Hungarian goulash

I first tasted real goulash at a restaurant in the Czech capital, Prague (we have something called gúllas in Iceland, but it's really more like a version of ragout). My parents, with whom I was travelling, ordered something safe and generic (fried chicken if I recall rightly), but I was feeling adventurous and ordered the goulash. I was rewarded by a big smile from the waiter who was clearly delighted that the tourist had ordered something unexpected. The stew was excellent, and the dumplings were good, but lay heavy in my belly afterwards. Goulash may have originated in Hungary, but the Czechs have made it their own.

Flash forward several years:

One weekend not so long ago stewing beef was on discount at a local supermarket and I brought home a tray of it. I decided I wanted to make goulash, but for various reasons, mostly to do with unobtainable ingredients and/or the sheer number of ingredients in the recipes, I chose not to use one from Hungarian Cuisine, but instead went for one of my big mixed-cuisine cookbooks, namely The Spice Cookbook, which I have already reviewed and posted several recipes from. In it I found this excellent and simple recipe for goulash, (which I have altered a little bit):

Round 1:
1 kg. (2 lbs) stewing beef
2 tbs. shortening (an absolutely authentic recipe would use lard)
2 medium-sized yellow onions, thinly sliced

Round 2:
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp. Hungarian paprika powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne-pepper
1 cup water

Round 3:
3 average-sized potatoes, cut into eights
1/3 cup green capsicum (bell pepper), chopped into small pieces (about 1 cm, 2/5 inch)

Round 4.
1 tsp. Hungarian paprika powder

Trim any fat off the meat and cut it into even-sized cubes, about 2,5 cm (1 inch) square. Melt half the shortening in a deep frying pan or saucepan and brown the meat on all sides. Remove from the pan, add the remaining shortening and gently fry the onions over low heat until golden. Return the meat to the pan and add the Round 2 ingredients.

Simmer under a lid for 90 minutes or until the meat is almost tender enough to eat (will take less time if you use a nice, tender cut). Add the Round 3 ingredients and continue simmering under a lid for 30 minutes more, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Add the remaining paprika. Adjust flavour with salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve warm with rice or Hungarian bread dumplings, and a salad.

Notes:

• Good enough that I wrote it into my recipe notebook where I put recipes I have tested that have turned out good enough for me to make them again.
• Works with lamb as well, but not as flavourful. I would use lamb or mutton shanks rather than cutlet meat if I try it again with lamb.

Greek roasted leg of lamb

I tried this with a rack of lamb, and it was delicious. I expect that a leg would be even better, because more of it would be actually cooked in the wine.

To serve 8 (or 5-6 hungry Icelanders)

1 leg of lamb, about 3 kilos
4 cloves garlic, slivered
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs coarsely ground black pepper
1 cup dry white wine

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Cut small, deep slits all over the leg of lamb and insert the garlic slivers. Brush the meat with olive oil. Mix together the oregano and pepper and rub all over the meat.

Put into a roasting pan and pour in the wine. Put in the oven and reduce the heat to 175°C and roast for about 90 minutes (for rare meat), basting occasionally. If you use a meat thermometer, rare meat should read 60°C. If you prefer it better done, follow the instructions that should have come with the thermometer, or give the meat 30 minutes more.

Let the meat rest for 10 minutes before serving. Strain the pan juices, skim off the fat and serve the juices with the meat.

The recipe originally came from Sheila Lukins' (of Silver Palate fame) All Around the World Cookbook, a hefty volume that another BookMooch member was kind enough to ship to me from Canada.

Tested recipe: Coconut-cashew lamb curry

I have returned from my long holiday and an unintentional absence from blogging. The challenge will resume next weekend, but until then, here is a recipe I tried yesterday:
A slightly altered version of Kid Josh: Curried lamb with cashews and coconut milk, from a cookbook I have already reviewed: Charmaine Solomon's Indian Cookbook.

