Food 2020 – Recipes (My Dad’s Goulash)

Before anyone shouts at me, my Dad was from the former East Germany (admittedly before it was East Germany), way over towards what is now the Czech republic, and while I suspect this recipe may make a lot of Hungarians very cross, this was his version of goulash, learned from his mother… and it’s very, very good, especially on the second time around when the flavours have had time to develop. It’s great with roasties, mash, spätzle, noodles, dumplings… and bread actually. In fact it’s just great.

My Dad’s Goulash

Ingredients:

• 250g beef
• 250g pork
• 40g speck (or bacon fat if you can’t get speck)
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• Flour
• 500 mls water
• Suitable stock cube (beef, mushroom, pork would all work)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Paprika
• Cornflour (for thickening)

Method:

1. Dry the meat and cut it into 1-1.5 cm cubes.
2. Cut the speck into small dice and add to a heavy bottomed pan over a medium heat.
3. Once the speck has melted, add the meat (in batches if necessary) and brown them all over.
4. Add the onions and any meat that you had to remove after browning to the pan. Allow the onions to soften but not brown.
5. Add 1 tbsp. flour to the onions and meat and cook the resulting roux until it goes brown.
6. Add enough of the water to cover the meat, season to taste, and simmer, covered, for at least 60 minutes, longer if possible.
7. Mix a teaspoon or two of cornflour with a small amount of cold water and add the mixture to the goulash. Stir in and cook until the goulash is thick enough. Personally, I prefer the resulting dish to be very thick but that’s very much a matter of taste. You can make it soup-like if you prefer.