Hungary?

Me too!

I'm always tryin to come up with new ideas for meals. Today seemed like a hearty beef stew kinda day. But I wasn't exactly in the mood for beef stew. I wanted something a little different...but using the stuff I had on hand. I'm far too lazy to slog out to the store today...it's icky...snowy and blowy.

I remember my mom used to make something she called "Hungarian Beef Stew" that was awesome. I never got the recipe...don't think there was one, really. It was big chunks of beef, potatoes, carrots and little pearl onions...maybe peas...I don't remember for sure, in a tomatoe-y/sweet/savory sauce. I do remember her using...gasp!...ketchup in it.

Hmmm...what do I have on hand that I could "experiment" with?

Ok, I've got a nice arm roast in the freezer. A variety of cans of RedGold tomatoes...whole, diced and crushed. Potatoes. Onions. A green pepper that's almost past it's prime...gettin a little wrinkly, ya know? Oooo..and part of a package of frozen carrots. I've got Hungarian paprika, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and garlic. We always have garlic in the house. It's as important as...toilet paper. Maybe more. heh

Hell, I can do this.

Pammy's Crockpot Hungarian Beef Stew - Sort Of

1 1/2 - 2 pounds of stew meat...or beef roast of your choice
1 28 oz. can RedGold crushed tomatoes
4 medium-sized potatoes
1 medium sized onion
1 large (slightly wrinkled) green pepper
1/2 package frozen carrots or 2-3 fresh ones
1 C water
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T Hungarian sweet paprika
1 heaping T brown sugar
1 T crushed or minced garlic or 1 t garlic powder...or to taste
1 C flour (to toss the meat in)

Chop up the meat and veggies into hearty-sized pieces. Toss the meat in the flour, shake it up and brown it in a little oil of your choice. Throw it into the crock pot when it's browned. Add the tomatoes, water, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, brown sugar and garlic and cook on "high" for a couple hours or until the meat is tender. Add your chunked-up veggies and cook on "medium" until they're tender.

Or you can throw the whole mess into the crock pot and cook on "low" all day. Whatever. I'm tryin to rush it a little and my crock pot cooks pretty fast.

Now, it's not done yet, so I can't exactly boast about it. But I've tasted the sauce and it's pretty damned good. I think a nice, hearty sourdough bread or maybe some home-made biscuits would be perfect with this. 'Course, I don't have either one on hand. But I do have some good rye that'll go just fine.

When it's all done, I'll update with a photo (if it's pretty) and the definitive taste test. heh

Update


YUM! The only change I made was that I thought it needed a little more...whang...so I added a few splashes...maybe a couple tablespoonsful...of balsamic vinegar. Perfect!