A Hungarian rhapsody

This old favourite is great whatever time of the year.

Here's my latest thought, “zhuzhed” a little. These days goulash seems to be served with rice or, spatzle (a soft egg noodle). I'm an old fashioned kinda gal with certain dishes and goulash is one of them. I like to serve mine, as was done in the 70s, with new potatoes. The ultimate comfort food however you want to serve it – by the way don't forget the sour cream - stirring in or even a blob on top – optional of course.

Hungarian Goulash

Serves 4-6 depending on size of appetite

900g braising steak, diced

glug of rapeseed oil to seal the beef

1 large onion, chopped as finely as possible

*8 tbsp tomato ketchup

*2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

*1 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

*2 tsps salt

*2 tsps Hungarian sweet paprika

*½ tsp mustard powder

300ml water

2 beef stock pots

1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water

small tub of sour cream - optional

Use a large frying pan and seal the steak in the rapeseed oil – in small batches – if you overfill the pan you will finish up with grey steak and it will “stew” - not nice! Set the batches aside in the slow cooker. Soften the onion for 2 minutes and then add to the steak.

In a medium sized bowl mix together the ingredients marked *.

Using the same frying pan – and therefore any residual juices, add the water and the stock pots, bring to the boil and stir until the pots have melted. Add the mixed ingredients * and pour over the beef.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until meat is tender.

At the end of the cooking time, using a slotted spoon, remove the steak from the gravy. Mix the cornflour with water and stir into goulash and cook on high to thicken.

Add the steak back into the thickened gravy and you're good to go.

Or forget the new potatoes and serve it with either of the bread recipes – in a bowl with bread to dunk.

Perfect!

GTSB – the photo-guide

Here goes!

The dry ingredients

The jugs – Guinness and yogurt

The bowl of black treacle

Slowly add the Guinness to the treacle

to loosen

Add the yogurt to the Guinness

and treacle and whisk together

The dry combined with the wet ingredients

The bread on the baking sheet – see the dusting

of flour underneath

The loaf marked into quarters – the long

handle of a wooden spoon works beautifully

Ta dah – fresh from the oven

Sliced in half – looks good enough to eat

A quarter, ready with a pot of butter it would be rude not to!

Personally I wouldn't mess with either of these breads – apart from the butter! I would add a good strong cheddar or maybe a Lancashire cheese with some chutney – but really it's entirely up to you!

You could serve warmed with a goulash or a chilli if you preferred the bread with a hot dish.

Very rustic and the ultimate in comfort food!

Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread … GTSB method

Here's the method and hints and tips.

Pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6. Grease a large baking tray or line with baking parchment. Put the flours, oats, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl and toss together. Add the butter and, using your fingertips, rub it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. In a jug or second mixing bowl, stir together the Guinness, yogurt and treacle, until the treacle more or less dissolves – this will take a little while, but stir patiently and it will come together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and, with a spatula, wooden spoon or firm hand, bring everything together into a rough dough. Knead for a moment on a worktop, just until the dough has come together, then shape into a rough ball and put on the prepared baking tray. Dust the ball of dough liberally with flour, then use the handle of a wooden spoon to press a deep cross into the dough, ensuring you don't go all the way through the dough, so all 4 quarters are still connected. Bake for 50 minutes until golden, crispy and steaming.

This is the recipe taken directly from the magazine. I've a few suggestions that will make life easier.

It mentions “grease a large baking tray or line with baking parchment”. In all my bread making I've never greased or lined a baking tray. I sprinkle a non-stick baking tray with flour and “swirl” so it covers the tray. The bread doesn't stick – ever.

If you take your butter straight from the fridge as you begin, weigh and cut it into small cubes and place on a piece of cling film by the time you've weighed the remainder of your ingredients your butter will be soft enough to rub into the dry ingredients.

With regard to the “wet” ingredients you'll find life much easier if you begin by weighing the black treacle directly into a small mixing bowl. Weigh your Guinness and yogurt in separate jugs. Make sure your mixing bowl is set on a non slip mat – if you don't have one then use a dampened j cloth.

Gradually drizzle the Guinness into the treacle, stirring all the time and it will loosen, continue until combined. Use a small whisk when adding the yogurt to prevent it splitting. The process takes no time at all.

There's photos!

Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread - “GTSB”

Here's the second bread recipe and it's divine!

I have always had a weakness for good bread. There's nothing like home-made bread – the only problem is that it's a bit of a faff and it takes too long … unless you're making soda bread – no yeast and little or no kneading needed – what's not to love.

Not surprising then that this caught my attention. The recipe looks easy and this is genuine research – so many recipes are a let down mainly because they are inaccurate – you're drawn in by the clever photography and the Food Stylist.

