Folky Hungarian delicacies

Passport & Plate - Traditional tasty gulyasleves (Goulash)

Australia | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Gulyasleves:
500gm veal or beef
brown onion finely diced
2 celery sticks sliced
1 parsnip sliced in circles
2 sweet banana paprika (capsicum)
1 sweet red paprika (capsicum)
1 tomato
1 potato cut in cubes
1 bay leaf
1tsp oil
1 heaped tsp paprika powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Csipetke (homemade pasta):
1 egg
Plain flour (to touch)

 

How to prepare this recipe
You will need: A large pot, wooden spoon, tsp, sieve

Heat your oil in a pot, add the diced onion and cook until browned/clear.
Add the diced veal/beef, cook until brown.
Add paprika powder and add water so that the meat is covered by approx' 1 inch of water.
Add tsp of salt and pepper and the bay leaf. Bring it to the boil and then reduce to low heat, simmer for 30mins.
Then add parsnip, celery, tomato, sweet red paprika, 2x sweet banana paprika.
Add water, cover vegetables by an inch. Bring to boil and then reduce to a low heat, simmer for 30mins. (Add more salt to taste.)

While this is simmering, begin to make your Csipetke (homemade pasta).
Crack an egg in to a bowl, add sifted flour slowly until you get a dough like consistency that is not too hard but not sticky. Then put it on a board and need for a few minutes or until smooth. Then pinch little finger tip size bits off and put to the side.

Now add the potato to the pot, add water so that it is 3/4 full bring to the boil and then put on a low heat simmering until the potato is soft to taste/touch.
Add the csipetke and simmer for about 10-15mins until the pasta has floated to the top.
Now your Gulyasleves is ready to devour!! Enjoy :)

Note: You can add some hot paprika to add a kick and/or some sweet paprika to garnish.

 

The story behind this recipe
I am first generation Australian in my family and I'm lucky enough to have grown up in a Hungarian household. I have always been a part of the Hungarian community, learning Hungarian folk dancing, attending Hungarian school and taking part in all of the national celebrations. It was only fitting that my first stop overseas in 2007 would be to Budapest! A friend of mine was a violinist there and invited me to jump in a van with her and some friends to visit Szeged which is in the centre of the South Alföld (Southern Great Plain) Region. After 1 1/2 hours of driving through the beautiful Hungarian countryside, playing violin and singing Hungarian folk tunes with strangers that had now become my friends we arrived. I only knew Sally but somehow this was more than enough for a woman called Pici (Tiny) to welcome me in to her home and offer me a bed. This type of generosity I learnt is very common in Hungary, but it never seizes to amaze me! That night we sat around a bon fire, while Pici collected all of the vegetables from her garden to make Gulyasleves and started cooking it traditionally in a bogracs (a couldron like pot) over the fire. I stood beside her taking note of her every move and listening to the story behind this infamous Hungarian dish. 'It was originally created by the heardsman (Gulyas=herd Leves= soup) when they were working in fields far away from home and they had to create a dish with what they had in 1 pot.' After 3 hours of cooking, talking, learning how to play double bass and being engulfed by Hungarian folk music played live by my new friends, and watching the bow of the violin literally brush under my nose, we ate the best gulyasleves I have ever tasted. I will never forget how I felt that night, the music that gave me goosebumps, the taste of that fresh Gulyasleves and the amazing new friends I had made. Needless to say Pici gladly shared her Grandmothers Grandmothers recipe with me. A great souvenir to bring home from my home away from home.