Spicy Goulash Soup
Ingredients
- 3 large beef shanks, marrow bone in (about 200g each), or beef necks, or
- blade steak to total 750g
- 1 large (2 small) yellow cooking onions, finely diced
- 3/4 cup diced tomatoes (about 2 medium roma tomatoes), seeds removed
- 1 cup diced sweet red bell pepper (1 large or 2 small peppers)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 10 ounces can beef consomme, red wine or beef stock
- 6 or 8 tsp ground caraway seeds
- 4 tsps Hungarian (not Spanish) sweet red paprika
- 1 tsp Hungarian (not Spanish) hot red paprika or crushed chili pepper
- 3/4 to 1 1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
- 2 tsps seasoned salt
- 1 1/2 cup diced potatoes (about 2 big ones, less if you want)
- 1 large carrot, halved and angle cut
- 1/2 cup celery, angle cut (1 big stalk)
- 1 to 1 1/2 litre water
- 1 cup flour
- 4 tbsp water
- 2 eggs
- pinch salt
Instructions
Cut beef up into cubes, discarding fat but not the mucilage. Brown to *really* dark brown in 2 tbsp oil, max heat. The darker you make the meat, the darker your soup will be, no big deal if you burn it a little. Add garlic and onions, saute until onions are soft. Add peppers, tomatoes, consomme, marrow bones, pepper, sweet paprika, hot paprika or chili (optional), salt, and half of the carraway. Simmer covered on minimum heat, barely bubbling, for 2 1/2 hours. At 2 1/2 hours, add water, carrot, and other half of carraway, bring to boil and reduce heat again to simmer covered. At 3 hours, add potatoes, celery, cook 30 minutes more or until potatoes are cooked but not mushy. At 3 hours 20 minutes, make the dumplings. To make dumplings, mix salt, egg, flour, and water in a bowl into a thick, smooth, wet dough. Dump dough onto a wet cutting board and with the tip of a knife, scrape little chunks (they'll swell) into the boiling soup, dipping the utensil each time to wet it. Stir occasionally to keep everything from sticking. That should take you to the 3 1/2 hour mark, and the potatoes and everything should be done. Cool without the lid, or the potatoes may keep softening. Enjoy with crusty bread!