Ungarian Style Gulash with Bread Dumplings

I always wanted to make some bread dumplings. Together with a mushroom ragout this is delicious. I found a recipe that sounded good, all posted in German and a ton of commercials on the page. 
So this post will be a rather lengthy one.
 

Bread Dumplings

I dried hot dog buns. Big mistake. They have a sweet after taste. Not what I want in my dumplings. Right now there is a french baguette, cut in half in over the length and it is drying now for the next week.
The recipe calls for
  • 11 oz of dried bread cut into cubes
  • 1 cup of hot milk
  • 1 medium onion cut very finely
  • 1 tbsp of butter
  • a hand full of chopped parsley (I used flat leaves parsley) 
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1/4 tsp of ground black pepper
  • a little bit of ground nutmeg
If needed
  • bread crumbs if needed
In a big bowl add the dried cubes of bread crumbs.  Heat up the milk. On the rim it should start to show little bubbles. Do not cook it, but should be to hot to stick the finger in. Pour the milk over the bread crumbs. Stir it, wait for a minute and use your hand to mix. The milk needs to be absorbed into the bread. Set aside for 30 minutes.
In the mean time heat up the butter in a frying pan and add the onions. Get them translucent but not brown. Then set aside and let it cool down.
On a soup plate crack the 2 eggs and beat them with a fork to an almost even consistency.
 
On the stove heat  a wide stock pot with lightly salted water and get it to a boil.
 
After the rest time for the milk bread cubes is over add All the remaining items to the bowl and mix with your hand. It will be sticky, but if it looks like it may fall apart add some bread crumbs, a little at the time. It still should be sticky. Form tennis ball size balls with wet hands and set aside. The bread should not have any hard edges anymore.
Once the water is boiling add the dumpling to the water. 

 
They will grow about 30%, so leave room. Adding the dumplings it will lower the temperature. So bring it back to a boil, but turn down the heat to simmer. Cover for most of the time. After 25-30 min the dumplings are done. Remove from the water and set aside.

Hungarian Style Gulasch

This is my version. here we go:
  • 3 lbs of  beef stew meat
  • 1/2 tsp of sweet Hungarian paprika
  • 2 fresh tomatoes cut into small cubes
  • 1/2 tsp of pink Himalayan salt ( for sea or kosher salt use a bit less)
  • 1/2 tsp of ground All Spice
  • 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp of thyme
  • 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika
Not on the picture
  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 1 1/2 tsp on margarine
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 tsp of Better Than Bouillon Beef stock
  • 3/4 cup of a chardonnay (something you would drink for dinner)
  • 2 cloves of garlic chopped
  • 4 cups of water
  • salt and pepper to taste
This is one of those dishes that need slow and long and easy. I use a dutch oven (DO) for this.

Melt the margarine in the DO. Add the onions and let them get translucent. Remove the onions from the DO. Leave some of the fat and and add the beef stew meat. Now this we need to get seared. So this will take some time over high heat, more like 20-30 minutes depending on how much water the meat releases. Once the meat has color, add the tomatoes and keep cooking. Don't burn the meat, but the tomatoes will eventually completely de-solve. The tomato skin will not be noticeable, as the the tomatoes are cubed.
Keep searing, and pay attention. This is not the time to step away, not even for a minute, stir.
After another 7-10 minutes the tomatoes should not be recognizable anymore. De-glace with the Chardonnay. Cook for about 5-7 minutes. The alcohol needs to be cooked off. Then add all the things from the 2 lists. Bring it to a boil and then turn the heat down to simmer. Check every 20-25 minutes on the liquid level. Add water if it is getting to low. This should be covering the meat but barely.
After 1 hour check the season level. It should have a bit of a kick to it and salt should be to your liking. Add salt, and smoked paprika as needed. Our smoked paprika is actually spicy.
My beef took about 2.45h to be tender. I take a piece and cut it in half after 2.5h of cooking process to see where it is.
- Mahlzeit-

 



 
 




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