This is originally a Maharashtran Parsi recipe. I have written it down as I prepared it, i.e. with half the meat of the original and a nearly full recipe of sauce. The original serves six, but this should make a nice meal for 2-3 persons. The original is very hot, using 10 green chillies, but all I could get was a large green chilli that turned out to have hardly any heat at all, and as I didn’t feel like running all over town in search of hotter chillies, I used that and added some cayenne powder.

The recipe:

3 tsp chopped fresh ginger
5 tsp chopped garlic (about 5 average cloves)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground loves
1/4 tsp powdered cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt (or more, to taste)
500 g meat from a leg of lamb, fat trimmed off and cut into large cubes

4 tbs oil
1 1/2 cups water

200 g raw cashew nut kernels, finely ground
1 1/2 cups coconut milk

4 large potatoes, quartered and fried
100 ml uncooked rice for each person


Purée the ginger, garlic and chillies in a blender. Add the spices and salt and mix briefly. Divide this mixture in two and marinate the lamb in one half for about 30 minutes. Set the other half aside.

Heat 2 tbs oil in a large saucepan and brown the meat in it. Add the water, cover and simmer on low until the meat is tender and the stock has been reduced to about 2/3 cup. In this case the meat had been in the fridge since Thursday, so it was nice and tender to begin with. Getting it fully cooked and to nearly the “melt-in-your-mouth” stage only took about 40 minutes, but it took another 15 or so minutes of rapid cooking in an uncovered pan to reduce the stock. Separate the meat and stock and set both aside.

Now is a good time to start cooking the rice and frying the potatoes. No instructions are given, as I assume no-one would tackle this recipe unless they knew the basics first.

In a saucepan, heat the remaining 2 tbs of oil to medium heat and fry the other half of the spice purée until it changes colour and starts to stick slightly at the base of the pan. Add the coconut milk, stock and ground cashews, mix well and simmer, stirring, for a few minutes. Add the meat, mix well and let it simmer without stirring until oil rises to the top. (Note: this has to happen at low heat, as the sauce is so thick that it will burn at higher temperatures). Do not cover the pan. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Serve hot with the fried potatoes and hot rice.

Notes:
Another time I would not serve the potatoes, as the rice is starchy enough by itself.

This is a nice dish with a lovely mingling of flavours and since I made it mild, I could taste both the coconut milk and the cashews in it. However, I would never, ever serve it to guests. Why? Well, it doesn’t look very good, even for a curry. In fact it looks like brownish lumpy porridge (and I am being charitable by likening it to another kind of food). This is why there is no photo.

Lamb with apricots and sweet potatoes

This recipe comes from an Icelandic website of lamb recipes. It appears to be of Middle-Eastern or North-African extraction. I have never had success in cooking sweet potatoes, but this looks fool-proof, and it has lamb, which is my favourite meat.

Serves 4.

800 g lamb, fat trimmed off and cut into bite-size cubes
3 tbs flour
Freshly ground pepper
salt
4 tbs olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp coriander seeds, ground
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp chili-pepper, or to taste
2 bay leaves
150 g apricots (presumably dried)
water
800 g sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
Some parsley, chopped

Mix together flour, pepper and salt and coat the cubed meat in it (put everything together in a plastic bag and shake).

Heat the oil in a large thick-bottomed pot and sautée the meat at high temperature until browned. Remove and set aside.

Lower the temperature to medium and put the onions, celery and garlic in the pot and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the spices and simmer for 2-3 minutes more. Return the meat to the pot, add the bay leaves and apricots with enough water to barely cover the contents of the pot. Bring to the boil and simmer slowly, covered, for about 40 minutes.

Add the sweet potatoes and simmer for 20 minutes more.

Taste the gravy and adjust flavour as needed. If it is very thin, remove the lid and turn up the temperature for a few minutes at the end to reduce and thicken the sauce.

Garnish with chopped parsley.

Good served with couscous.

Sample recipe from The Big Ready Steady Cook Book: Lamburgers with ratatouille

Creator: Richard Cawley
Found on page 146.

Serves 4.

