Ingredients
For the Stew
- olive oil
- 2 large onions, chopped very fine
- salt and pepper
- 2 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, pulp grated, and skins discarded
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 bayleaf
- 1 1/2 cups of dry white wine
- 1 1/2 cups of water
- a few twigs of fresh thyme
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 to 3 pounds of boneless beef short ribs, cut into “beef goulash sized” pieces
For the picada
- 1/4 cup whole blanched almonds
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 slice of white bread, cut into small cubes
- 2-4 garlic cloves
- 1/2 lbs oyster mushrooms
- 1 tbs sherry vinegar
- parsley
Instructions
- Heat up oven to 300 F
- Caramelize onions with some olive oil in a dutch oven until dark brown and homogeneous. Stir often. About 1 hour.
- Add bayleaf, tomato, and smoked paprika. Cook for 5-10 min until thick and dark. Stir often.
- Add wine, water, thyme, and cinnamon to the pot. Scrape all the brown bits from pan bottom.
- Season the beef with salt and pepper and add to pot. Increase heat and bring to simmer.
- Transfer to oven and cook for 3-4 hours. Every hour, stir and redistribute the meat.
While the beef is in the oven, prepare the picada:
- Heat olive oil in a small skillet and cook almonds until golden brown (about 5 min). Transfer almonds to food processor.
- Add bread to the skillet and cook, stirring often, until golden brown. Transfer bread to food processor.
- Add garlic to food processor and process until finely ground. Transfer mixture to a bowl, stir in parsley, and set aside.
- Heat more olive oil in the skillet and add mushrooms and some salt. Cook, stirring often, until tender. About 5 min. Transfer to bowl and set aside.
- Remove bayleaf and thyme from the beef. Stir picada, mushrooms, and vinegar into the stew. Season with salt and pepper.
Notes
When I grew up, one of may favorite dishes was beef goulash. We ate it with potatoes and red cabbage or brussel sprouts (when they were available). That dish was usually reserved for special occasions.
We always seared the beef first in the pot at very high temperatures. As you can imagine, that made a big mess in the kitchen and typically required a lot of clean up afterwards!
When Julia and I first discovered this beef stew recipe at ATK, I was drawn to it because we now could make a nice beef dish without all the mess in the kitchen. Granted, it still requires a decent amount of effort overall, but I’d rather put more time into cooking than cleanup.
And that was just the beginning. Once we got to taste it, we never looked back! I know, this is advertised as beef stew, but who cares? To us, it is the perfect beef goulash and it now is the only one we make. Once you found perfection, do not mess with it!
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