I’ve never had actual Hungarian goulash but I actually like the American Midwestern version. Actually I was thinking about making it this weekend.
Well, she did acknowledge that using TVP instead of ground beef was a departure from her mother’s recipe, but really, if you’re a vegetarian making a dish that calls for spiced ground beef, TVP is an awfully small departure.
And it’s been too long since I’ve had my other friend’s goulash, so I don’t remember much about it beyond that it was good, but it was certainly a lot closer to that picture than this other dish was.
Yeah, your friend was doing a vegetarian version of this type of goulash.
In what way does this variety differ from the plain (well, not so plain, actually) bean soup I make from scratch?
I love bean soup, and now I want to make a potful when I get back home!
Well, there’s many versions of it. Some of them are like a beaned-up version of regular beef goulash. Others use pork; and the way I like it (learned from a friend from Eastern Hungary), I use ham hock. Technically, you can call that füstölt csülökös babgulyás, or “smoked ham hock bean goulash.” Some use both ham hock & beef or pork. Your average bean goulash off the menu in a Hungarian restaurant is probably going to be beef & beans. How that may differ from your bean soup is probably the paprika and vegetables.
So, you’re basically making your standard goulash, starting with onions cooked preferably in lard. Then you add garlic and paprika, stir for about a minute, and add your meats and beans. Fill with as much water and/or stock as you want. Cook for awhile until the beans are starting to get tender and the ham hock is getting soft. Add root veggies (carrot, celery root, parsnip, kohlrabi, whatever) and even potatoes if you wish. Or you can finish with little handmade dumplings called csipetke.
Anyway, as it should be clear from the discussion, there is no one true recipe for goulash, and it can be made in many different ways with many different meats and additives, provided it is made from a stewed meat (preferable on bone with tendons or other gelatin-producing tissues) using paprika as a base spice, and not using a thickening agent such as flour or corn startch. Pretty much everything else is variations on a theme, and all are goulash. Tomato-base soups are not goulash except in the context of warped culinary appropriation of American family cooking.
Paprikash is also a paprika-base soup or stew, but using a roux base for thickening (necessary when using chicken or another low fat meat). I see no issue with making a vegetarian version paprikash using any substitute for chicken and still being essentially the same dish.
Stranger
Sounds yummy! When I make bean soup, I use five different kinds of legumes, including lentels.
Do Hungarians ever brown the meat before adding the liquid? TV Chef Michael Smith said specifically not to do this when making authentic gulyas.
Celery root specifically, instead of celery stalks?
Gulya? Wow, we eat at a Turkish restaurant. The owner’s daughter usually waits on us, and her name is Gulya! Anyone know anything about that word as a name?
Dammit, now I am hungry for some.
I was planning on taco night tomorrow, and sauerbraten in the weekend after next [mrAru and I trade road trip weekends, I am currently stuck living near Rochester NY and he is still at the farm in Eastern Connecticut.] If I didn’t already have the hunk of dead cow in the sauerbraten marinade [stuck the hunk in while it defrosted in the fridge, then popped it back in the freezer, so by the time it is tome to cook it it will have about a week of actual nonfrozen marinade time.]
I think I will have to get a hunk of beef and do it next weekend at the farm. Or I could premake it here and haul it back to CT - after all, stuff like this is better a few days after cooking to give the flavors time to meld.
The meat is usually fried along with the onions until it acquires a bit of color, but it’s not usually browned in the manner you might see French kitchens brown something. That said, I have seen some people brown their meat for goulash. It’s usually veal (which is typically made into a paprikash, which is essentially a pörkölt with the additional of sour cream and flour) that I see the suggestion not to brown it at all.
Yes. Celery stalks are not typically used in Hungarian cooking, at least as far as I’ve seen my five plus years living there. It was generally pretty difficult to find celery stalks, although that situation has changed in the last decade.
While I agree with you there when it comes to Hungarian goulash (and I do not use starch or flour to thicken mine), other Central and Eastern European takes on the matter are not as concerned with this and freely use it. The types I would get in Austria and Germany were quite often thickened with a bit of flour.
In Russian, it’s the diminutive of Gulnara, which a quick check reveals is derived from the Farsi **Golnar **“Flower + Pomegranate.”
Wow! And I always thought it was Turkic! :smack:
You learn something new every day! 
More specifically, **Golnar **is derived from “gol”, meaning “flower, rose” plus “anâr”, meaning “pomegranate.”
Cool! Maybe I can impress her next time we eat there.