Tag Archives: beef

Meat and Poultry

Hungarian Beef Goulash

Goulash is a rich, fragrant Eastern European stew that is excellent accompanied by homemade noodles, rice, dumplings, or potatoes.

Ingredients for Hungarian Beef Goulash

1 lb. stewing beef
2 T fat
2 sliced onions
1/2 tsp salt
1 T paprika
2 T flour
1 cup tomato puree
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup sour cream

Preparation for Hungarian Beef Goulash

In a heavy skillet or pot, sauté the stewing beef in fat over medium heat until browned. Add the sliced onions and stir until translucent. Add the salt and paprika, stirring until the paprika releases its fragrance. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for one hour. Stir frequently to prevent sticking.

Stir in flour and brown lightly. Add the tomato puree  mixed with the beef broth. Simmer for one hour longer, or until meat is tender.

Remove from heat and add the sour cream, stirring until smooth and warm.

Serve with rice, noodles, potatoes, or dumplings.

Servings: 3

Hungarian beef goulash

Meat and Poultry

Meatballs with Sour Cream

Klopsk w Smietanie

  • 4 slices bread, crusts removed
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 1 large, minces onion
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 T dill
  • 1/2 t tarragon
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
  • butter for frying
  • 1-1/2 cups sour cream

Soak the bread in milk. Saute the onion in the butter until soft. Combine the ground beef, lightly beaten egg yolks, soaked bread mixture, sauteed onion, dill, tarragon, salt and pepper. Beat 2 egg whites into soft peaks and fold into beef. Form into small balls and roll in a bit of flour. Brown meatballs in butter in a large skillet over medium heat. In another pan saute mushrooms in 3 T butter until browned. Add to meatballs and stir in sour cream, coating the meatballs well. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Season to taste.

Serves 8

Meat and Poultry

Corned Beef

  • 4 lb. piece of beef brisket, flank or plate
  • 4 quarts water
  • 1-1/2 lbs salt
  • 1/2 lb sugar

Rub beef with salt. Put in an enameled pot or stone jar; cover with a solution of water mixed with salt and sugar. Let cool. Cover and weigh the meat down so that it stays submerged. Corning will take 48 hrs. After beef is corned, wash under running water to remove the brine. Cover with boiling water and simmer 4 hrs until tender all the way through. To press for slicing cold, force into a deep pan when cool. Cover and refrigerate, weighted down. The moisture will form a jellied coating.

Soups and Stews

Russian Borscht

  • Soup bones
  • 1/4 lb. cubed beef
  • 1 onion, whole, stuck with cloves
  • salt
  • 1 large beet
  • 2-3 large cabbage leaves, coarsely grated
  • 3-4 small potatoes, cubed
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 T sugar
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup milk, lukewarm
  • Sour cream

Make a stock with the soup bones, beef, clove-studded onion and salt, enough to render 1 quart. When meat is tender, add beet and cook until tender. Remove the beet and grate coarsely or cut into cubes.

Return to pot and bring to boil. Add cabbage leaves and potatoes. When they are almost tender, add lemon juice, sugar and seasonings.

Beat the egg, add lukewarm milk and a little hot soup, beating with a fork. Slowly blend in more of the hot soup as you beat, until all is added. Serve with sour cream.

Meat and Poultry

Tenderloin with Green Peppercorns

Filete a la Pimienta Verde

Recipe from Gabriela Barraza

  • 6 beef tenderloin filets, 6 oz. each
  • Green peppercorns
  • Oil, butter
  • 10 T sour cream
  • 6 T Armagnac
  • Salt

If the peppercorns are dry, rehydrate in a little water. Cover the filets with the peppercorns and fry in a mixture of oil and butter from 10 to 14 minutes. Place on warmed plates. Remove excess grease from frying pan. Sprinkle in the Armagnac and add the sour cream. Cook over low flame, stirring, until obtaining a thick creamy sauce. Pour over filets and serve.

Meat and Poultry

Sauerbraten

A type of sweet and sour marinated beef; oh so tender and with a very special and distinctly-flavored sauce. Good served with cooked rice, noodles, potatoes, or dumplings of any sort.

  • 4 lbs. beef bottom round or rump, approx.

For Marinade:

  • 2 cups red wine vinegar
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 large sliced onion
  • 5 peppercorns
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 whole cloves

For Sauce:

  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 2 carrots, sliced
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp sugar, or to taste
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

Marinate meat in fridge for 2 to 3 days, turning occasionally. Remove meat from marinade, straining and reserving marinade. Pat meat dry and dredge with flour. Brown in butter. Add 1 cup strained marinade, sugar, carrots, onion, tomato paste and salt.