50 g (3 oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
450 g (minced lamb)
1onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
1 egg, beaten
3 tbs olive oil
1 red pepper (bell pepper), seeded and cut into 1 cm (1/2 inch) pieces
5 baby courgettes, diced
3 tbs white wine
75 g (3 oz) pine nuts
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Notes in brackets are mine.

To make the burgers:
Put the breadcrumbs, lamb mince, half the onion, the garlic, lemon rind rosemary and plenty of salt and pepper and mix well (use your hands). Stir in the beaten egg. Shape the mixture into four even-sized patties.

Heat 2 tbs olive oil in a frying-pan and cook the burgers for 5-6 minutes on each side until golden brown.

To make the ratatouille:
Meanwhile, heat the rest of the oil in a pan and cook the other half of the onion, the red pepper and courgettes for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the wine, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Finishing:
Heat a small non-stick pan and gently roast the pine nuts for 1-2 minutes, until golden brown.

To serve, spoon the ratatouille onto plates, top with the burgers and sprinkle the pine nuts on top. Serve hot.

Moussaka

I am taking a break from the challenge for one week, but will publish one tried and tested recipe from my collection daily until next Sunday when the challenge will continue.

I first encountered Moussaka on a holiday in Greece. The high tourist season was over and some of the little family restaurants were closing for the winter. I was looking for a place to eat, but every place that had been open the day before seemed to have closed. It was dark already when discovered a tiny, open-air corner restaurant, where I ordered moussaka, the first time I ever tried it.

I can still remember the taste, smooth and soft with a slight hint of cinnamon. Try as I may, I have never been able to reproduce a moussaka the way I remember it from that first time, but here is a very good recipe that I sometimes use. The original recipe I based it on came from some women's magazine, but it has changed in accordance with my tastes and the availability of ingredients.

Serves 4
1 large (about 300 g) eggplant, or substitute with potatoes if eggplant is not available
About 225 g potatoes, or 525 g if eggplant is not available
350 g minced lamb or mutton, lightly browned (beef may be substituted but lamb is better)
6 tbs olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
225 g ripe tomatoes, peeled and deseeded, or 1 standard can
1 tbs tomato purée
4 tbs lamb or vegetable stock
1 tbs fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
salt & ground black pepper to taste
1-2 tbs olive oil
A pinch of cinnamon (optional)
100 g Parmesan cheese, grated
2 eggs
300 ml Greek yogurt (I use skyr, which is of similar consistency and flavour)

Trim the eggplant and cut into slices, about 5 mm. thick. Sprinkle salt on the slices and leave to drain in a colander for about 30 minutes. Rinse with cold water and pat dry.
Peel the potatoes and cut into slices, same thickness as the eggplant. Heat 1-2 tbs. olive oil in a frying pan and lightly brown the lamb mince. Remove from the pan.

Heat the oven to 190°C while you prepare the meat sauce:
Heat half the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the eggplant slices for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until soft. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the potato slices for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan and drain. Add onion and garlic to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes, or until soft. Remove the pan from the stove, and add the pre-cooked lamb mince. Stir to mix. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, stock and parsley, if using. Season with cinnamon, salt and pepper and mix well.

Arrange the eggplant slices (or half the potatoes if you're not using eggplant) on the bottom and around the sides of an oven-proof casserole dish (must take at least 1200 ml). Put half the meat sauce on top. Top with potato slices, and cover with the rest of the meat sauce.

Beat together the Greek yogurt, eggs and Parmesan cheese, add a pinch of salt and pour over the top. Bake for about 35 minutes, until the mixture is bubbling hot and the topping is golden.

Grated cheese, such as Gouda, may be sprinkled on top for a more cheesy flavour.
Serve with Greek salad and crusty bread.

I usually make a full recipe, put half in a casserole dish for cooking immediately, and the other half I divide between one portion freezer- and oven proof aluminium food containers which I pop in the freezer. This dish keeps well frozen.

