All Day Cooking!

First I wanted to talk about the 'Goulash' I made yesterday; details of which were included in my blog. I had a comment from Eduardo, who posted on 'The Real Truth Blogger,' facebook page, asking me to include a recipe for the dish. In all honesty Eduardo, I never really follow recipes, but will do my best to include it for you. Usually I cook in bulk, so I will reduce the quantities accordingly....

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Goulash

600g Stewing Beef
600g Pork
2 large onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of paprika
1 large green pepper
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce
Large tin of chopped tomatoes
1 Beef OXO Cube
Salt and Pepper to taste
Plain Flour
Olive Oil

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1. I usually buy the joins of pork from Lidl, in the GA Centre and chop equal quantities of pork and beef into a bowl. Drizzle olive oil over the top and add the two tablespoons of paprika,  Using clean hands, evenly coat the meat in the olive oil and paprika. Leave the mixture to marinade for a few hours, before cooking.

2. Add four table spoons of flour to a shallow bowl, take each marinaded piece of meat and gently roll it in the flour. The flour will help thicken the goulash, whilst cooking.

3. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pan; when hot enough add the pork and beef; cook until brown.

4. Chop the onions and garlic, add to the browned meat, continue to fry until the onions turn golden.

5. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes, Worcestershire Sauce, salt and pepper; next sprinkle one beef OXO cube over the stew.

6. Chop the green pepper and stir in well; add more paprika if so desired. I like a lot of paprika, so always go overboard.

7. Finally cook for three to four hours or until meat is tender!

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Please bear in mind, this is my take on a traditional Hungarian dish, so for the purists out there, it will never meet your high expectations. For myself and Darrell however, it is perfect. Most of the time, I don't even use beef, just using pork. It's cheaper to cook that way and tastes just as good.

Hope the recipe is fine Eduardo. If anyone has a better method of cooking this hearty dish, do get in contact!

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It's 1pm and I've been up since early this morning cooking. I like to cook in bulk, making my own meals for the freezer. Since I've had three days off, I've been shopping and restocking. I was at Consum first thing, buying ingredients; beginning by cooking up a batch of liver and onions.

I've always been a fan of liver, ever since I was a kid; I'm a bit strange like that and will eat most things. Liver is of course cheap; you get a lot for your money. Darrell isn't the biggest fan of it, but will eat it at a push!

Next, I prepared some braised kidney, yes more cheap offal. Once again, I love kidney in all its forms, especially steak and kidney pudding. No one else, especially Darrell will eat this 'acquired taste in food,' so this is for me alone. Four meals ready for the freezer. Not enough people eat this kind of food, mainly because of their own phobias. Meat is meat is meat, so get over your prejudged thoughts and eat the stuff; if you are a carnivore like me of course!

....and finally. I am cooking Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner this evening, using three quarters of a bottle of red wine; well it is cheaper to buy here, so why not. As a matter of interest, I wanted to ask readers of 'Spanish Views,' a question about the minced beef you buy in Spain. It doesn't actually brown in the same way as it does in the UK and looks a lot lighter in colour. All I can assume, is the cattle are fed on grain rather than grass, but I can't be sure; is this the case? Grain fed Cows produce lighter coloured meat; the taste is also different. Personally I prefer British beef, but what do I know!

Just finished eating dinner and brought the washing in. I managed to get three loads done on top of the cooking, writing, finishing my article for the GA Magazine and blogging. I love days like this; really productive and you can actually see an end result. The moral of today is: Get up early and have the whole day at your disposal; then maybe, just maybe, you might achieve all you need to! Eat your heart out  Mrs Beeton!

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