Our article will tell you how to cook beef goulash with gravy. This dish cannot be called unusual, new or trendy, but this is its peculiar charm.
Once upon a time, beef goulash was a much more common dish, thanks to which it could be tasted in preschool institutions and schools, student and factory canteens, buffets, restaurants and cafes. In Soviet times, this dish was prepared according to GOSTs, so the taste of goulash was almost the same everywhere. Modern culinary lovers have much more room for creativity.
Let's take a look at some great goulash recipes, each with its own benefits.
Dish features
Goulash is considered a Hungarian dish. However, the traditional recipe has changed a lot. In the old days in Hungary, potatoes, bacon, bell peppers, and fresh tomatoes were added to this dish. Yes, even today Hungarians know a slightly different goulash, not quite the one that is common in the post-Soviet space. It is served not as a gravy with pieces of meat, but as a thick soup.
Surely all variants of beef goulash with gravy are good. The step-by-step recipes presented in our article will help you learn how to cook this dish.
Pay attention to the photo. Goulash is a harmonious union of tender meat stewed to softness with a thick aromatic sauce.
Taking into account the rather high cost of food at the present time, it can be quite attributed to the festive cuisine. And yes, it tastes just right.
The complexity of the process is average, but it will take a lot of time. Therefore, modern housewives prefer to treat guests with goulash at a solemn feast or serve this dish for a Sunday family dinner. But, of course, you can cook goulash on weekdays. This treat will definitely bring them many pleasant moments.
How to choose the best products?
Before preparing goulash with beef gravy, it is advisable to go to the market or to a specialty store. It is worth giving preference to homemade meat, with a rich taste and well-defined texture.
For goulash, choose any part without bones and fatty layers. Suitable tenderloin of beef or veal carcass. The meat should have a rich color and a pleasant fresh smell.
Before cooking, remove all fascia, tendons, fat and cartilage with a sharp knife.
We also need vegetables. For different recipes, their list is different. In any case, they should be fresh and sluggish, and seasonal ones are especially good, only plucked from the beds.
Classic goulash recipe
Hungarians add celery, paprika and other seasonings to the right goulash with beef gravy. You can follow their example or pick up your favorite spices. Do not choose too active ingredients for this dish. For example, suneli hops or a mixture of herbs are best left for other dishes. In goulash, the taste of meat should dominate.
If you have never cooked this dish before, use the following recipe. It is simple, but the result is excellent.
You will need the following products:
- 500 g of beef meat;
- 1 carrot;
- 1 medium sized onion;
- 1 st. l. tomato paste;
- 1 st. l. flour;
- 1 st. l. sour cream;
- vegetable oil;
- salt, bay leaf, peppercorns to taste.
Before preparing the beef goulash with gravy, sauté the flour in a dry frying pan and transfer to a bowl. Cut the meat into cubes the size of a finger, grate the carrots on a medium grater, chop the onion into cubes.
Brown the beef in a hot skillet with oil. No need to try to bring the meat to readiness, you just need to wait for a golden color. Transfer to a saucepan, stew vegetables on the remaining fat.
Combine the fried ingredients, add flour and spices, add pasta and sour cream. If the gravy seems too thick for you, add a little broth or water.
Put to stew on a small fire. Cooking time - at least an hour. The beef should be soft. Don't forget to stir the goulash occasionally.
Cooking in a frying pan
This method helps to cope with the task even faster. You already know the approximate proportions of the products indicated in the first recipe. But to cook beef goulash with gravy in a pan, neither flour nor sour cream is needed. And tomato paste can be replaced with fresh tomatoes or juice made from them.
Heat a deep frying pan well, load both meat and vegetables at once. First, cook the goulash over high heat, stirring with a spatula. Bring the tomato paste to a semi-liquid consistency with water and add to the pan when the meat, onions and carrots are golden brown.
Immediately reduce the gas and simmer the dish for another 40 minutes under the lid. When serving, this goulash can be garnished with sprigs of parsley or basil.
