Had Hungarian beef stew (Perkert) and nokedli (Spaetzle)
Man, did it turn out great!
The stew..
Season 3 pounds of stew meat with salt and pepper. Get your stew pot screaming hot and add some olive oil. Brown the meat in several batches. The meat should have a nice dark color and nice brown bits in the bottom of the pot when finished.
Remove all meat from the pan. Lower heat to about a high-medium.
Gently sauté two large softball size onions (finely diced) until translucent.
Add a pound of sliced mushrooms and cook until they render their Juice.
Remove your pot from the heat and add 1/4 cup of good Hungarian paprika. You do this off the heat because you do not want to fry the paprika..
Add back in the meat. Add 1/2 red wine and stir.
Add 6 or 8 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of caraway seeds, a good shot of ground thyme, some dried thyme leaves. Stir.
If you have access to them, try to get some dried porcini mushrooms. I like to take a small palm full of them, crush them up with my fingers, and add directly into the pot. This really gives the flavor of the stew a boost.
Now the hard part. Cook at a very low simmer for 3 to 4 hours, stirring every 20 to 30 minutes. You will know when the stew is done when you have lost 2/3 of the volume and the stew is greatly thickened.
The spaetzle..
I like to make this in a stand mixer
combine 3 cups of flour, 4 eggs, a teaspoon of salt, and a dash of nutmeg.
Beat (all of the above) on low using a paddle attachment. As it mixes, slowly add milk until you have the right consistency (a very, very thick and sticky batter. if you dip a fork into it and then pull it out, you should have a "string" of batter stuck to it).
Continue beating for 5 or 10 minutes. Cover with a cloth and let the batter rest for an hour. Beat again for another 5 minutes.
I have a machine that is much like a mandolin, except a small bucket of batter is drawn over a series of holes. That, in turn falls into your pot of boiling water. If you really like spaetzle, it is well worth the money. Here is a picture of one...
Place machine over a pot of boiling water. Pour half the batter into the little bucket. slide the bucket back and forth until all of the batter in the bucket is gone.
Wait about 1 minute, gently stirring the spaetzle. At the end of 1 minute, use a slotted spoon to scoop the the spaetzle out of boiling water and immediately into a bowl of cold water. This stops the cooking.
Repeat the above for the remainder of the batter.
When all of the batter has been processed, pour the spaetzle into a strainer and rinse well in cold water. Rinsing the spatzle well will prevent them from sticking together later.
Drain well and enjoy.
. But your way provides a ready supply.
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