Simple Greek salad:
Chop some fresh tomatoes and cucumber into coarse pieces. Mix in a bowl. Add thin slices of red onion along with some black olives and pieces of feta cheese. Grind some black pepper over the salad and add some salt to taste. Pour a little olive oil over the salad and stir to coat (if the feta came in spiced oil, use that). Chill for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Sample recipe from The Spice Cookbook: Malai korma

Have I mentioned I love Indian food? This looks like a fairly authentic recipe for a korma, a type of mild, creamy curry in the North-Indian Mughal style. Kormas can be made with all sorts of meat, and also with potatoes and/or vegetables.

This Wikipedia article has information on the cooking of kormas that I recommend reading before making this recipe.

Ingredients:
1 kg (2 lbs.) lean leg of lamb

Marinade:
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup yogurt

Trim the meat and discard excess fat. Cut into cubes, about 2,5 cm (1 inch). Add onion, ginger, turmeric and yogurt, mix well and refrigerate overnight.

Sauce:
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 cup yogurt
3 tbs butter or margarine
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup blanched almonds
1/2 cup heavy cream, undiluted evaporated milk, or, if you want some South-Indian influence you can use coconut milk
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt

To cook, sauté chopped onion in 1 tbs of the butter until golden. Add the lamb and cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes or until meat is dry. Add the yogurt and bay leaves and cook another 10 minutes, uncovered, or until meat is dry. Add the water and again cook until the meat is dry. Put the almonds through a food processor, making sure not to mince them very finely - they should be in small pieces rather than powdered (recipe suggests using a food chopper with a medium blade). Add to lamb, followed by the remaining ingredients, and cook slowly for 10-12 minutes. Do not boil or the cream will curdle.

Serve with hot, plain cooked rice.

--

This would have been my choice for the recipe of the week, but I will be visiting my parents over the weekend and my father doesn't like this kind of food, so I am choosing something else. I do have every intention of testing and reviewing this recipe at some point in the future.

Recipe from Moroccan Cooking: Tagine of lamb with quinces

Servings: 6.
Time: 30 minutes prep + 1 hour cooking.

1 kg shoulder of lamb cut in 2 cm pieces
2 large onions, chopped in 1 cm cubes (keep them separate)
Ground pepper
1/2 tsp ground mildly hot paprika (or use sweet and mix in a little ground cayenne or chili pepper)
water
1 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 tsp ground saffron
1/2 tsp ground ginger
500 g quinces, cored, halved and peeled
60 g butter
1 cup pitted prunes, pre-soaked

Put lamb pieces and one chopped onion in a heavy-bottomed cooking pot. Season to taste with pepper and paprika and cover with water. Add cilantro, saffron and ginger and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 1 hour or until lamb is tender.

While lamb cooks, cut the quinces into pieces roughly the same size as the meat pieces. Melt butter in a frying pan and cook the quinces and the second onion together until lightly golden. When the lamb has been cooking for about 30 minutes, add the fried quinces and onion, along with the prunes. Finish cooking and serve warm, with rice.

The book suggests that dates may be used instead of prunes and pears instead of quinces.

Recipe of the week from The Diner's Club Cookbook: Kzartma (shank of baby lamb)

An Internet search revealed that the restaurant this recipe came from is Armenian, so I assume the recipe is too. The cookery of that region is full of delicious recipes for lamb and mutton.

To serve 6-8 persons:

6 lamb shanks
3/4 cup chopped onions (about 3/4 of a medium onion)
2 tbs butter
1 tbs salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon oregano
2 tbs paprika
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup + 2 tbs tomato sauce
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 cup dry sherry



Soak the shanks in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain, dry and remove excess fat. Arrange in a shallow casserole or deep skillet with oven-proof handle.

Sauté the onions in the butter and add to the lamb with the remaining ingredients*. Cover and bake at 175°C (350°F) for 90 minutes, basting occasionally. Remove cover and continue baking at 125°C (250°F) until lamb browns and is tender, about 45 minutes. Baste frequently. Serve with cracked wheat or rice.

*I mixed everything together in the pan and poured it over the shanks.