Multicooker option
Happy owners of modern technology can easily cook fragrant and soft beef goulash with gravy. You need to start by frying vegetables and meat.
Load chopped beef into a buttered bowl, add finely chopped carrots and onions. Set the "Frying" mode and cook with the lid open for 10 minutes. In a bowl, dilute 1 tsp with water. tomato paste, add 1 tbsp. l. sour cream and 1.5 tsp. flour. Pour the mixture into the bowl, stir. If you like bay leaf flavor, add this ingredient. Salt the dish. Turn on the "Extinguishing" mode, close the lid and set the timer for 1 hour. Then add spices and stew goulash for another 5 minutes.
Cooking in a pressure cooker
If you decide to make beef goulash with gravy in a pressure cooker, remember to be safe! In no case do not open the lid immediately, it is dangerous. After turning off, you must wait until the pressure cooker stops puffing and making noise; then you need to open the valve and release the remaining steam.
For this dish, even "age" meat is perfect. The pressure cooker will make it soft and tender.
To make the meat fragrant, before frying it must be sprinkled with pepper and salt and left for a quarter of an hour. Fry a pound of chopped beef in a pan, transfer to a bowl. Fry the onion and carrot in the same pan. For this recipe, you will need a lot of vegetables - as much as meat. Half a glass of minced tomatoes, fresh or in its own juice, dilute with the same amount of water, add a teaspoon of paprika. Pour into the vegetable mixture, simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Combine the ingredients in a pressure cooker, pour in an incomplete glass of beef broth. Let it boil with the lid open, then seal and simmer over medium heat for 40 minutes.
While the goulash is cooking, prepare the sauce. Mix half a cup of sour cream with a tablespoon of flour, rub thoroughly. Pour in half a glass of cold water, bring to a boil.
After 40 minutes from the start of cooking, turn off the heat, let the pressure cooker cool down a little, relieve pressure, carefully open the lid. Add sour cream sauce to the bowl, stir, cook with the lid open for 5 minutes, stirring. The goulash will start to thicken. Add spices to taste if necessary.
Fragrant dish from the oven
This option will certainly be appreciated by lovers of unusual tastes. Looking to add some variety to a traditional recipe? Replace your usual sauce with beer sauce and cook beef goulash with gravy in the oven!
The beginning of the recipe is no different from other options: you need to brown beef, carrots and onions in a pan.
And then we will cook differently. Place the fried ingredients in a baking dish with a high rim, fill with dark beer. You will need 500 ml of foamy drink. Add bay leaf, salt a little, scatter peppercorns over the surface.
Send the deco to the preheated oven. Periodically it is necessary to check how the process is going by adding water. 10 minutes before the end of cooking, dilute half a glass of sour cream with a little water, add a small handful of flour (the more it is, the thicker the sauce will be). Stir and pour deco with goulash, evenly distributing the sour cream layer over the entire surface. Return the dish to the oven and brown a little more.
Beef goulash "like in kindergarten"
This taste is surely familiar to everyone. What is the secret of this dish? It is prepared very simply.
Cut 500 g of meat into cubes and fry in a cauldron over high heat. Add diced onion (250 g), mix. Tomato paste will need only 1 tbsp. l., it must be added to the meat and mixed. At the same stage, spices are also loaded.
The future goulash must be filled with water so that all components are completely covered with it. We cover the cauldron with a lid, put on a small fire and simmer for an hour.
You can cook such beef goulash with gravy and without flour, the dish will not suffer from this - it will be just as fragrant and tender. Yes, the sauce is quite thick. But in kindergartens, flour is added to goulash. It will take 1 tbsp. l. with a hill. It must be fried in a dry frying pan until it begins to emit a peculiar aroma, very appetizing and expressive. Then the flour is diluted with a small amount of water and added to the goulash for 5 minutes before the end of cooking.
What to serve with goulash?
Surely you have thought over the menu even before you cook beef goulash with gravy. Most housewives choose such an addition to this dish as mashed potatoes. This option is really good.
But he's not the only one. Boiled rice, spaghetti, fresh vegetables go well with beef goulash.
