New year's resolutions and beef-goulash

Today we make something my mother often makes on Sundays: Beef-goulash.

We will need:

- 400 - 500 gram of beef
- 2 slices of speck
- 30 gram of margarine
- 2 bigger onions or 4 to 5 smaller ones
- 3 carrots
- 2 celery stems
- a single red bell pepper
- a clove of garlic
- tomato paste
- beef stock (roughly a liter)
- 150 ml of red wine
- bell pepper powder
- flour
- a single leaf of laurel
- allspice
- pepper
- salt

Do yourself a favor and get your beef fresh from the butcher. Tell him or her what you want to do with it and have him dice it to make sure that all pieces are about the same size. I got my pre-diced meat from the grocery store and the sizes of the individual pieces started at very tiny and ended at too big for a anaconda's mouth



The tools:
- A big casserole or a big pot
- a sharp knife
- a sieve (a strainer also works if you don't have a sieve)

First we peel the onions, cut them in half and make some onion rings.
Tip: put the peeled onions in cold water for like 5 minutes. This will help you cutting the onions without shedding too many tears. A sip of cold water in your mouth also helps.



Now we wash and peel the carrots and cut them into small pieces. I suggest cutting them in to half lengthwise first before slicing them. Some with the celery, but you don't have to peel it.



Now we dice both the bell pepper and the speck. Be sure to remove the stalk, all the white parts and all the seeds from the bell pepper.
You'll need a very sharp knife for the speck.



That looks like a awfully lot of speck, right? But trust me, we will need it.

Now, lets flavor the beef with salt and pepper. Freshly ground pepper of course.

Put the margarine into your pot/casserole, let it melt at a high heat and render the speck dice in it until they turn yellow and stopped shrinking. Now remove them from the fat.
You see all that fat? Yeah, a great day to gain some weight, right?



Now put the meat into the fat and let it roast for 3 minutes. Stir it all the time to make sure that it is evenly roasted. After this is done turn the heat of the cooking plate down to a medium heat and put the meat out of the pot onto a plate or something.

Now roast the onion rings until they turn brown. Keep stirring while you do that.
When this is done, remove the pot from the plate and turn the heat down to the lowest level. Put the meat back into the pot, throw in the garlic and about 1 and a half tablespoon full of bell pepper powder, stir well and put the vegetables in along with the rest of the spices. Add the red wine and enough stock until half of the meat is covered in liquid (you might want to remove some of the fat depending on how much of it is left but do this BEFORE you add garlic and bell pepper powder).
Then we put the pot back on the plate, put on the lid and let it cook for 2 and a half hours.



This is the easy part. Stir it every now and then and check the 'water' level every 30 minutes.

BTW this is the point where I noticed that I need a new pot. This one is way too big but the other ones are too small for what we are doing here. Plus it barely fits into my sink...

When you are getting to the last 30 minutes remove the lid from the pot and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.



Now remove the pot from the plate again and get the meat out of the pot. Strain the remains of the pot through your sieve or your strainer into another pot or a bowl until only shriveled vegetables remain in the sieve.



Put the contents of the small pot back into the big pot and add stock until you have as much sauce as you need. Add 3 tablespoon full of tomato paste and stir well. Then take a coffee mug, fill it with water (only half-full) and add half a tablespoon of flour. Stir until there are no lumps left. this is our sauce thickener. Normal sauce thickener from the store tends to have a strong taste which would ruin our dish.



Add the sauce thickener, boil it up, add the meat: done! Serve with spaetzle or boiled potatoes or whatever else comes to mind.



Looks a bit burned but it was really good, trust me. The meat was really tasty and tender, just how we love it.

Used wine: Campo Viejo Rioja 2006 (Spain)

Now go and wash your hands real good, turn on some good music and start.

See you next time