Hungarian beef stew (marhapörkölt) with wine

Lietuviška versija čia.

I believe there is a common misunderstanding about the famous Hungarian stew. Everyone knows it's delicious, but what is it exactly? For fact, many years I mistakenly called a stew "goulash". But goulash has nothing to do with a stew, because goulash is actually a soup. Since I have a Hungarian at home, he does not let me stay misinformed...:)

Here is how it is:

• Pörkölt (english - stew) - is a basic version of the Hungarian stew.
• Paprikás - also a stew. The main difference between Pörkölt and Paprikás is that in Paprikás the sour-cream is used.
• Tokány - another version of the stew. Here they use black ground pepper instead of sweet paprika powder. The meat is cut into strips, not cubes. Sour-cream can also be used.
• Gulyás - a traditional Hungarian soup.

So... Here is one more very delicious Hungarian recipe - beef stew (marhapörkölt) with wine. If you want to make a classic Hungarian beef stew - follow the recipe, but don't add the wine. Also, you can make your stew (pörkölt) with any meat you like: chicken, pork, etc. You can add mushrooms or vegetables you like. Some Hungarians even put inside parts of the animal: kidney, lungs.

We will need (for a classic version):

• 3 tablespoons of pig fat (you can also use oil)
• 2 medium red onions 

In Hungary this would be red onions (because of their shell color). And those which we call red - they call purple.

• beef shin (this time we made from 750 grams)
• 3 tablespoons of paprika powder
• 1 level teaspoon of salt

So we need 1 not heaped teaspoon.

• ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of whole cumin seeds 
• water
• 1 TV pepper

This is what Hungarians call TV paprika (in Holland we can sometimes find it in the Turkish shop, but this time we just used a simple red pepper)

• 1 tomato
• 2 cloves of garlic

For our "stew with wine" we will also need:

• some red wine :)

Preparation:

1. Chop the onion. Cut the meat into 2x2 cm cubes.
2. For baking the stew you can use a pan, pot or wok... or what you find in your kitchen ;) . Melt the fat, drop onions in and fry until glassy.
3. Add the meat and bake it together till the meat is starting to be white outside. Season with salt and paprika powder. Bake and mix it together for a few minutes.
4. Then pour 10-20 ml of water and the rest of the spices. Cook without the lid on a low heat for 3-4 hours until the meat is tender. The cooking time depends on how old is your meat and which kind of meat you chose. For example really young beef can cook 2 hours, chicken - 1 hour. During the cooking check the water every 10-15 minutes, if the water is evaporated, you must add 10-20 ml again. If you make your stew with wine, then sometimes during the cooking pour some wine instead of water. The point is that you don't let the meat burn, but give some juice to cook through - it must also not look like a soup.

1. When the meat starts to getting ready - approx. 30-50 minutes before the end - you can add chopped peppers and tomatoes (also other vegetables of choice). Squeeze in the garlic. Continue to cook until the vegetables are soft. Make sure not to burn your stew - don't forget to add water and stir occasionally.
2. Serve with home made dumplings (galuska), noodles, potatoes, rice or bread.

For the dumplings (galuska) was used:

• half a kilo of flour
• 5 eggs
• some salt
• 300 ml of water

Make it in a boiling water with a little bit of oil as explained here.

Jó étvágyat!