Grandma Emma's
Emma's goulash
Ingredients
To serve
Method
Pat the beef dry and salt it. Heat the lard in a heavy pot and brown the beef in two batches, without hurry, until it has a dark crust. Lift it out.
Soften the onions in the same pot over a low heat for a good fifteen minutes, until golden and sweet. Stir in the garlic and the caraway.
Take the pot off the heat before the paprika goes in, or it turns bitter. Stir in both paprikas and the tomato purée, then put it back and pour in the stock.
Return the beef with the bay leaves. Put the lid on, leave a small gap, and let it simmer very gently for two hours.
Add the pepper strips and cook for another twenty minutes, lid off, until the sauce coats a spoon. Taste, and season.
Serve with a spoonful of soured cream, parsley, and bread to wipe the plate.
Notes
Better the next day, and better still the day after. She never measured the paprika: she said the pot would tell you. If the sauce is thin at the end, a grated raw potato stirred in for the last ten minutes thickens it without anyone noticing.