Emily Living and Laughing : Goulash

There are things that we eat as a child that as an adult we think that we need to make again. It is only when I started really researching this dish that I realized there is about 5,000 different ways to make goulash.

From Wikipedia:
Goulash (Hungarian: gulyás [ˈɡujaːʃ]) is a soup or stew of meat and vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices.^[1] Originating from the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, goulash is also a popular meal in Central Europe, Scandinavia and Southern Europe.
Its origin traces back to the 9th century to stews eaten by Hungarian shepherds.^[2] Back then, the cooked and flavored meat was dried with the help of the sun and packed into bags produced from sheep's stomachs, needing only water to make it into a meal.^[2] It is one of the national dishes of Hungary and a symbol of the country.^[3]^[4]

Goulash was something my mother made us when we were children but her recipe is vastly different than the traditional Hungarian or American goulash. My mother's contained cream of chicken, ground beef, potatoes and often mixed vegetables. Speaking to my Father he stated as a child they had a red sauce goulash much like American goulash but instead of elbow noodles they had potatoes. I thought this to be rather interesting and I wanted to make a hybrid of American and Hungarian.

After eating my below recipe at first glance Ryan thought it was chili but as he stated it has a completely different flavor profile than chili. This gave me an urge to go through my grandmothers recipes with my mom and I plan to do that and share some of my favorites with you soon.

What you need~
2 pounds of ground beef
.5 a box of elbow noodles
1 onion diced
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
2 (14.5 ounce) cans of diced tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can of tomato paste
.5 cup of tomato juice

To taste~
Smoked paprika (if you have Hungarian even better)
Applewood smoke seasoning
Mrs. Dash
Worchester sauce

Start by browning your onions and garlic. Add the ground beef and cook until browned well. As you
are doing this season the meat/onion mixture.

Add your tomatoes and paste along with the juice. Season to taste with the above seasonings. I did this a little at a time till I got the level of smoky flavor I wanted. With paprika you need to do this process slowly or it can get really overpowering rather quickly. Cook this down for at least 1 hour.