Homestyle Hungarian Goulash
Serves: 6
Prep time: 10 Mins
Cook time: 10 Mins Sauté, 20 Mins Under High Pressure
Difficulty: Easy
Between touring the sights of the beautiful Tasmanian countryside, and spending time catching up, Mum has been treating me to her legendary home cooking. We enjoyed this classic for dinner tonight, and its moreish quality was attested by the calls for seconds, and whistle-clean plates at the end of the meal.
This goulash has a robust, umami-rich flavour, with an enlivening tartness from the tomato and gentle bite from the paprika. Mum paired this with rice and green beans for a perfectly tuned symphony of flavour and texture.
Ingredients
2 kg (4 lb) topside or rump beef (you can use a cheaper cut if you like - the pressure cooker will tenderise this)
5 medium white or yellow onions
2 bay leaves (fresh preferred)
2 tbsp plain flour
5 pickled gherkins
5 tbsp tomato paste
1 400g (16 oz) tin of peeled or diced tomatoes (undrained)
2 tsp raw sugar
1 tsp salt
A few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp of sweet hungarian paprika
4 tbsp rice bran oil
1 tbsp butter
Optional
Water to adjust viscosity of sauce
1 tbsp sour cream
1 tsp corn flour + 1 tsp water
Rice, potatoes or noodles to serve (we recommend fettuccini)
Steamed vegetables to serve (green beans, broccoli or zucchini are ideal companions to this meal)
Equipment
Pressure cooker
See our guide to pressure cooker pantry essentials to find out more about these ingredients, our recommendations, and where to buy them.
Directions
To make the goulash:
Trim fat and sinew from beef and dice into 1-inch cubes
Chop onions into 1 inch chunks and separate the layers
Put your cooker onto sauté or browning mode (“Sauté” button on Instant Pot, “Manual > Browning” on Cook4me)
Add 4 tbsp oil into cooker, and add butter
Add chopped onion, sprinkle with sugar
Sauté onion and sugar until the onion turns translucent and sugar begins to caramelise
Add beef and brown it, stirring through to mix in the onion and sugar as the meat browns
Sprinkle flour into meat and keep stirring until absorbed into juices, adding a small amount of water if required to prevent sticking to pot
Add tinned tomato and tomato paste, stir in well
Chop pickled gherkins into ½ inch chunks and add these plus the bay leaves
Stir in paprika
Test consistency of the mixture, if too thick add enough water to adjust it to a free-flowing consistency
Close and seal the pressure cooker lid
Select the pressure cooking mode on high pressure (“Manual” on Instant Pot, “Manual > Quick cook” on the Cook4Me) - set the cooking cycle to run for 20 minutes.
Cook your rice, noodles or potatoes, and your vegetables
Once the pressure cooker has finished, “Quick release” the steam if your cooker does not do this automatically.
Return the cooker to “keep warm” mode (if your cooker does not do this automatically), to keep it warm until serving
Open the pressure cooker, remove bay leaves, season with salt and cracked pepper
Taste - you want a rich tomato base flavour with a sharp paprika note; adjust both the tomato paste and paprika to suit your taste. If too tart or sharp, you can add a tbsp of sour cream to soften the flavour
If the sauce is too runny, mix in corn flour/water slurry and stir until the sauce thickens (return the cooker to sauté/browning mode to do this)
To serve:
Serve with steamed rice, noodles or potatoes and vegetables, and a sweet red wine such Lambrusco.
Guten Appetit!
Do you have any twists or favourite adjustments to this recipe? Let is know in the comments below!