I don’t think I could ever be a vegetarian, because I love beef too much. Maybe since my father was from Argentina, and they are known for their grilled meat? Either way, I would much rather have a savory meat dish over dessert any day.
When I’m home, I cook all types of kosher meat and poultry. My local supermarket carries it, but I don’t live in an area where there are kosher restaurants, so when I eat outside of my home, I refer to myself as a “vegetarian who eats fish”. To those who keep a semi kosher diet like I do, it makes sense, but for most – it seems to be very confusing!
While I may not be ultra observant of every Jewish custom, I keep many of the traditional holidays – including lighting the Shabbat candles on Friday night. While at school at the Culinary Institute of America, and working in the kitchens of NYC restaurants, I didn’t keep kosher…but then I felt it was the one thing aside from the traditions that kept me close to my Jewish culture.
Recently the weather has been pretty mild in New Jersey, but it was still the time of year when I start to crave soups and stews.
One of my favorite, is Hungarian goulash. However, when I looked it up, I noticed that a running theme was caraway seeds – which I didn’t have! However, I did have the paprika, hence the reason I named this dish “Beef Paprikash” – which also exists, but really it is very similar.
This is a delicious, stick-to-your-ribs kind of stew. I added vegetables and potatoes so that it would suffice as a one pot meal for dinner and it really went above and beyond! The sweet paprika really adds a wonderful depth to this dish.
I hope you try it and comment about how it came out. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s to hoping for a wonderful 2016 for all of us!
- 1 pound chuck roast (or other stewing beef) cubed
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup green pepper, diced > I just use a 1-2 cups of a frozen onion, pepper mix instead
- 1/4 cup red pepper, diced
- 1/4 cup tomato paste – I used sun dried tomato paste here and it was GREAT!
- 1 1/2 cups beef, chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 large russet potato, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- Italian parsley, chopped – for garnish
- Season the beef with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and paprika.
- Brown the beef cubes on all sides. in a pan with high sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Add the onion, garlic and pepper mix and scrape up all the meaty bits that stuck to the pan (fond)
- Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add broth, bay leaf and vegetables and allow to come to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer and cook on a low flame for 1.5 hours, or until FORK tender. ( it should slide off the fork) Garnish with parsely