Hungarian Goulash

Cooking Light, SEPTEMBER 2011

This is DEFINITELY NOT a weeknight meal…unless you have the day off like I did. Prep is about 15 minutes. Cook is about an hour plus… *sigh* I really should learn to read the directions a little better.

For those of you who have mastered turning garlic into a paste with salt, kuddos to you. *I* have yet to master this skill. I did the best I could with the blade of my knife on the cutting board, but it never really did achieve paste-like status. I put the carawawy seeds in my spice grinder and hit the button a few times for that “cracked” affect. This seemed to work.

I couldn’t find the Hungarian peppers. My Giant just is not that well versed in peppers othan than the mainstreamed ones. I used what I think was a cubanelle, but only one because it was spicy. Then I chopped up half a green bell pepper to give some bulk to the recipe. At least I think I know what a Hungarian pepper looks like…and they’re pretty decent sized so I knew I would be lacking in quantity.

Beer, I used a Bud Light. I’m sure it would taste different if you used a stout over a lager or pilsner. So, think about what type of beer you want to add and what type of affect you want the beer to have before you just dump any old cerveja in the mix. I personally wanted the beer to be light…and well it was all I had on hand.

As it simmers, I’m thinking, “There doesn’t look like enough juice for this slurry to go in at the end.” I was right. I think I added about a cup of the water from the noodles to make it have a bit more sauce. That was the perfect amount. Yes, we like our sauce on our noodles. What I might try next time, is to add about 8 oz sour cream at the end to make it more creamy. The sour cream I topped it with really added to the flavor and creaminess of the dish.

It was time consuming so I’m not sure if I will make this again. Maybe I can adapt it to the slow cooker for next time? *shrugs*