Cook covered until meat is very tender (about 3 hours). Remove meat and force sauce through a sieve, and skim off fat. Add the sour cream, mix well and reheat. Slice the meat thickly and serve covered in sauce.

Soups and Stews

Slovensky Gulas

Slovakian Goulash (Beef stew)

  • 1 lb. stewing beef
  • 2 T vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup onion, chopped
  • 1-1/4 lb potatoes
  • 1 tsp caraway seeds
  • salt to taste
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1-1/2 cups water, or more
  • 3/4 tsp seasoned salt

Cube the meat. Brown the meat in oil, add chopped onion, pressed garlic, salt, caraway seeds, paprika and salt. Add water and slowly simmer until the meat begins to get tender. Cube the potatoes and add them, continuing to simmer until both the potatoes and meat are tender.

Meat and Poultry

Braised Beef with Prunes

A Ukrainian dish

Ingredients for Braised Beef with Prunes

  • 2 lbs beef
  • Oil
  • 1/2 cup beef stock
  • 1 lb prunes, pitted
  • 2 onions
  • 1/2 cup tomato puree
  • 1 T flour
  • 1 T oil
  • 1/2 T sugar
  • 5 whole cloves
  • 1/3 t cinnamon
  • 1 T vinegar
  • salt

Preparating Braised Beef with Prunes

Cut meat into 4 oz pieces, season with salt and brown in oil.  Saute the onions and place in a casserole with the meat, cinnamon and tomato puree. Pour in a bit of the stock and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

Heat 1 T oil and add flour to brown, then add the rest of the stock and pour into casserole with meat. Add the prunes and simmer till soft. Add vinegar, cloves, sugar and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve beef and prunes with gravy.

Soups and Stews

Goulash Soup

A hearty Hungarian beef soup.

  • 1 lb. stewing beef, cubed
  • 6 cups beef broth
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 3 white potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 1 t paprika
  • salt and pepper

Brown beef well in oil. Add onion and cook until soft. Add paprika and stir for a minute to release fragrance, then throw in the preheated beef broth. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until beef is tender. Add potatoes and continue simmering until potatoes are tender.

Meat and Poultry

Mom’s Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This recipe for cabbage rolls is the basic Eastern European version that we knew as kids: a savory melding of rice and ground meat rolled in cabbage leaves and smothered in thick tomato sauce. It was always served with sour cream.

Mom would make a whole turkey pan full of cabbage rolls, enough to feed the six of us and more for at least  two or three sittings. As the leftovers sat and aged in their sauce over the next few days, the taste intensified and filled out… I always preferred leftover cabbage rolls over freshly made ones.

There are endless variations of cabbage rolls. One Ukrainian version is pickled cabbage leaves (sauerkraut style) stuffed  with fried onions, ground meat, and buckwheat and baked in a meaty broth instead of tomato sauce. Similar cousins  are rice and lamb stuffed grape leaves in Middle Eastern cuisine.

Ingredients for Mom’s Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

  • 1 head of cabbage
  • 1 lb. mixed ground beef and ground pork (either half and half or slightly more beef than pork)
  • 1 finely minced onion
  • 1 cup cooked rice
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1-1/2 t salt
  • 1/4 t pepper
  • 1 large can tomato soup + 3 T ketchup*
  • 1 cup water
  • Sour cream for serving

Core cabbage. Place in large pot of boiling water with a splash of vinegar. Cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and let stand 10 to 15 minutes to cool. Sauté onion in a little butter. Mix together the ground beef, onion, rice, salt and pepper. Separate cabbage leaves. Shave off the ribs. Put a large spoonful of meat mix at the base of each leaf and roll up tightly. May fasten with toothpicks. Place in an oiled oven pan, nestling the rolls together so they won’t unroll. Mix together the tomato juice, catchup, and water. Pour over cabbage rolls. Bake, covered, at about 325 F for 1-1/2 hours.

These are best removed from the oven and let sit to settle and thicken the sauce a bit before serving. Place bowls of thick sour cream on the table, and mound a large tablespoonful of the cream on each cabbage roll before eating.

* Mom always swore by Aylmer’s tomato soup instead of tomato puree for making real Cabbage rolls., but it wasn’t always easy to find.

cabbage for cabbage rolls