← Nouns Cooking · Soup Pot

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp lard or vegetable oil
• 2 large onions, finely chopped
• 700 g beef shin or chuck, cut into 2 cm cubes
• 2 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1 tsp Caraway seeds, lightly crushed
• 3 cloves Garlic, crushed
• 1.5 l Water
• 2 Carrot, sliced
• 1 Parsnip, sliced
• 500 g Potato, peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes
• 1 Tomato, chopped
• 1 green or Hungarian wax pepper, sliced
• 1 hot pepper, to serve (optional)
• Salt
• Black pepper

Method

1. Heat the fat in a heavy pot over low heat and cook the onions slowly for 10 min, until soft and pale gold.
2. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the paprika. Hot fat can scorch paprika in seconds and make it bitter, so always add it off the heat.
3. Add the beef, caraway, garlic and a good pinch of salt, return to medium heat and stir for 5 min, until the meat is coated and starts to lose its raw colour.
4. Pour in about 500 ml of the water, cover and simmer gently for 1 hour, until the beef is nearly tender. Top up with a splash of water if it gets dry.
5. Add the rest of the water, the carrots, parsnip, potatoes, tomato and pepper. Simmer for 25–30 min, until the potatoes and beef are tender.
6. Season with salt and pepper and serve with fresh bread, plus sliced hot pepper for anyone who likes heat.

Tips

• In Hungary it is often finished with csipetke: pinched dough of flour, egg and salt cooked in the soup for the last 10 minutes (not gluten-free).
• Good paprika matters here; check it smells sweet and vivid, not dusty.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Offbeat Budapest The Spice House Piccantino