Stew season is in full swing, and this heartwarming and heavily spiced goulash hits all the right notes! Fill your kitchen with incredible smells with this Hungarian-style beef stew.

Time: 4/5
There is no rushing a stew. It took me about 2.5 hours but I highly recommend going longer, out to 3 hours.

Effort: 3/5
Mostly knife work and stirring, the hardest part was the wait

Jo étvágyat!

Friends are the best, man. Especially when they bring you food from far away places. Like a buddy of mine who learned Hungarian (for no other reason than for shits and giggles, as far as I can tell), went to a polyglot conference in Hungary to put his skills to use, and came home with a tube of Goulash cream for me.

I have no idea what the ingredients are (unlike my buddy, who can read Hungarian), but I presume it has all the herbs and spices one needs to make goulash. Let’s do a countertop taste test and find out.

A bit spicy, somewhat acidic, very fruity and floral. The red colour is probably from paprika, which I guess is where the floral notes are coming from. I’m looking forward to cooking with this!

Another ingredient I’m excited about is this Better than Bouillon I brought back from my American adventure (along with some Old Bay, which went wonderfully with shrimp). Having seen it on food TV and in so many online recipes, I had to give it a try.

To my surprise, it’s not so much beefy as it is yeasty! Salty and savoury of course, but it reminds me a lot of Vegemite or Bovril. Which makes sense given the historical context of yeast extract, I suppose. (I like this recent series of countertop condiment tasting quite a lot, by the way.)

What’s nice about making stews is that once you set it up, all you need to do is stir it every so often until it’s done. I made use of that time to catch up on some chores, with time left over to catch the game Rimworld on sale on Steam, and start making human leather armchairs in a cannibal colony on an arctic ice sheet. It’s pretty wild, and I’m enjoying it a bit too much than I should.

Making goulash is also an exercise in cooking with all your senses. Sight and smell are probably the senses I use the most in the kitchen, followed by touch. But it was a new experience to actually hear the sauce thickening in the other room, as the bubbling sounds give way to a satisfying gurgling.

I didn’t know until my polyglot friend told me that Hungarian goulash is more of a soup than a stew. Still, out of force of habit I reduced the sauce to a thicker consistency so it doesn’t make the rice I’m serving it with (because of course I am) super soggy over the course of the week as it sits in the same lunchbox.

Enough talking. Let’s make some goulash!

(Looking for more stews? Try a Malaysian chicken curry, my interpretation of Chicken Tikka Masala, Japanese curry beef stew, or a Lentil and Beef Chili.)

Dramatis Personae

Served 5.

Beef cheeks – 2lbs

A great cut for stewing. Cheeks are high in protein, and despite being pretty lean it manages to stay quite moist after prolonged cooking because of all the connective tissue it has. All that collagen breaks down to become gelatine when you stew it long enough, which gives the sauce a thick and luscious texture.

Although, there’s no rushing the process of this collagen-gelatine transformation. I stewed my beef for about 2.5 hours, but the tendons weren’t quite as tender as I would like. I would have given it another 30 minutes if I made this again (and I did redeem myself, using a vacuum cooker that meant for some truly hands-off cooking).

Perhaps because of the time it takes to cook, beef cheeks are very budget friendly. Alternatives to beef cheeks include shank (similarly lean and sinewy), chuck (which would take less time to cook), or short rib (for a very rich stew experience, if you’re willing to drop the cash).

Aromatic vegetables – two bell peppers, a couple cloves of garlic, and an onion

Always eat your veggies! The onion breaks down to nothing as it stews, but the bell peppers hold their shape. Which means that it’s worth the effort to cut the peppers nicely but not the onions. They both add sweetness to the stew, while garlic is always nice in anything savoury.

Tomato paste – about 3 tablespoons

A quick and easy way to get some concentrated tomato flavour, acidity. And savouriness. While it’s cheaper and more convenient to get it in a tube, it’s much cheaper to buy it in a big can, then portion and freeze it yourself (incidentally, I have a guide for how to do this).

Since I already froze some tomato paste while making that Bolognese sauce, all I have to do is defrost however many quenelles of paste I need for this recipe.

Better than Bouillon – about a tablespoon

For salinity and umami, but in no way essential. Substitute with chicken or beef broth, MSG, or just some salt. There’s plenty of savouriness already in this recipe between searing the beef, the tomato paste and the goulash cream.

Goulash cream – about 35g?

I have no idea how much to add. A cursory Google search pulls up online retailers selling goulash cream, but not how to use it in a recipe. How unfortunate. I ended up eyeballing it, and used about half the tube by the time it looked right.

Root vegetables – A carrot, and two small potatoes

Add these to the stew about half an hour before the stew is done. Or a bit earlier or later, depending on whether you like your vegetables on the crunchier or softer side.

I like peeling my carrots just out of habits, but I’ve started scrubbing my potatoes very well and leaving the skins on to get some more fiber in my diet.

Miscellaneous

Salt and pepper for the beef, and optionally some green herbs for garnish towards the end.

Executive summary

1. Cut and wash vegetables. Cube up the beef, and rub with salt and pepper.
2. Put a pan on high heat with a bit of vegetable oil. Sear the beef in batches and reserve.
3. Add aromatic vegetables and stir, until they pick up a bit of colour and wilt a bit.
4. Add tomato paste and stir into the vegetables. Return the beef, along with the goulash cream, and add water to cover.
5. Add Better than Bouillon, stir to dissolve, bring stew to a simmer and cover.
6. Clean up, do whatever else you want as long as stir the stew every couple of minutes for the next two and a half hours.
7. Once beef is almost tender, wash and cut the root vegetables and add them to the stew.
8. Taste and adjust for seasoning, Let the stew simmer uncovered for another 30 minutes. Make rice in the meantime.
9. Once root vegetables are tender to your liking, assemble and serve with an optional sprinkle of fresh herbs for garnish.

Play by Play

Let’s get the knife work out of the way first. Here’s how I like to break down a bell pepper: carve sections from the wall, around the seams and avoiding the ribs, cut into strips, turn and dice. The onion I will just whack into big chunks, it will break down into nothing.

Cutting the beef cheeks into about 1 inch chunks. Some of the pieces fall off at the seams, which saves on work. I salted and peppered the beef after they were cubed.

I’m now ready for stage one! Here is when I heat up the stainless steel pan with a bit of vegetable oil.

Searing the beef, working in batches, which leaves me a beautiful fond …

… to deglaze by adding the vegetables with a pinch of salt to draw out some water. Once the vegetables pick up some colour, I add the tomato paste and stir that around to let that caramelise a bit as well.

Move quickly now, the tomato paste is at risk of burning to the bottom of the pan. Beef and goulash cream goes in.

Quick stir, then add water to cover plus a tablespoon or so of Better than Bouillon (being conservative, as I’ve been adding salt during previous steps. You can always add salt later, but it’s impossible to take away).

I let the stew simmer with the lid on for about 2 hours. Did some cleanup and some other chores while that was going on. Now it’s time to add the root vegetables. Carrots washed and peeled, the potatoes well scrubbed.

I left the pan uncovered so the sauce can reduce during the final stages of cooking, here are the state of affairs at roughly 2 hours, then 2 hours and 15 minutes.

2.5 hours, and things are looking good. You can see the sauce thicken considerably through loss of water, the starch from the potatoes and the connective tissue in the beef breaking down into gelatine.

Time to plate up, garnish with a sprinkle of dried parsley and eat! Such a wonderful, warming stew that is going to get better as it sits in the fridge!

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