Austrian Goulash
Veal Budget Recipes Meat Dishes Gluten-Free Recipes German and Austrian
The secret to Austrian goulash is patience. Patience when caramelizing the onions, patience when simmering. And quality paprika. Either Hungarian paprika (from Szeged or Kalocsa), or good locally produced Romanian paprika. Otherwise, follow the recipe and you'll get a creamy goulash with meat pieces so well cooked they fall apart into shreds on their own.
Ingredients
1kg beef chuck
800g onions
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (or sherry vinegar; or balsamic vinegar)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 level tablespoons quality sweet paprika (25g)
a little hot paprika?
1 teaspoon marjoram (or oregano)
1/4 teaspoon ground caraway
5 allspice berries
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme (can be dried)
zest from 1/2 lemon
350ml beef broth (or chicken broth; or water)
8 tablespoons oil
salt
Servings: 5-6
How to prepare austrian goulash
- Cut the meat into 2 cm cubes. Chop the onions.
- Heat the oil in a wide pan (at least 25 cm) and add the onions. Saute over medium heat, stirring frequently until they lose volume (about 5 minutes).
* start in a wide pan because the onions will caramelize faster this way - Reduce heat to low and let the onions cook until they turn golden-brown (about 35 minutes). During this time, stir only occasionally and check that they don't burn on the bottom.
- Add the crushed garlic and saute for a few more minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir until dissolved. Continue to saute everything for another 5 minutes.
- Now transfer everything to a thick-bottomed pot (I used a Dutch oven) that isn't as wide as the first pan. We do this because we want the evaporation surface of the goulash to be smaller - we'll cook it in little liquid and it needs to reduce very slowly during the long cooking time.
- When the onions start to sizzle in the pot, add the meat cubes and wait for it to start sizzling again. At that moment, remove the pot from heat and add the paprika (I also added 1/4 teaspoon hot paprika), marjoram and caraway. Mix very well so the meat is covered with spices.
- Return the pot to heat and add the broth (if desired, you can substitute 80ml broth with dry red wine) and vinegar. Add salt. Stir and let it come to a boil. Add the allspice on top. At this point, the liquid barely covers the meat. Cover and let simmer on low heat. After 5 minutes you'll see more liquid in the pot (from the juices released by the meat) and the meat sits comfortably in the liquid.
- Simmer covered (with a lid that seals the pot well) for 2 hours. Stir the goulash about every 20 minutes and make sure it doesn't reduce too quickly. In the last 15 minutes add the bay leaf, thyme and lemon zest and taste the goulash for salt, caraway and hot paprika and adjust to your taste. Check the meat, it should be so tender it falls apart into shreds. If desired, skim the fat from the goulash at the end.
* keep about 150ml hot broth handy and add during cooking if the goulash reduces too quickly and risks becoming dry; this depends a lot on the pot you use - Serve warm with pasta, flour dumplings, bread dumplings or boiled potatoes. It's good right away or reheated.
Chopped onions and cubed meat
Onions sauteing
Caramelized onions with tomato paste
Transfer to Dutch oven and add meat
Adding the ground spices
Adding broth, vinegar and remaining aromatics
Goulash after 2 hours
Goulash with potatoes
