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It’s summertime, it’s fine weather, it’s hot – sometimes you aren’t in the mood for cooking, but you’d like to have some substantial dinner. Well, there’s always the BBQ option… Maybe you prefer to walk to the freezer, grab some prepared meat dish, heat it up, pimp it w/ some fresh vegetables and/or crunchy bread: just start w/ some frozen basic goulash.
Summertime isn’t really the season for preparing dishes like goulash which need quite a lot of time on the stove – although you may use a slow cooker which will sit somewhere on the kitchen counter for some hours (out of the way) after having been filled once. I’ve used both approaches for goulash & noticed no difference in flavour & softness & quality.
What is a basic goulash?
It’s mainly chunky beef w/ onions & spices & beef stock – ready to be consumed at once or to be frozen in portions for future use to add the basis to a meat & vegetable dish. My approach to goulash incorporates only few spices commonly used when preparing a „real Hungarian“ or „real Viennese“ or „real Prague“ goulash – so we are focussing the „KuK“ main territories… (KuK: the former Austro-Hungarian Empire).
For the record:
Some years ago we went to Prague for a long weekend where I made a deep dive into goulash – & I remember also samples from visits to Budapest & Vienna.
So let’s start w/ basic goulash & how to pimp it…
…in order to save time & energy & sweat…
We need:
- chunky beef
- onions
- lard
- spices (caraway, marjoram, sweet paprika)
- beef stock.
We melt the lard & add roughly chopped onions – just take the onions idling in your pantry (it doesn’t matter if white or yellow or red onions…). Fry them w/ salt & pepper for about 10 min until soft.
Fry the chunky beef in the lard w/ salt & pepper until brown. Put onions & beef in the slow cooker.
Add the beef stock & the spices, put the lid on, start the slow cooker & let it do its work – undisturbed – for at least 4 h at high temperature.
Voilà: basic goulash!
- 750 g chunky beef aka beef for goulash
- 50 g lard
- 400 g onions
- 1 tsp ground caraway
- 1 tsp ground sweet paprika
- 1 tsp dried marjoram
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 400 ml beef stock
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- salt
- slow cooker
- Chop the onions roughly & fry them for about 10 min in half of the lard until soft.
- Put the onions in the slow cooker.
- Fry the chunky beef in the rest of the lard for about 10 min until brown.
- Put the beef in the slow cooker.
- Add caraway, sweet paprika, marjoram & pepper as well as salt.
- Add balsamic vinegar.
- Add beef stock.
- Start the slow cooker & let it work at high temperature for about 4 h.
How to pimp it?
Starting point:
- frozen goulash in a container of about 400 ml for about 2 persons (or more of it…)
- the liquid is pure i. e. w/o any starch or any other thickening agent
- …& think of fresh crunchy bread, pasta, rice, baked potatoes… as companions…
Let’s do a Hungarian inspired style:
- Fry red & green peppers w/ garlic until soft
- Add concentrated tomato purée (& maybe some sugar…)
- Add goulash
- Combine & fry, taste & add some more salt, pepper…
- Add some ground chili or fresh chili peppers – if you like it hot & spicy!
- Use some starch if you think you need to thicken the liquid.
Let’s do an Italian inspired style:
- Fry garlic, tomato purée & chopped tomatoes (fresh or out of a can) in olive oil
- Add dried Mediterranean herbs – whatever you like…
- Add goulash
- Combine & fry, taste & add some more salt, pepper…
- Use some starch if you think you need to thicken the liquid.
Let’s try an French inspired style:
- Fry garlic, tomatoes, red & green peppers, courgette, aubergine, fennel (all fresh & all very roughly chopped) in olive oil
- Add salt & pepper & Mediterranean herbs (fresh or dried)
- Add goulash
- Add some tomato purée – if you think it’s too dry…
- …or add some red wine for the same purpose… (or both(!) & think of a pinch of sugar…)
- Combine & fry, taste & add some more salt, pepper…
I think you got it: the basic goulash opens a variety of possibilities to pimp the simple beef dish. In summer you’ll get a lot of fresh vegetables which will be fine w/ a fast frying & combined w/ some soft beef.
Well: I didn’t mention any soup varieties – you’ll see that’s only adding liquidity…
The businesswoman with too many office hours thinks
Makes my day!
I can start producing basic goulash in the slow cooker which needs no attention & then just freeze it. Of course I can mix some fresh vegetables w/ some canned (like tomatoes). There’s ready-to-use tomato purée… The goulash will add flavour as well as the herbs…
I coud do a real hot & spicy goulash soup w/ peppers & chili peppers… for a midnight snack when the summer night gets a little chilly…
