Back in 2009, I toured the Czech Republic. It’s renowned for having over 2,000 castles, cheap beer, and some of the most beautiful women on the planet. From a culinary standpoint, the goulash really hit the spot. It’s a “worker’s” meal — cheap to make and filling — but its sauce is rich and complex in flavor.
It’s served with knedlíky to wipe the sauce off the plate drool.
While I don’t eat meat anymore, the smell in the house was out of this world. My friend Bruni told me you can make guláš z hlívy, a goulash made with oyster mushrooms instead. I’ll definitely give this a try soon!
(Experiment 84) Hovezi gulas
Ingredients
- 650 g beef shank if you cannot get this part get the chuck
- 500 g onion minced
- 700 g beef or vegetable stock
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3-4 tbsp flour
- 2 tbps paprika
- 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 45 g butter
Instructions
- First dice the meat into cubes of about 1″ long, try as much as possible to cut them all the same size.
- In a large pot melt the butter over medium-high and add the meat. If your pot is small do it in 2-3 batches. Brown the meat and remove it from the pot and reserve.
- Turn heat to medium and put the onion in the pot and caramelize them a little.
- Add the tomato paste, flour, garlic, paprika, caraway seeds, salt and pepper. Cook for about a minute and add the broth. Stir well so the flour and tomato paste is all mixed. Add the meat back in the pot and bring to a boil then to a simmer, cover for 2 hours. Take a look after 90 minutes to see if the sauce has thickened enough, if it’s too thin, resume cooking without the cover.
- At this stage add the marjoram. Stir and give it a taste test; adjust with salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve with some knedliky and you are all set