Alterations and substitutions:
I used half the number of lamb shanks the recipe calls for, but made a full recipe of sauce. I don't know if the shanks in the recipe are meant to be back shanks or front shanks, which is rather inexact, as front shanks, at least the way that cut is sold here, have only half the meat on them that back shanks do. 6 back shanks would feed the stated 6-8 persons, but 6 front shanks would only feed four persons, so I guess it is back shanks the recipe requires (I used front shanks, BTW).



I had no tomato sauce and was not sure if the phrase referred to ketchup or the milder stuff, so taking my cue from a couple of recipes I found on the Internet, I puréed some canned tomatoes to use instead.

I was out of sherry, so I used Marsala instead.

I used less salt than the recipe calls for, maybe about 1 tsp, counting what I put in the sauce and what was in the butter (I was out of sweet butter, and the neighbourhood supermarket didn't have any).

Instead of using a regular casserole dish, I used a Römertopf, a clay dish which is soaked in water for about 15 minutes and then put in a cold oven with the food and allowed to heat up with the oven. The food gets steamed inside the dish and comes out very tender and juicy. Of course, this was the first time I have used it and the first time I have made the dish, so I really have no way of knowing if that claim is true.

As apparently food cooked in a Römertopf browns faster than meat baked or braised in the regular way, I cooked the meat 20 minutes longer in the closed dish, and only gave it 20 minutes to brown, which turned out to be about right, as the sauce was in danger of burning had I browned it for longer.

Review:
Lamb shanks need long, slow cooking so they will not turn out tough, and wet cooking to keep them from drying out, so slow cooking them in sauce is ideal.



These shanks were a little short of melting off the bone, but still tender and juicy. With a coating of sauce, they had a rich taste of paprika and tomatoes that reminded me of goulash.

The sauce was reduced by about 2/3 and turned out thick and slightly bitter. I didn't taste the bitterness so much when eating it with the meat, but when eaten alone or with rice, it was noticeable. The bitterness was probably due to the canned tomatoes and Marsala. I find that when reduced, Marsala will impart a slight bitterness to a sauce, and whenever I use canned tomatoes in a sauce, I usually also add a bit of sugar to counteract their slight bitterness, which I didn't do here.

This is definitely something I would make for company, but I think I might use water instead of sherry/marsala if I make it again, and fresh tomatoes instead of puréed tomatoes or tomato sauce.




Idea:
I think this recipe would be well suited to make a stew. I would still use shanks, as they are so flavourful, but I would cut them into bite-size pieces, sauté the onions and then the meat in the butter, add the remaining ingredients, and then either cook the stew in the saucepan on the stove or in a casserole dish in the oven. Then I would serve the stew either with cous cous, rice or flat bread, such as naan or chappatis.

Indian recipe: Seekh Kebab (minced meat on skewers) and Garam Masala (spice blend)

750 g (1 1/2 lbs) finely minced lamb
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp garam masala (see recipe below)
2 tbs roasted chick peas, ground, or besan (chick pea flour)
2 tbs ground almonds
2 tbs finely chopped cilantro (fresh coriander leaves)
1 fresh green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
2 tbs yogurt
1 tbs lemon juice

Combine all ingredients, mix and knead together until smooth. Divide into six even portions and shape the portions of mince into long sausages around the same number of flat barbecue skewers. Barbecue or grill until browned on all sides and cooked through. Serve with rice, naan or chappatis.

Smaller portions make excellent finger food.


To make garam masala:
4 tbs coriander seeds
2 tbs cummin seeds
1 tbs whole black peppercorns
2 tsp cardamom seeds (roast pods and remove seeds, then measure)
4 x 7,5 cm (3 inch) cinnamon sticks
1 tsp whole cloves
1 whole nutmeg

In a frying pan, roast the spices separately: coriander, cummin, pepper, cardamom pods, cinnamon, and cloves. The spices are roasted when their smell begins to rise from the pan. After roasting, peel the cardamoms and discard the pods and only use the seeds. Put the spices into a blender or spice grinder (not a pepper mill) and grind to a fine powder. Grate the nutmeg finely and add to the mixture. Store in an airtight container.