believed that he will be healthy again. So he just asked me at this time: -What are you afraid of that much you always asking about my recipes, I will be better soon and I will teach you how to make them...

It remained a dream. He passed away last September.

Now the recipes are in safe and I cook the family dishes perfectly although I oversalt them anyway but this time with something else...

After this happy prologue - again - I return to Goulash. 

So is it a stew or a soup?

Traditionally it was a stew made by herdsmen in the Alföld/The Great Hungarian Plain. They lived far from the villages, so this was their only dish they could make in their kettle. Mostly the stew made from beef [Hungarian Grey cattle], but later in the 18th century when sheperds also appeared on the plain, they made it from lamb too. They seasoned it with spices, ate it with bacon and bread they brought with themselves.

In the 19th century this kind of stew was one of the most common dishes what peasants usually cooked.

Goulash - along with the other two main traditional meals, the Pörkölt and Paprikás - has became more popular when paprika [yet simple chili pepper] arrived into Hungary in the 16th century by the turks [into Europe the chili peppers brought by the physician of Christopher Columbus in 1494]. In those times we called it 'Turkish pepper' and only peasants used it for cooking. In stately homes it was just another bedding-plant in their botanic gardens... We use the paprika in the kitchen since the 18th century. Today it is our national spice, although many countries like to use it as well. But only we has started using the paprika in powdered format [made by a special procedure] which make our traditional dishes more unique. Paprika has very different size, taste and hotness than the South American chili kinds due to the climate differences and the quality of the Hungarian soil.

The second breakthrough for Goulash was the potato. It spread in our country in the 18th century, thanks to Joseph II [ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790] and his tax advantages. [1]

Goulash-soup is much more a "moderner" invention [19th century] of its original version. There are many variations of the soup too.

This is our family version of slow-cooker Goulash soup

You will need

1-2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1 red onion or onion [peeled and diced]

1-2 tablespoons ground Hungarian paprika [Hot or not it's up to your taste. We have many variations from hot to sweet paprika and we usually mark them by strongness: strong/hottest=csípős or erős, mild hot and sweet=csípős csemege, semi sweet=csemege, Noble sweet="Édesnemes" labels on the packages. Best is the Kalocsai and Szegedi brands.]

30 dkg beef stew meat [cut into small, bite-size pieces]

a pinch of salt

a pinch of pepper

2 carrots [peeled, cut into pieces]

1 parsnip [peeled, cut into pieces]

1 knob celery [peeled, cut into cubes]

1 1/2 liter cold water

1 tomato [whole]

1 yellow bell pepper [whole]

1 bunch of parsley

1-2 teaspoons ground caraway seed

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg/mace [optional but make the soup more tasty]

2 level teaspoon salt

2-3 medium-sized red skin potatoes [peeled, cut into cubes]

Method to make it

In a medium-sized pot warm the oil on low heat and saute the onion until it soft and translucent. Add the ground paprika and a sprinkle of water as well, because paprika can burn easily so stir it continuosly! Add the meat and sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir it frequently and braise it until it well browned. Add the chopped carrots, parsnip and celery and continue sauteing them for another 2 minutes. Then add the whole tomato, bell pepper and the bunch of parsley. Fill the pot with water, add the salt, the ground nutmeg and the ground caraway. Bring the soup to boil on high heat. After it boils turn the heat to the lowest. Put the lid on but leave a little space for gases.

After 1 1/2 hours taste your soup. If the meat and the vegetables are more or less soft, add the chopped potatoes. [Add a little more salt and spices if you feel.] After about half an hour taste your soup again and if the potato is soft and everything cooked well together, your soup is ready. Remove the tomato and the bell pepper, we don't need them. Ready to serve!

You can eat it with fresh bread or you can make soup pasta called 'csipetke', or you can eat it with pogácsa/savory scones as well. I usually eat it with 'pork crackling pogácsa', but I never make it. I'm very lazy with baking and Hungarian bakeries sell very tasty pogácsas. But I found for you a nice recipe for the simple cheese pogácsa here.

Variations for the soup and the stew version

• Reduce the potatoes and add sauerkraut and sour cream. This version is called 'Transylvanian Goulash' or 'Székely Goulash' [The Székelys are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, which is a historic and ethnographic area in Transylvania, Romania.]

• You can make it with smoked meat, either beef or pork. This version is called 'Betyár Goulash' [Betyars was famous highwaymen in the 19th. They were the Hungarian Robin Hoods.]

• If your are a vegetarian, then you just make it without meat, it will be tasty anyway! This version is called 'Hamis Gulyás'/Fake Goulash. Occasionally I just cook it this way.

 

Enjoy it!/Jó étvágyat! ✌

[1] Hungarian Electronic Library