My mom made a pretty authentic goulash in certain respects.  In certain other respects it wasn’t really goulash at all.  I’m now making something somewhere in between.

The Hungarians would make a sort of soup called goulash and serve that with or over cubed boiled potatoes.  The Germans like a thicker version and serve that over spaetzle.  My mom used elbow macaroni.  I have a spaetzle maker but usually just reach for a nice orzo lately.

My mom used a combination of tomato juice and tomatoes.  I skip the juice.  Feel free to include some to make a thinner version.  You could also add chicken stock to take it more into the soup dimension.  My mom used stewed tomatoes but I use just diced.  She also added “a little sugar”.  I’ve dropped this as well.

My mom used ground beef, but I’ve gone more traditional here and cube nice beef and brown that.

Finally, my mom didn’t use paprika (I know!) and I use a lot.  If I can brown the beef and sauté the onions over fire I use Hungarian sweet, but if I can’t I use Spanish smoked paprika instead.  Or maybe a combination.  I’m not too picky about this detail.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb beef (browned)
• 2 large onions (sautéed but not browned)
• 1 T garlic (optional, I usually skip but sweat these after the onions)
• tomatoes (2 x 28 oz cans of Muir Glen diced is typical for me)
• salt and pepper
• ¼ C paprika (yes, a lot)

Directions:

• brown beef and set aside
• sauté onions in whatever fat remains, scrap up the bits, and let them go translucent (take your time)
• add everything into the pot (except the pasta) and let that simmer for a long while, relax
• cook the pasta you chose (or potatoes or make spaetzle) (1 box of orzo is a good portion for the above)
• you can combine the starch and sauce together and server or serve portions (I usually combine in the pasta just prior to serving time so it’s a one pot stop)

That’s it.  Basic.  Easy.  Fucking delicious.

My mom makes chocolate zucchini bread.  Well, she did when we were kids.  I don’t think they eat so much dessert foods now that we’re grown.  Regardless, I asked her to send me the old recipe.  The poor card has seen better days!

I’ll do my best to get those interpreted correctly here.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ C flour (unsifted)
• 2 C sugar
• ½ C cocoa [presumably Dutch processed but certainly powder]
• 3 eggs
• 2 ½ t baking powder
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 ½ t [baking] soda
• 2 t orange peel (grated) [zest]
• 1 t salt
• 1 t cinnamon
• 2 C zucchini (shredded)
• ¾ C butter or margarine [seriously, butter though]
• ½ C milk
• [ewe] 1 C pecans or walnuts (chopped) [No nuts!  obviously optional]

Directions:

• Pour [something] greased and floured [something] [maybe cake] pan or Bundt pan
• [over]
• Bake 350° for 1 hr
• Cool in pan for 15 min
• Turn out on wire rack
• Cool thoroughly
• Glaze

Glaze:

• 2 C powdered sugar
• 3 T milk
• 1 t vanilla

I have no specific memory have actually eating it, but I know we greatly enjoyed doing so.

Enjoy!

My neighbor is a hunter and a fisher which has been a boon for my access to random unexpected proteins.  We were talking the other day about the jerky he makes (nearly all of his goose breast ends this way).  He uses a recipe from a friend of his and I told him I could post it to my blog so it would be easier for him to find.  So, here it is.

• 3T coarse salt
• 1C brown sugar
• 1C water
• 3/4C soy sauce
• 3/4C Worcestershire sauce
• 2T garlic
• 2T chili powder
• 3T ground (black) pepper
• 2T (red) pepper flakes

I am going to try it out at some point.  From there I will likely play with it and see what works for me.  Anyway, perhaps it will be a good starting point for you as well.

Enjoy!

• in a pot (French oven) saute three shallots in butter and olive oil
• add dried mushrooms and stir
• add peppers trio and stir
• add garlic confit and stir
• add black rice and stir
• add layer of halved plums
• finely chop giblets and add them to this layer
• add four rosemary twigs
• drizzle honey
• butterfly whole chicken and spice in and out with:
  • salt
  • cayenne
  • sumac
  • coriander
  • cardamom
  • expert level:  spread spices under the skin
• drizzle over chicken a bit more honey
• cover and put in the oven 350f for 60 minutes
• uncover for another 15 minutes on broil to brown

I could have probably used two bags of rice for this volume.

Also, might be good to stir the rice mixture (including stirring the plums in) midway through the roasting process.  In other words, life the chicken and stir what’s below together again.  This may mean leaving out the rosemary (which seems to play only a small role) or perhaps moving it to the top during roasting (and removing before broiling).

Following loosely this video:

I am using 129f and will come in at about eleven hours (because sleep).  Added salt, pepper, and cayenne as usual.

