Good evening!
It has been a few days since my
last post, the past several days have been busy. Daughter number three was
successfully delivered to the school where she was recruited to run track.
Daughter the eldest and I helped with the 1000 mile drive which was good. It was nice to be in an area with more
diverse culinary attractions. We visited pastry shops, ate Japanese food, and
tacos not to mention my favorite ice cream shop, salt and straw. Back home, I needed to do
some quick, inexpensive, shopping and make food for a few days.
Something recently reminded me
of an aunt I had the opportunity to visit often as a kid. I remember showing up
in the evening after a full day's drive with mom, stepping inside the house,
being greeted by cousins, and pleasantly assaulted by the scent of dinner
on the stove. More times than I can count it was her version of goulash
and we were always excited about that. Over the years I have tried to
imitate her cooking and I have come pretty close a few times. This week I
did start off making goulash but it was not even close to hers. I made a few
mistakes trying to rush the food and it still tastes good but was not quite
what I was after.
Before I talk about my dinner,
a quick review of what goulash really is should be done. Traditionally
there are two types, Hungarian and American. Hungarian goulash is a slow
cooked, paprika spiced, beef stew. It uses sweet paprika and chunks of beef
slow cooked until tender then served with pasta, potatoes, or dumplings to help
absorb the juice. America goulash is a much quicker one pot meal. It uses
ground beef instead of stew meat or shanks and elbow macaroni cooked in the
same pot. Both are a delicious, filling, meal to share with a family or other
large group of people.
My variation on the American
meal included items I had in the freezer and pantry to make sure it was
inexpensive. In to the pot went onion, green pepper, jalapeno, garlic, and some
oil. To the mix was added Italian seasoning, and some black pepper, then this
was sautéed for just a few minutes as I did not want the veggies too soggy at
the end. Ground beef was added and cooked until brown. At this point, I
added some white wine to deglaze the pan and get the added flavor for the dish.
For the required liquid a can of diced tomatoes along with tomato sauce and
ketchup were then added to the pot. A little taste testing was done and
the pot was found in need of salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves which
were added, then the noodles went for a swim in the pot as well. This was
cooked until the noodles were tender, plated (bowled in this case), topped with
cheese and dinner was served.
Overall it is an easy one pot
meal that can be made on any night as it has a fairly quick cook time and feeds
as many people as you need it to.
Now for lessons learned section :) First off be careful with the type of noodles you use. They all taste slightly different and have different cook times. I used rotini as that was what I had in the pantry. Next, watch your liquid. When you cook everything in one pot it is easy to underestimate the amount of liquid you need. Whether you are making a meal with noodles, rice, or anything similar be sure to remember they absorb a lot of the liquid and plan accordingly. My largest mistake was right there. I had sufficient liquid but not enough for this to be more of a soup, instead it turned into more of a thick ragu type dish. It still tasted great, the consistency was just a little off. When you make this consider adding some beef stock or even just water to thin the broth and have enough liquid to reach the consistency you are after.
Ingredients:
1\2 large onion diced
1 green pepper diced
2 jalapenos diced
3 tbsp garlic
2 tblsp olive oil
1\2 cup white wine
1 large can tomato sauce (29 oz)
1 small can tomato sauce (15 oz)
1\4 cup ketchup
Noodles
Thanks for joining me for dinner, please feel free to stop by anytime !
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