Lecsó – or what to do with too many peppers

As noted in my previous post I had a lot of peppers, red and green, and tomatoes on hand from my last harvest and since I didn’t even consider to pickle or can them, only alternative for me was to cook and freeze them. One recipe that I knew would work was Hungarian Lecsó.

Lecsó is a sort of pepper, onion and tomato stew cooked slowly on stove-top for long time and served as is, with potatoes or meat and potatoes. Since I was going to freeze it I have made plain version that will be kicked up quite a bit when re-heated and served with whatever I choose. Just as an experiment I will one day chop the Lecsó and use it as a pizza sauce. I think that it will be quite good!

Cooking this dish is a walk in the park; it is the prep that takes so much time. Cleaning, seeding and slicing the peppers is so labor intensive! I tried to slice the peppers in food processor but I was faster slicing them with my Chinese cleaver than using Cuisinart. Well, I still have all my digits and without a single Band-Aid.

As usual, because of heavy bottom of the pot I use my pressure cooker. By the way, that is a lot of peppers to clean and cut!

Caramelize the onions...

add peppers and cook till they soften...

add tomatoes and cook for about 2 hours. At first covered and then with cover off.

Add Hungarian paprika and simmer for another 1/2 hour. If the sauce is too watery, add some tomato paste (I did).

Ready as a base for other recipes.

Hungarian Gulyás (Goulash)

Goulash is a stew or soup made with meat, vegetables and potatoes. In Hungary, it is lot closer to soup then a stew and it doesn’t contain tomatoes. There are many versions in former states of Austrian Hungarian Empire. In Czech Republic and Slovakia the liquid base is chopped tomatoes and it is served with either bread or Bread Dumplings, in Austria it is served with rye bread and in Northern Italy with spaetzle or gnocchi. However, one ingredient that is constant right across whole former Empire is paprika, and lots of it. Also, in Czech version, there are as many onions as there is meat, by weight, and green and/or red peppers are always included and potatoes are seldom cooked in goulash itself but rather on side if used as side dish.

As is the case with every national dish there are many regional varieties. Szeged goulash is made with pork, some potatoes are replaced with sauerkraut and sour cream is added at the end of cooking. Znojemský (Moravian) Goulash is made with beef, onions, peppers and chopped pickles. In short, there are as many varieties as there are regions. In this post I will deal with a basic beef goulash using tomatoes and with potatoes on the side.

Ingredients

1 Lb. stewing beef
1 Lb. onions, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs. Hungarian paprika
1 tsp. caraway seeds
2 green and 2 red peppers, roughly chopped
4 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and roughly chopped
Tbs. lard or vegetable oil
2 Tbs. flour
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper (optional)

 Place flour and beef inside plastic bag, close it and shake the beef until all sides are evenly coated with flour. Shake off all excess flour and set aside.

Heat up lard or oil in heavy pan or Dutch oven on high heat. Place the beef cubes in lard, leaving space in between, and brown on all sides. Remove beef to bowl and set aside. The beef will release some juice.
Pour off the lard leaving just a thin coat on the bottom. Lower the heat to medium, drop in the onions and garlic and cook till light golden brown.
Off the heat sprinkle the paprika and caraway seeds on top and then mix until onions are evenly coated.
Put back on medium heat, add peppers and tomatoes with its juices, stir and bring to simmer.
Put back the beef with collected juice, bay leaf and black pepper. Bring back to simmer on medium high, lower the heat to low and simmer, stirring and scraping the bottom every 15 minutes or so.
Braise for 3 hours making sure that there is enough liquid. If too dry add some liquid such as beer, wine or stock.
Other option is to cook the goulash in the 350 °F oven. 10 minutes before serving add marjoram and adjust seasoning (salt, cayenne pepper).
Serve in preheated shallow bowl with potatoes, pasta, bread dumplings or just slices of rye bread.
As is the case with many stews, this goulash taste better when reheated next day and when served with a different side you end up with a new meal.

Beef is already coated in flour.

Meat is browned, onions and garlic are cooked and paprika and caraway seeds are mixed in.

Peppers, tomatoes with its juice are added and brought back to simmer.

Beef is returned to pot with bay leaves, pot is covered and slowly braised for 3 hours.

Paprika Chicken (Paprikás Csirke)

Beside Hungarian Beef Goulash this must be best known Hungarian meal. It is just too bad that I can’t have it more often because it is so obscenely rich. And because of that, is it ever tasty! Original recipe calls for whole chicken cut up. I use chicken thighs that I consider the very best part of the bird, there is so much flavor and it can be cooked in so many ways from soup through BBQ to slow stewing. Paprika Chicken is just that, a stew. It can be served with noodles, rice or potatoes but back in Czech Republic we always had bread dumplings. They really soak in that wonderful rich sauce!

Lets get down to business.

To serve 2 with leftovers J.

4 large chicken thighs, chopped in half (8 pieces)

3 T. lard or veggie oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic (or more if you are like me)

2 or 3 T. sweet Hungarian paprika

1T. hot Hungarian paprika

1-1/2 cup chicken stock (canned is fine, I use it)

1-1/2 cup sour cream (stay away from light stuff, light sour cream is an oxymoron)

2 T. flour

Preheat oven to 300 °F.

Pat the chicken pieces dry with paper towels and salt and pepper generously (I always brine my chicken so I skip the salting).

In a Dutch oven heat the lard or oil until light haze forms over it. Add the chicken pieces skin side down and shallow fry them till golden brown, about 3 minutes.

Turn them over and cook for another 3 minutes.

Remove to a bowl and pour off all the fat, leaving only a thin film.

Lower the burner to medium heat and add onions and garlic and sauté until lightly colored.

Remove from heat and mix in sweet and hot paprika until the onions are well coated.

Return to heat and add chicken stock and bring to boil. Return pieces to pot, cover and place on middle shelf in oven. After one hour the chicken should be fall-off-the-bone tender. Remove from oven.

Remove the chicken to the same bowl as before and skim all fat from surface of the pot. (I use hot spoon and then strips of paper towels to really remove all the fat. I mean, we’ll be adding quite a bit of fresh fat in form of sour cream in next step.)

In a mixing bowl with wire whisk mix the sour cream and flour until smooth and then add about a cup of hot sauce into sour cream to temper it.

Stir the mixture back into pot, return the chicken with all accumulated juices to the pot and bring it slowly to simmer. Do not boil or the sauce will separate! After 3 minutes remove from heat and serve.

Bread dumplings are basically bread dough loaves that are boiled. They are very soft and soak up sauces like a sponge. It is almost daily staple at Czech table just like pasta is at Italian table.