Slow Food: Authentic Hungarian Gulasch

Not everything we cook is fast, but most of it is easy. As most of you know, Henry and I are supporters and members of the Slow Food movement. We believe that it is vitally important to eat right, buy local whenever possible – know where your food and ingredients really come from.

With that said, I wish to share with you today my mom’s amazing authentic Hungarian Gulasch. It is not difficult to make, but you need to have patience, especially with stirring the onions. If you do not stir the onions down, rush the process or burn the onions the whole dish will turn out watery or just flat our ruined. We think that it is important to cook slow, time-consuming dishes once in a while. It changes the way you appreciate and view food. If you don’t have time during the week, make it on the weekend with a loved one or a friend. It’s worth every bite and it usually tastes even better the next day. So give it a try and let us know. Serve it with some sweet potatoes or some spaghetti squash. Talk about food orgasm! Yummm – thank you Mom!

Mom’s Authentic Hungarian Gulasch

Ingredients 2 lbs Stew meat cubed (use grass-fed) 2 lbs Onion chopped 2 tablespoons Paprika 2 tablespoons Coconut oil 1 pinch Caraway Seed 1 pinch Sea salt to taste 1 pinch Black pepper to taste 1 teaspoon marjoram crushed

Instructions
In a high rimmed pan, melt oil and roast onions on medium – high.

It is essential that the onions roast down completely or the dish will not work. You must constantly stir the onions to make sure that they do not burn, which will also destroy the flavors.

After the onions are completely browned and are nice and glossy, add the paprika (roast the paprika quickly so to avoid burning it – it would turn everything bitter), add the meat and quickly blend it into the onion mixture. Add just enough water to cover the meat, add sea salt, caraway and mix everything once more. Next bring Gulasch to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to the lowest setting and simmer for about 2 hours, or until the meat is nice and tender.

Then add marjoram, and pepper. (If you like it spicy, you can chop a serano or other chili to taste) If you’d like to have a thicker sauce you can take ½ cup of water and dissolve a teaspoon of arrowroot in it and mix it into the Gulasch. Same goes for thinner sauces, you can just add some water to adjust the consistency of the sauce.

This is great to pre-cook and freeze for those nights when you don’t want to cook. My mom has been making this dish since I was small and it has always received the utmost praise!