Slovenian Dinner Week 24: Goulash for a Bittersweet Birthday

Menu
Beef Goulash II with Sauerkraut
Polenta
Green Salad
Brussels Sprouts
Strawberry Shortcake


It was a Monday in late June, on what would have been Week 24 of my Slovenian cooking project. For the second time in three months, we were in Florida, staying at the home of my husband's father and stepmother. But this was a bittersweet time, because our unplanned trip had been triggered by the death of my husband's mother.

My father-in-law's birthday had been the previous day.  There hadn't been a celebration. But today, my husband and I wanted to do something to observe his special day.  We offered to make a belated birthday dinner.

"I could make a Slovenian dinner," I said hesitantly.

I was more than willing to cook.  As I had learned the previous week, during sad times it can be a relief to perform a concrete, useful task--like feeding other people.

But I wasn't sure how my offer would be received.  My father-in-law is a fine cook who didn't start to slow down until he passed eighty.  During our spring visit, he had shared his special recipe for kreplach, a traditional Jewish dumpling with a strong resemblance to Slovenian žlikrofi.

He is a man of strong opinions about food (and most other things).  So it wasn't a surprise when he didn't immediately embrace the idea of a Slovenian dinner.

He asked what I had in mind.

Goulash, I suggested.  Slovenian-style, made with sauerkraut.

My father-in-law seemed puzzled but intrigued.  He had never tasted anything like that, he admitted.

My husband thought it was a fine idea.  His stepmother agreed.   She took us shopping.

When we got back, my husband and I took over the kitchen.

I followed the same goulash recipe I had used for my Week 4 Dinner, with a few small changes. I used skirt steak, a better cut of meat,  because it was already on hand.  This time, I used green pepper, as the original recipe suggested, instead of red pepper.  To enrich the flavor, we added some white wine toward the end of the cooking period.

We served the goulash on soft polenta, along with a green salad and some nicely cooked brussels sprouts, courtesy of my husband.

Instead of birthday cake, I put together strawberry shortcake with freshly whipped cream.

The goulash worked out well.  If anything, the changes made it even better, this time around.

My father-in-law liked it, too.  And he's not one to mince words, in or out of the kitchen.

Slovenian Dinner Week 4: Beef Goulash with Bread Two Ways

Menu

Beef Goulash (golaž) with Sauerkraut
Garlic Bread or Bread Dumplings
Green Salad

After last week's misadventures with žganci, a more sensible person would have been done with buckwheat. But I decided to the start the day with a quick little invention of my own, healthy buckwheat šmoren.

Fortified with buckwheat, I began my search for a dinner recipe.  Maybe something a little less exotic than last week's chicken ajmoht.  Goulash seemed like a perfect choice.
I found versions in all three of my vintage cookbooks, but some of them struck me as a little bland.  I wanted something with more bite than a traditional American beef stew, so I did  a little mix-and-match with the recipes to come up with the tastiest possible version.

1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper (my substitution for green pepper)
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 T. fresh parsley, chopped
1.2 lb. beef stew meat
1 T. paprika
1 t. salt
a pinch of cayenne
1 t. ground caraway seed
1 T. flour
16 oz sauerkraut, rinsed and drained (or not!)
water as needed

Saute the first four ingredients in a little olive oil.  Add meat.  Cover and simmer.  Add the spices and flour, stir to combine, and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add the sauerkraut and  enough water to achieve a stew-like consistency.  Cover and cook until meat is tender, about 1 hour.

The result:  A familiar dish, easy to prepare, and  with more tang than the typical goulash.  It seemed like the simple, mild-mannered cousin to  bigos, Polish hunter's stew. The sauerkraut flavor did seem  pronounced,  and I wondered whether I should have used less.  (Some recipes use none at all.)  My husband, on the other hand, thought we could have used more.

I had planned to serve the goulash with bread dumplings, a dish I had never tried, but I ran out of time.   So my husband threw together some garlic bread,  along with  the green salad.

We had plenty of goulash left over,  so I figured I would get another chance to make those dumplings the following night.

And, as I expected, the goulash tasted even better the next day!

(For a second take on goulash with sauerkraut, go here.  And for an even spicier dish, known as goulash soup or  bograč, go here.)