A Regional Favorite: Szegediner Gulyas
Hello, friends, this may be a Hungarian dish, but it has become popular throughout Central Europe.
2# stewing pork, cut into 1.25" cubes ( I used boneless loin)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp lard or butter [I used lard.]
3 onions, diced
2 tbsp sweet paprika [use only Hungarian!]
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup water
1 # fresh kraut or kraut from a jar [Use German/Polish!]
1 # potaotes, peeled, cut into 1.25" cubes or cut into 1/2 inch slices1 tbsp caraway seeds [more, if you love the flavor.]
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp flour
Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Hear fat and in it fry pork cubes until browned on all sides, SLOWLY. Add diced onion and cook slowly unhtil soft and golden. Sprinkle with paprika and saute for 3-4 minutes.
Add garlic and water and cover, simmering slowly for 25 minutes.
If sauerkraut is sharply flavored [usually the case with American canned kraut], rinse once or twice and drain. Add it to the pork along with potatoes and caraway seeds.
Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour or until potatoes are done.
Blend flour into sour cream and pour over sauerkraut and pork, shaking pot from side to side so cream will "percolate" through. Cover and let it simmer about 10 minutes, or until the goulash is heated through. Season to taste and serve.
[This fork-blended sour cream and flour is a vey popular regional thickener, used all throughout Central Europe.]
This meal is also good with a cucumber salad, as a nice
contrast. I also steamed some additional potatoes so that people could mash them into leftover juices on their plates to absorb the goodness.
I have also served this over wide egg noodles, which are also very popular.
Enjoy! This is a major crowd pleaser! I made some without kraut at my wife's behest, along with some with kraut. Even those very few who had opted for no kraut, came back to have it with, and loved it! Kraut is marvelously versatile, as you will see from my posts.
Ron