Heya everyone, it's  Ghosty writing...

I wasn't too happy with my last picture upload for this dish, plus I tweaked a few things.
And I was hungry for some nice, slowly braised meat again, a good fall/winter dish.


Most of the world would call this dish Goulash, the original Hungarian name is Pörkölt. A thick, carefully braised stew that is typically served with a kind of homemade, simple noodles called Csipetke.
What they call Goulash is actually a kind of "Goulash soup".
The world still keeps mixing those things up.

Ingredients for the Pörkölt:
- 1kg of beef, cut into cubes. Doesn't have to be prime cut, it's a simple dish and the meat is expected to have some fat and connective tissue. It will turn soft and juicy, don't worry
- 1kg of onions
- Dry red wine
- Beef stock (~400ml, but you might use more or less of it)
- Flour/starch
- 3 gloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
- Fresh herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme, marjoram or oregano, bay leaf (use only 1), allspice seeds)
- Paprika powder (2 heaping tablespoons of sweet plus one tablespoon of hot paprika powder. Adjust the hot paprika powder to your taste. I used 1, only slightly heaped tablespoon)
- (optional: 1/2-1 tsp of smoked paprika power (eg Spanish Sweet Pimenton))
- Lard, clarified butter or vegetable oil that can take heat (so no olive oil)
- salt, freshly ground pepper, spices to your taste

Ingredients for the Csipetke:
- 200g wheat flour
- 2 eggs

Preparations:
Do some Mis en place. With everything in place it's much easier to work.
Peel onions and chop them into pieces, wash the meat and dry it by tapping with kitchen paper. Peel the garlic cloves. Leave them intact for now and just before use just crush them with the flat side of your kitchen knife. Wash and dry the herbs.
You can pour all herbs and the garlic into paper tea bags. That way you can just cook them and take them out without much of a hassle after the dish is done.
Now heat up the lard or clarified butter in a large roasting pan. Sprinkle some of the flour/starch on the meat until the cubes are covered. Don't use too much of it. This will help thicken the sauce later and will add aroma to the Dish.
When the fat is hot enough, put in the meat and sear it until the outside is brown and some residue will be left on the bottom of the roasting pan. This way the juices will stay inside. Take out the meat, cover it and put it aside for the moment. You can sear it in batches, so the fat with not cool down too much.
Pour in the onions and carefully sweat them until the are glassy and soft (that step will take about 20minutes, don't use too much heat). Add the tomato paste and slowly roast it with the onions. You'll notice a build-up of dark brown residue on the bottom of the roasting pin. That is supposed to happen and the source of the taste :)
Now turn down the heat a bit before you add the paprika powder into the delicious mixture of fat, meat juice, tomato paste and onions and stir until it's mixed in.
Be very careful not to burn it! Burnt paprika powder tastes horrible and will just ruin your entire dish!
Now deglaze: Pour in about a glass of dry red wine and let it evaporate almost completely while stirring. Pour in another glass, let it evaporate. Rinse, repeat as often as you like, I used about 3/4 of the bottle. That way the alcohol evaporates, leaving just the taste. You'll note the brown residue starting to disappear as well.
If you're done with the red wine, put the meat back into the roasting pan and pour in stock until everything is covered. Add (the teabags with) the garlic and herbs.
Cover the pot and let it simmer on low heat for at least 3 hours or put it into the oven. This way you don't have to worry about it much.
More time will not hurt. Make sure the meat is soft and jucy and the connective tissue has turned into gelatin due to the slow cooking
Check in about every hour, add some more stock if necessary.
(Optional: After the time is up take out the meat, together with some of the onions and herbs. Now use a food mill, chinois or immersion blender on the remaining sauce and onions. This will add a very nice taste and will already thicken the gravy. If the texture feels right for you, put in meat and onions and carefully warm them again.
Or don't. The onions and flour add to the texture of the sauce. ^^ )
Season to your taste. Let it cook a bit longer so more liquid can evaporate.
If you like you can take some corn starch, dissolve in cold water, pour it in, heat it up until it bubbles to thicken the sauce even more. If you have sprinkled the meat cubes with flour, you can usually skip this step.

During the last hour of cooking time you can prepare the Csipetke.
Just mix flour, egg and salt, knead into a dough until it doesn't stick anymore. Wrap it into some cling film and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Take it out again, roll it out to a thickness of about 0,5 - 1cm on a mealed surface. Then just take your fingers, pinch of a little of the dough and either press it slightly into a flat piece or roll it up into a tiny ball. That depends on you. It doesn't have to be exact.
Cook the Csipetke in salted water. If the start to rise to the surface they are almost done.

Serve your Pörkölt with the freshly cooked Csipetke and enjoy your meal!

Just one small tip: Preparing the Pörkölt on one day, then put it in the fridge overnight and carefully reheat it the next day will even taste better than freshly prepared Pörkölt.
Believe me, somehow it gets better :3