Ingredients:

• 1 decent sized pumpkin with lid removed and inside cleaned
• sauté
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper chopped
  • 12? cloves garlic chopped
  • handful of dried bing cherries chopped
• deglaze
  • 1/4 cup? pomegranate molasses
  • 1/4 cup? white wine
• remove to mixing bowl (leaving liquid behind)
• sauté after reducing retained liquid
  • 10 maybe mushrooms (let them fully wilt)
  • 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
• remove to mixing bowl
• 1 cup black rice with 3.5 cups chicken stock 5 minutes boil and simmer to finish, then add to mixing bowl
• finally add the rest to the mixing bowl
  • 1/4 cup? Asiago
  • coriander, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg
  • 2 apples chopped
  • lemon juice
  • cream
  • sage
• mix everything and stuff the pumpkin

450f for 30 minutes and then 350f for another 90 minutes

I ended up with too much liquid after cooking and would reduce the amount of liquid used (or reduce the rice liquid more) for the next cook.

Pumpkin seeds

• sauté in olive oil
• add salt, cayenne, and butter
• 300f oven 45 minutes

These turned out amazing for being so simple.

Gutting the pumpkin (and then salvaging the seeds) was a bit of a pain in the ass.  I used an ice cream scoop for gutting the pumpkin which did a fair job for most of it.  I may try using a serrated knife for removing the lid next time, though I suspect my dreams of sawing around are folly.

The flavor combination of the stuffing was amazing and I wouldn’t hope to alter it one bit.  Just maybe reducing the final liquidity some.

Have fun!

I cobbled together some recipes from the Internet and sort of followed Guga’s (Sous Vide Everything) technique.  I also made some substitutions based on what I happened to have here.

Get some flank steak, maybe 50 oz, and flame sear the flank as quickly as possible over very licky flames.  Set this aside (I refrigerated it overnight).

Get your biggest cast iron skillet hot and start sautéing or wilting this stuff:

• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow or white onion
• 8 cloves garlic (add after the others are well along)

Once that is nicely done start adding your liquids:

• 1 C white wine
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 lime juice
• 2 t soy sauce
• 1 C chicken stock
• 1 T adobo

Once that is integrated and bubbling add your dry stuff:

• 1 t annatto seeds ground
• 2 t coriander
• 2 T paprika (Spanish aka smoked)
• 1 t cayenne
• 1/2 t allspice

Into the bag with everything plus (probably easier to let the sauce cool for a while):

• 1/2 C Spanish olives
• 1 T oregano fresh (or 1 t dried)
• 2 bay leaves

Seal that bag and sous vide at 185f for 24 hours.

It’s recommended by literally everyone to let it rest overnight after cooking to punch up the flavor even more.

I tasted this at every stage and each tasting kept getting better.  Crazy!

Spices

• salt
• cayenne
• grains of paradise
• cloves
• garlic powder
• cardomum
• lime juice

sous vide 140f 24 hrs (probably 130 would be fine next time)

smoke over wood

accidentally left lime out of two of the six packages and the lime was noticeably punchy when comparing them.

• purple cabbage diced
• feta crumbled
• 2 fresh tomatoes diced
• honeycrisp apple diced
• pistachios
• my favorite dressing
• salt and pepper (pinch)

I mostly sort of follow a recipe.  Sometimes I do follow a recipe more strictly.  I tend to be more strict when I’m doing a Paul Prudhomme recipe for whatever reason.  Perhaps it’s because those recipes of his I work tend also to be longer and more complex.  Reasons.  They always exist.

Anyway, I made some sous vide salmon tonight.  I fucking love salmon.  It’s amazing.  I do what I am able to support the wild salmon market.  It’s really unbeatable.  After 122f bathing for 30 minutes a very quick grill over an open fire made for an excellent evening delight.  And, borrowing from Chef Paul, just salt, black pepper, and cayenne.  What can I say?  Life is good.

Mostly I followed this recipe as my guide.

Sous Vide Salmon @ ChefSteps

I didn’t bother with the curing step.  Why bother?  You can almost eat the salmon raw it’s so good.

As for an accompanying beverage, I made a little something appropriate to this excellent summer weather.  I took some of my homemade limoncello and put that in a tall glass of ice with one of these flavored (but unsweetened) seltzer waters that are so popular now.  Lemon, of course.  Very light and refreshing and certainly nothing to interfere with the salmon.

Now I’m sitting next to the fire I cooked with and eating my simple meal.  Eat a nice green salad after.

Am I missing out on something, do you think?  Is my life somehow incomplete?  Maybe.  But I’d say I’m doing pretty well.