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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

Liver in Spanish Sauce

This was one of Mom’s standby recipes. I did not like liver until one day when I was about four. I distinctly remember sitting in the dining “nook” in the kitchen in McConnell Creek, having eaten my mashed potatoes and vegetable, pushing the little pieces of liver around my plate and trying to make it look like I was finished. I guess I’d done it before, because THIS time Dad wasn’t having any of it. He gave me an ultimatum: “I’ll go into the living room to sit on the  (Chartreuse) couch beside the (Hammond Chord) organ, and will wait for 5 minutes. When I come back, either the liver is inside your stomach, or you go to bed for the rest of the day without anything else to eat, no books, no toys.” I debated momentarily before resignedly setting into my plate. There really wasn’t all that much on it, after all–I hadn’t been served a large portion. I survived the experience and liver became one of my favorite foods. I used to hate cheddar cheese, too, if you can believe that one.

Ingredients for Liver in Spanish Sauce

  • 1 lb. sliced beef liver
  • 2 T flour
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/4 t pepper
  • 2 T chopped onion
  • 2 T chopped green pepper
  • 1 t dried parsley
  • 1/8 t cayenne pepper
  • 2 cups canned tomatoes
  • 2 T oil or bacon drippings

Preparing Liver in Spanish Sauce

Rinse and trim liver. Dredge in flour. Brown in oil or bacon drippings. Add rest of ingredients. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove cover and let sauce thicken if desired. Serve over rice.

Vegetables and Salads

Scalloped Potatoes

Potatoes, layered with onions and milk, baked tender and crusty…

  • 4 cups potatoes, peeled and sliced
  • 2 cups onion, chopped or sliced
  • Salt, pepper, thyme, and paprika
  • Flour
  • Butter
  • 1-1/2 cups milk
  • 2 cups buttered bread crumbs

Grease a 2 quart casserole and place in a layer of sliced potatoes. Top with a layer of chopped onion. Season layer and sprinkle with a little flour and dot with a little butter. Repeat layers, ending with a layer of potatoes. Scald the milk and pour into casserole. Top with buttered bread crumbs. Bake, covered, for 50 minutes at 350F, then uncover and continue baking for another 20 minutes until golden.

Vegetables and Salads

Potato Saute

A María Teresa recipe

  • 4 potatoes, cooked, peeled and quartered
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 green peppers, thinly sliced
  • Oil
  • Salt and pepper

Heat oil and sauté onions and green peppers slowly until very limp. They need constant stirring so they do not burn. Season. Add the quartered potatoes and continue frying until potatoes get crisp brown on the outside. Season.

Vegetables and Salads

Green Bean Salad

  • 1 lb. cut green beans, cooked
  • 3 pimientos, chopped
  • 1 T minced onion
  • 5 or 6 sprigs parsley, chopped
  • 3/4 cup oil and vinegar dressing
  • Lettuce

Toss together all ingredients except lettuce. Let sit, refrigerated, for an hour or two. Serve on a bed of lettuce. Servings: 6

Mixed Bean Salad Variation: Add 1 cup of cooked and drained white cannelli beans or alubias and 1/2 cup cooked and drained garbanzo beans to green bean mixture and marinate together.

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.

Pickles, Salsas, and Miscellaneous

Pico de Gallo Hot Sauce

Pico de Gallo is a uncooked Mexican salsa made with coarsely chopped tomatoes, onion, chiles, and sometimes fresh coriander.  This version has a little vegetable oil and a hint of garlic added.

This salsa will be as hot as the chiles you put into it. An excellent addition to Pico de Gallo is small cubes of avocado

Pico de Gallo literally means “rooster’s beak”–

Ingredients for Pico de Gallo Hot Sauce

  • 3 ripe tomatoes, chopped finely
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 to 3 jalapeño or Serrano chiles, seeded and chopped finely
  • Salt
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
  • 1 small clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil (optional) (olive or avocado is best)
  • lime juice to taste

Preparing Pico de Gallo Hot Sauce

Combine all ingredients and let stand for awhile before using.  The salt will help bring out the pungency of the chiles, and adding oil and/or lime juices makes for a juicier sauce.

If you don’t like fresh coriander, simply leave it out, and the salsa will still work.

Pickles, Salsas, and Miscellaneous

Salsa Cruda de Tomatillo

Uncooked Green Sauce

  • 8 green tomatillos
  • 2 serrano chiles, seeded
  • 1/4 small onion
  • 1 small clove garlic
  • 2 large sprigs fresh coriander
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • pinch sugar
  • 1/3 cup water

TomatillosPlunge peeled tomatillos in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove and run under cold water. Grind the chiles, onion, garlic, coriander and salt together in blender. Add the tomatillos, a pinch of sugar and the water and blend well.

For Salsa Verde Cocida (Cooked Green Sauce), substitute vegetable or chicken broth for the water in the above recipe and simmer sauce for 1/2 hour until slightly thickened.