Goulash, Trieste-style

Goulash recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare a bunch with aromatic herbs (bouquet garni).
  Tie rosemary, marjoram, thyme and bay leaf with kitchen string.
• - Let lard melt in a pot.
  At this point add onions and fry slightly on a very low heat, stirring often.
  When onions are going to disintegrate add your meat.
  Let it simmer on a very low heat in order to release its own juice.
• - Meanwhile ...
  ... bring to the boil at least 500ml (1 pint- 2C) of water.
• - When meat begins browning, add bouquet garni, paprika (melted in a little madle of hot water) and then tomato paste, melted in 200ml (6 3/4 fluid ounces - 1/2 plus 1/3 cups) of hot water.
  Season to taste with salt and continue cooking on a very low heat, half-covered, about 90 minutes, stirring now and then.
  Add other hot water only if necessary.
  Look at the goulash photo for more details.

Just before serving

• - Meat must be tender.
  Serve goulash with its sauce, eventuallly strained.

Note

Tips

• - Don't you like hot paprika powder? Don't worry: sweet one is enough!
• - There are a lot of versions of goulash recipe.
  Some people don't use tomato paste: in this case the color isn't red but rust brown.
  Some people also add cubed potatoes to meat 30-40 minutes before the end of cooking.
• - Remember that, according to the most rigorous Hungarian traditions, the meat must be cooked only with lard and you must not add other ingredients.
  In other words: no flour, no single cream (light cream) ...
• - For a lighter recipe. Substitute lard with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I'm used to prepare goulash in this way and it tastes fantastic!
  I'm sorry for the Hungarian traditions but our health is before every other thing!

Menu planning

• - Remember: goulash is a main dish (second course) in Italy. We Italians haven't the habit of serving it with macaroni or any other kind of pasta.
• - You can serve goulash with polenta too.
• - I prefer to serve potatoes as a side dish rather than to cook them together with meat. I steam, peel and slice potatoes, add chives and olive oil and season to taste with salt.

Loretta

A little history

• - Goulash is a dish of Hungarian tradition, well known all over the world. You can also find it written as gulasch o gulyás. As all the best dishes in the world it was born from the poor cuisine. In fact it was the common dish of Hungarian nomads or, to be more precise, of cowherds called gulyás. They cooked meat with onions until all cooking juice was well retired. Then they spread the meat on planks in order to dry it in the sun. They kept the dried meat pieces in leather bags during their movements. When they had to prepare something eating they put some pieces of this dried meat in hot water to soften them and then meat was boiled in the same water with some vegetables such as turnips. It was a soup really! They didn't use paprika powder; paprika powder was added only at the end of the nineteenth century when this dish, already well known and eaten by the Hungarian middle class, spread in the near countries, Italy included. The authentic Hungarian goulash recipe is neither a soup nor a stew.
  In Italy is stew meat.
• - Viennese goulasch and Trieste goulash: what is the difference?
  There aren't many differences.
  Viennese goulash. Simmer the meat (800g - 1 3/4 pounds) and onions (400g - 14 ounces) for almost a quarter of an hour on a very low heat. At this point add the sweet paprika powder, one or two garlic cloves, a bouquet garni and 2 tablespoons of white flour. Stir very well for 5 minutes and then cover the meat with hot meat stock. After 15 minutes add peeled tomatoes (300g - 10 1/2 ounces), after mashing them with a fork. Season to taste with salt and pepper and keep on cooking, half-covered, about 2 hours.
  If you want you can add some cubed potatoes to the meat 30-40 minutes before the end of cooking.

What's the right wine ?

Colli Orientali del Friuli Schioppettino (red wine) is perfect topair to goulash dish.