Slow-cooked Hungarian Goulash for a cosy night in

Cold, damp January evenings call for comforting stews and warm bread for dunking, eaten by candlelight with thick woolly socks on - or a 'Hygge' night in as its now commonly known. If you were lucky enough to get a slow cooker for Christmas, this is a straightforward dish to try out your new toy, and slow cooking is ideal for using cheaper cuts of meat if the purse strings are a little tight this month. Just don't go mad and slow cook everyday, as stews can get a bit "samey" and may lead to remarks such as "is there a war on?"...

Goulash recipes have remained fairly unchanged over the years, with beef, tomatoes, red pepper, paprika and caraway seeds as the staple ingredients. I used a recipe from Crockery Pot Cooking published in 1978, with some adaptations from Miss South's Slow Cooked, one of my favourite present day cookbooks. One difference was the addition of carrot in the 1978 recipe, which I kept in the spirit of hitting 5-a-day, but on reflection didn't add to the final dish. I also left out the wine and just used stock, which may seem surprising but Felicity Cloake reported in her Perfect column that it was wasted in this stew, and that's the last thing I want to do with wine!

To brown or not to brown: slow cooker recipes offer conflicting advice on this. Some claim browning the meat before slow cooking seals in the flavour, while others feel that you leave behind the best bits in the browning pan. My slow cooker comes with a removable crock pot that can be use on the hob, so I brown the meat and get to keep all the best bits too. 

The Bearded Argentinian suggested serving the goulash with spätzle, a German/Austrian gnocchi-like pasta - this is a very common combination in Patagonia, so much so that the Bearded Argentinian isn't quite sure which bit is goulash and which is spätzle... I've included a brief bonus recipe for the spätzle within the method as I just got it off t'internet. Mashed potato also goes very well.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

600g braising steak, in large chunks

2 tbsp plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

2 carrots, chopped into medium sized chunks 

1 red pepper, chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp paprika (sweet smoked is best)

1tsp caraway seeds

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tin plum tomatoes

500ml beef stock

Sour cream and chives to serve

Method

1. Coat the meat with flour, season and brown all over in a little oil 

2. Add the onion, garlic and carrot and cook for a few minutes until softened (spot the deliberate mistake - forgot to add the carrot!). 

If you don't want to brown the meat and veg, just add everything raw from steps 1 and 2 to the slow cooker and go straight to the next step.

3. Blitz the can of chopped tomatoes with the red pepper and spices to make a purée.

4. Add the purée to the meat and veg and stir to coat everything.

5. Add the plum tomatoes and stock, put on the lid and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Don't peek! However tempting it is, lifting the lid can add up to 20 minutes to the cooking time, so be patient and just enjoy the lovely warm smell...

Bonus spätzle recipe (from AllRecipes.co.uk): mix 125g plain flour with a grating of nutmeg and a pinch of salt and pepper. Beat 2 eggs with 4 tbsp milk then stir into the flour and leave for 15 minutes. To cook the spätzle, push the batter through the holes in a colander or steamer into a pan of boiling water to make their characteristic noodle shape, and cook for 5 minutes. Before serving, brown the drained spätzle in butter.

When the goulash is ready, the meat will fall apart, the carrots will be soft and the sauce will have thickened slightly.  Serve with a generous dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of chives.

Happy Hygge!