Ingredients:
(See pic.
1)
1 onion,
medium size (about 5dkg), chopped to very
small
2 carrots, cleaned and cut to thin slices
2 parsley roots, clean and cut to thin
slices
3-5 dkg celery root (celeriac), clean
and cut to small cubes (pic. 2)
6 pieces of medium size potato, clean
and cut to cubes (pic. 3)
Flour, general purpose
Oil
Water
Spices: salt, turmeric, Hungarian paprika,
ground caraway seed, ground black pepper,
Vegeta, parsley leaves
Preparing
pinched noodles:
2,5 dkg
flour (2 tablespoon)
Add a pinch of turmeric for color (turmeric
can be left out) and a large pinch of
salt.
These ingredients are kneaded with one
tablespoon water into a stiff dough, then
teared into small pieces. Plunge the stiff
dough piece into flour and pinch off some
little flat pieces (5x5x2 mm) from it
and drop them onto a plate. Continue this
until all the dough is gone. During this
procedure the plate can be shaken gently
so the small noodles do not stick each
other. (pics 4, 5, 6)
Preparing the
soup:
The chopped
onion is sauted in a large saucepan for
about 10-15 minutes with 6 tablespoon
oil (e.g. sunflower oil) on medium-low
heat until soft, but not brown. Then add
spices (pic 7): 3 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
(sweet, not hot!), 2 teaspoon ground caraway
seed, 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper.
Stir, then add the slices of carrot, parsley
root, and celery cubes (pic 8). Stir and
cook on slow fire for 10 min, then mix
in the potato cubes and cook for further
5 minutes.
Then add 1 liter of water and the pinched
noodles. Add one teaspoon salt and half
teaspoon spice mix (in Hungary it is called
„Vegeta”, it is a general purpose soup
spice mix, with some MSG in it also).
The soup spice mix can be left out.
Quickly
bring to boil, then simmer for 15 minutes
on medium heat, until the vegetables soften
(pic. 9) Add another half liter of water,
and boil once more (pic. 10). Chop 4-5
parsley leaves into fine pieces, and mix
into the soup at the end. Serve with bread.(pic.
11)
Variations and
comments:
This is
the exact recipe of goulash soup that
Master tasted in Hungary, February 2005.
The spices
can be changed according to people’s preference,
like the amount of salt and caraway. It
is also excellent when hot red paprika
(or some chili) is added during or after
preparation of the soup, according to
people’s taste. For authentic taste it
is important to use real (imported) Hungarian
paprika.
If someone
likes it, you can add chunks/cubes of
textured vegetable protein (not tofu),
or gluten, this way it is more filling.
(The traditional Hungarian goulash has
beef meat in it, also.) For this, soak
one handful of dry textured soy protein
with pure water, or ’Vegeta’ containing
water. When it picked up water to its
capacity and get soft, press the water
out by hand. Add the soy cubes/chunks
right after adding the paprika into the
soup mix. The final amount of water has
to be also increased in this case, add
0,3-0,4 liter more water.
The pinched
noodle can be left out, also. In this
case more potato can be added as replacement.
Parsley
root may not be available in the US. Parsnip
is close to it, but probably better not
to use it as a substitute, since it has
a sweet taste that parsley root does not
have. The stalks of parsley chopped into
small pieces can be used, if root is not
available. If you get a feeling of what
good goulash is, you can vary a little
bit the vegetables in it, too.
Vegeta:
Ingredients: Salt, dehydrated
vegetables, (carrot, parsnip, onions,
celery, parsely leaves) monosodium glutamate,
sugar, cornstarch, spices, disodium inosinate,
riboflavin (color).
In the US you can use just a pinch of
MSG instead, or better try to find a similar
seasoning mix. Actually, you can also
buy Vegeta in the US:
http://malincho.com/vegeta.asp
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002KZYMC/sr=35-1/qid=1121609487/ref=sr_35_1/104-9894090-6598311?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=3604111&s=gourmet-food&v=glance
Goulash
in Hungary used to be and can be a complete
main course, especially if it is made
more filling.
