Rich and I spent the afternoon yesterday looking around Darlinghurst and Surry Hills. Later we went to a couple of pubs for some beers. It was Monday of the long weekend and we were hating that we had to go back to work the next day.
I decided to make an easy dinner so we could sit down and watch TV with a bottle of wine. One of the easiest and tastiest things to make is a stew. I didn't intentionally start out to make a goulash but it ended up that way. It isn't a traditional goulash as it is a lot thicker and doesn't have as much paprika. If you have the time I found an excellent recipe for traditional goulash (or gulyas) with dumplings in Gourmet Traveller. It was in that issue that I found out that goulash is actually a soup not a stew.
Ingredients for this recipe were beef (chuck steak is ok, I used rump), pumpkin, potato, carrot, onion, garlic, caraway seeds, parsley, marjoram, fresh basil leaves, paprika, canned tomatoes and beef stock. I cooked this for 5mins on the stove and then about an hour in the oven.
Preparation:
Chop 1/2 kilo steak into 1-2cm chunks. Finely chop onion and garlic. Cut carrot, potato, pumpkin into large chunks. In a pot you can use on the stove and the oven heat some oil over a high flame. When hot fry the onion, caraway seeds, marjoram and garlic. When fragrant throw in the steak and brown off. Throw in the pumpkin, potato and carrot and add a couple of teaspoons of paprika. Combine and add a cup of beef stock, a can of tinned tomatoes and the parsley. Move from the stove to the oven on 200 degrees. Set the time for an hour and sit in front of the telly.
Check the tenderness of the beef and cook a little longer if needed adding more water if becoming too thick. The pumpkin should become very soft and spread through the stew as you stir giving it a nutty flavour. Add in some chopped fresh basil leaves. Season with pepper and salt and serve with crusty bread.
dinnerlastnight rating: 6/10
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