by Frank Deis » Mon Nov 02, 2009 1:01 pm
Around this time of year I get a hankering for paprika based dishes -- and while I don't have a Chicken Paprikash recipe right at hand, this one really shows off the paprika, especially if you mix in some hot paprika as well. It is a beef goulash. BTW this is quite soupy, which is what he is aiming for. If you want more of a "chili" texture just cut back on the broth added.
“Splendid Soups” by James Peterson. I like his very detailed recipes, it’s hard to go wrong when he describes every tiny detail, and the flavors are quite good. For the “bouquet garni” I just added whole herbs and spices – entire caraway seeds, stripped the leaves off fresh thyme and threw them directly into the soup, added parsley and bay leaf. Flap meat has a very delicious flavor in this soup I think, but the chuck is OK. I used “ratte” potatoes from the farm market, banana-shaped potatoes with a great texture. And I just used a 28 oz can of diced plum tomatoes with the juice. FD
Goulash Soup (RCP)
Gulyásleves
Hungary has a rich tradition of making soups and stews in enormous variety and according to strict edicts. George Lang, in his thorough book “The Cuisine of Hungary” says about goulash (gulyás when a stew, gulyásleves when a soup) that one must “Never use any flour. Never use any spice besides caraway (although is recipe also calls for paprika). Never Frenchify it with wine. Never Germanize it with brown sauce. Never put in any other garniture besides diced potatoes or galuska (little dumplings). But … you may use fresh tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic, sliced green peppers, hot cherry peppers.” I’m not fond of bell peppers in meat, soups, or stews, so I leave them out and use a high quality paprika to provide a more intriguing pepper flavor.
The goulash soup given here is made much like a beef stew except that more liquid is used. George Lang includes a beef heart in his recipe, but I use beef chuck, or if I can find them, beef cheeks, which develop a moist melting consistency. I serve this hearty soup as a main course.
Makes 8 main course servings
3 pounds beef chuck or beef cheeks, cut into 1 inch cubes (FD: flap meat)
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons pure olive oil or vegetable oil (for browning the meat)
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil (for cooking onions and garlic)
2 medium-size onions, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, finely chopped or ground in coffee grinder
1 tablespoon hot Hungarian paprika
1 tablespoon mild Hungarian paprika
2 quarts basic beef broth (2 of those cardboard “bricks”)
4 tomatoes, peeled seeded and chopped or 1 28 oz can whole tomatoes drained
bouquet garni 4 thyme sprigs, 1 small bunch parsley, 1 bay leaf
1 1/2 pounds potatoes (he says waxy red or white)
1 recipe miniature dumplings (optional)
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, diced (optional garniture)
1 pint sour cream (optional garniture)
Season the meat liberally with salt and pepper and let sit for 3 hours so the salt can penetrate inside (FD NOTE commercial beef broth can be salty, be a little careful with this step unless you know you have low salt broth). Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot (large enough to hold all the meat) over high heat. Pat the meat dry with paper towels (but don’t let the meat sit on the towels or they will stick and tear) and brown it, only several pieces at a time (if you add too much to the pan at once it won’t brown) on all sides. Set the meat aside and discard the cooked fat in the pot. If the bottom of the pot is burned, rinse it to eliminate any bitterness.
Put the butter in the pot, add the onions and garlic, and sweat them over medium heat while stirring until they turn translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the caraway and paprika and stir over the heat for 1 minute more so the spices release their aroma. Add the broth and the tomatoes, and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to dissolve any caramelized juices. If you’re using canned tomatoes, push your thumb through the side of each one and then gently squeeze them (wear an apron, the seeds like to squirt out) to get rid of the seeds. Chop them coarse. Put the bouquet garni in the pot and put the meat and any juices it has released on top.
Bring the soup to a gentle simmer, partially cover the pot (so too much liquid doesn’t evaporate), and simmer for 2 hours.
Cut the potatoes into manageable-size pieces – about an inch on each side. Skim off any fat that has floated to the top of the broth, and add the potatoes to the soup. Continue simmering until the potatoes are done (a knife slides easily in and out of each one), about 20 minutes more.
Add the pre-cooked dumplings to the pot – simmer them for five minutes if they’ve grown cold – or heat them for 10 minutes in a 250 degree oven and sprinkle them over each serving.
Heat the optional diced tomatoes. Ladle the soup into heated bowls, and arrange the dumplings on top of each serving. Pass the sour cream at the table.
Green paprikas are the fruit that you know as green paprika peppers as you surmised. As to what you can substitute... I'm at a loss. Can you get Chile poblano? That's about the nearest equivalent I can think of that might be available in Kentucky. It's by no means the same, however. When you say you can't find them in your locality, do you mean now, or ever? If you can never find them, I do find that surprising, as even in the total backwoods here in France we find them easily enough. But they are a summer/fall produce, so what you could do next year is to make your own lecso (tomatoes, green bell peppers, onions - recipe also on my website) freeze it in suitable batches and use that as and when you want to try a paprikás csirke. As for the onion, 3 inches would be about right I guess. 
Ok, taking this one step further, I can see an ounce or two of unsweetened dark chocolate would make the chili interesting.