Goulash

Goulash is a typical Hungarian soup.  If you are a regular reader to my blog, in few of my previous posts I have mentioned that I used to think that  food without spices is bland.  This was  my opinion until I started exploring different cuisines.  Spices definitely adds a lots of flavour to the food, but the fact is each and every food say it meat or vegetable have their own flavour.  Chicken with tandoori spices is simply amazing.  But when you taste just roast chicken with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, it has it's own flavour which does taste really good.
  
 Goulash is a very simple stew, traditionally it's kept as simple as possible, with just meat, garlic and onion.  A few vegetables like carrot, leeks and celery adds much more flavour.  Don't try to add any spices and transform this simple stew into curry( I'm saying this for people like me, who tries to add spices in all different types of food).  Prepare the way , how it meant to be, you'll definitely enjoy it and see the difference.
Traditionally goulash is a slow cooked stew, cooked in a casserole for about 2 hours, off course it's hard for me to spend such long hours in cooking, so this is a simple pressure cooker method which reduces the time for cooking.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
Lamb- 400 g
Onion- 1 big sized finely chopped
Leeks- 200 g chopped
Carrot- 2 medium sized chopped
Green pepper- 1/2 chopped
Red pepper- 1/2 chopped
Parsley or coriander- 1 tbsp finely chopped
Vegetable stock- 1 1/2 cup( 1 cup= 225 ml)
Tomato puree- 2 tbsp
Paprika- 1/2 tsp
Bay leaves- 1
Cinnamon stick- 1/2 inch stick
Garlic- 4 pods finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour- 2 tbsp+ extra
Oil- 1 tbsp

Method:
Wash the meat well, season it with salt and pepper.  Take oil in a wide open pan for browning the meat.  Dip the meat in flour and dust the excess flour.  Add 2 to 3 pieces at a time in the oil and just brown the meat, you don't have to cook it completely.  Take the meat and set aside.  To the same oil, add finely chopped garlic and onions and saute, transfer immediately to the pressure cooker in medium heat.  Add the bay leaf and cinnamon stick.
    Now add the meat, stock, paprika and pressure cook for 5 whistles.  Then add the leeks, carrot and any other vegetable if using , tomato puree and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Finally add the red pepper, salt and pepper to taste.  Then mix 2 tbsp of flour in 100 ml of water and add it slowly to the stew.  Let it simmer for further 20 minutes.Sprinkle finely chopped coriander leaves or parsley on  top of the stew and stir well.  At this stage the meat should look very tender, now you can take it off from heat.
Serve the stew warm with bread or rice.

Note:
Soup or stew taste at it's best when you use the best quality stock.

Linking this soup with Souper Sunday