Monday, February 23, 2009

Fun in the Kitchen

It looks like I'm multitasking this week. Christina at had this wonderful real German Cuisine recipe challenge I simply could not resist. She wants us to mess experiment with German cuisine and asked us to ruin prepare Rahmgulash this week, a creamy veal goulash. In Belgium we call it Hungarian Goulash.
I really don't know why, but I have never made Goulash before in my life, so I promised her I would participate. And then I remembered I had signed up for Fun Monday as well!

But given the fact that both challenges happen in my kitchen ... I'm doing them both!



Ari is our host for today, and this is what she wants to know:

It's time for show and tell. What does your kitchen counter look like right now? (And no fair cleaning just for the picture!) Do you have any favourite or unusual items on your counter?


Now, all of you nosy sweet Fun Monday people who want to know what mess I made while doing this awesome recipe what my kitchen counter looks like, you'll better scroll down. Now GO! Shoosh!
But ... it would be such a pity to miss out on such a delicious recipe, don't you think?

So here's the recipe:

By the way, you can click to enlarge any of the collages, okay?


You'll need:
2 1/2 large mild onions.
2 cans of peeled tomatoes
3 tablespoons of clarified butter
About 1/4 liter of beef stock ( I used a stock cube)
1 kg of veal for goulash, cut in bite sized pieces.
150g of heavy cream.
2 tablespoons of Crème fraîche ( sour cream)
salt, freshly ground pepper.
1 tablespoon of sweet paprika powder.
a sprinkling of hot paprika powder.
1 tablespoon of citrus zest. ( I used the zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon)


Gently melt the butter on low heat, to clarify.
Use the oily part of the butter only to brown the meat in.
The oily part of the butter supports much higher temperatures without burning.
Brown the meat ( in small portions ) on a high heat.

Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the onions.
Add the chopped onions to the veal, and let it cook for a minute.
Sprinkle everything with the paprika, and let it sweat for a moment.

Heat the beef stock.
Drain the tomatoes and chop them roughly as well.
Add the stock and the chopped tomatoes.
Cover with a lid and let it simmer on a gentle heat for 45 min to an hour, until the veal is tender.


Stir in the cream, salt, pepper and citrus zest.
The original recipe did not specify what kind of zest to use, but referring to an Italian Osso Bucco recipe, - which is also veal in a tomato-ish sauce - I decided to add some orange zest as well.
Cover with the lid again, and let it simmer for another fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the side dishes.
We had steamed baby potatoes, a green salad, cherry tomatoes and grated black radish with lemon and sour cream. Sprinkle some chopped parsley on it as a finishing touch.


There was no denying. It tasted delicious!

Okay. Now STOP DROOLING!!


This is what my kitchen counter looked like afterwards.
Anyone care to do the dishes for me?
Thanks.



What? Show off? Now don't give me that!! You did get dirty pictures as well, didn't you?
Of course it's clean, I can't stand a dirty kitchen.
And what about my favourite stuff? All of it, actually.
Let's see, I really really like my espresso machine, and the steamer right next to it.
And I love how my utensils are all within reach.
And yes, I do have a lot of stuff. There are three pepper mills and three salt mills there, that's correct! And I do use all three of them!

There, that's it from me today, now go off and snoop in somebody else's kitchen now!
Visit the other Fun Monday players here .
And don't forget to drop by at Christina's for the German recipe challenge, okay?