Serbian Goulash – Гулаш
The best Serbian beef stew!
Servings Prep Time
4people 30minutes
Cook Time
3hours
Servings Prep Time
4people 30minutes
Cook Time
3hours
Ingredients
Goulash Gevirc
Instructions
Goulash Gevirc
  1. On a cutting board mix together finely chopped parsley, garlic and finely cut bacon. Hold the knife by using two handed chopping motion and run the knife over the mixture repeatedly to mince it. Store minced mixture in a sealed container in the fridge.
Goulash
  1. Trim excess fat tissue from the meat and cut the meat into ~1″ cubes. Pay attention to cut against the grain whenever possible. This will shorten the muscle fibers and in turn make pieces easier to chew through.
  2. Chop the onions. Note: The amount of onions required in the recipe is min. 50% of the weight of the meat. More than that is better, but it definitely should not be less than 50%.
  3. Coat the bottom of heavy large pot with olive oil and on top of it spread the even layer of chopped onions. Top it up with the layer of cubed meat. Put the pot on stove, cover and without stirring cook over medium high heat (8 out of 10) for 15 minutes.
  4. Using a flat bottom wooden spoon stir the mixture. Cover and without stirring cook for another 15-25 minutes. If dry add about 1/2 cup of stock before covering the pot. Note: You want to finish off this phase with meat starting to stick to the pot bottom and fond starts forming. That is what will govern if you should cook 15 or 25 minutes. Keep close eye to it to prevent excess burning.
  5. Stir the mixture and add about 1 cup of stock. Deglaze the bottom of the pot, cover, reduce heat to medium low (2 out of 10) and cook for another 130 minutes. Gently stir every 15-20 minutes and incrementally keep adding beef stock to maintain proper moisture level. Note: Do not flood the goulash by adding the stock all at once! Keep adding stock little at the time, as needed. You should maintain meat pieces being about 60-70 % submersed in the liquid.
  6. Season the goulash with salt, pepper, sweet paprika and ground hot pepper flakes.
  7. Stir in Goulash Gevirc, tomato passata and the remainder of the beef stock. If you run out of stock and you find the sauce is too thick add some water. Cover the pot, wait until it starts simmering and then cook for another 15-20 minutes.
  8. Taste the goulash and adjust seasoning as needed. This is a very important step that you should not miss! The dish contains fairly large quantity of sweet onions and meat and likely will require larger amount of salt from what you would intuitively anticipate.
  9. Serve warm over a bed of mashed potatoes or polenta.