What follows is the exact recipe, then some hints and tips from me and finally a photo-guide.

“Wholesome, rustic soda bread looks and tastes like something that hours of love and care have gone into. In reality, it's wonderfully simple and with no yeast or kneading required, a warm loaf can be out of the oven in about an hour”.

Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread

400g strong white bread flour

extra for dusting

100g strong wholemeal flour

50g jumbo oats

10g fine salt

1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

40g unsalted butter, cubed

150g Guinness

175g natural yogurt

60g black treacle

You can see why I fancied this loaf!

Beautiful Beer Bread – hints and tips

Before you have a go at baking the bread here's the helpful stuff that the recipe doesn't mention.

I used mature cheddar cheese in the mix and unsalted butter, melted, to brush the crust.

The beauty of this recipe is that you don't handle the bread mix and so no need to knead – sorry, couldn't resist. Use a round bladed knife to bring it together.

Use a 2lb loaf tin 9x5½x3” (in old money) – 900g approximately 23x13x7cms (in new money). Grease and line the loaf tin, even if it is non-stick. You could use a cake or loaf liner – if you do then spray the liner with Fry Light sunflower oil. It takes away all the heavy duty washing up of your loaf tin.

Turn the loaf tin around after 20 minutes to make sure you get an even crust.

Let the loaf cool.

Most people are addicted to chocolate and all things sweet – give me a thick slice of good bread spread with quality butter and a lump of cheese any day.

The loaf is quite dense, cheesy with a slightly sweet background. It might sound strange but it's excellent. I thought the Soda Bread loaf was the easiest and quickest I'd ever made – this loaf is quicker still.

Just in case you've forgotten the raising agents are the yeast in the beer and in the self-raising flour.

Now for the Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread!

Beautiful Beer Bread

The following two breads have one thing in common – they do not use yeast in the traditional way as the raising agent, so no faffing around waiting. They are also delicious and moreish!

This recipe uses beer and self-raising flour as the raising agents.

Beer Bread

Serves 6-8

100g cheddar cheese

375g self-raising flour

3 tbsp caster sugar

330ml ale, such as India Pale Ale

20g butter, melted (optional)

You will need a 2lb loaf tin – makes one 2lb loaf

Preheat the oven to 160fan/180c/Gas 4.

Grate the cheddar cheese into a mixing bowl. Sift in the flour and the sugar, then mix well. Then, slowly pour in the beer, mixing as you go, until the mixture comes together to form a wet dough.

Pour the dough mixture into a greased loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the bread is risen and golden brown. To check if the bread is cooked all the way through, tap the bottom with your knuckles – it should sound hollow. During the remaining 4-5 minutes of cooking you can brush the crust of the bread with the melted butter, if preferred.

after adding the beer

ready for the oven

before the melted butter

fingers itching – leave to cool

just add butter to sample – worth the wait!

You might want to have a glance at the Hints and Tips coming next before you have a go …

Perfect for warm weather …

… the photo-guide

the Lemon Pot

the Amaretti crumb - there's no set recipe, it's

so useful for desserts - I grab a couple of handfuls

pop into a strong ziploc bag, bash with a rolling

pin and then roll to a fine crumb

the strawberries

check these beauties out – they are

at their best at the moment

All these elements can be prepared ahead, the pots need two hours minimum to set – I made them in the morning, to be served later the same day.

As an optional extra you could add a layer of strawberry compote to the Lemon Pot, then add the crumb and the strawberries to decorate. If you don't have the time to make the compote no matter – leave it for another day.

Now for some Beautiful Breads!

Strawberry and Lemon!

A perfect dessert for the warm weather – and the bonus – it's easy.

Lemon Pots

600ml (1 pint) double cream

150g (5oz) caster sugar

finely grated zest and juice of 3 lemons**

To serve

fresh strawberries

strawberry compote - optional

Amaretti crumb

small ramekins or shot glasses

Heat the cream, sugar and lemon zest in a wide-based pan over a low heat until at simmering point. Stir continuously for about 3 minutes until the sugar has dissolved.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly until lukewarm.

Mix the lemon juice with the cooled cream in the pan and stir.

Pour the lemon cream into the pots and transfer to the fridge to set for a minimum of 2 hours.

**If you don't have fresh lemons you can use juice and omit the zest – 4 tbsp of juice is equivalent to one and a half lemons.

Photo-guide up next!

A perfect compote …

… strawberry!

You have a choice here – to blitz or not to blitz this is the question – simply, if you are going to blitz and pass the strawberries then you needn't hull them. If you intend leaving the compote as is then I would hull them at the beginning of the recipe.

Strawberry compote

500g ripe strawberries, hulled

4 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

Cut the strawberries in half – or quarters if large – place in a large saucepan with the sugar and lemon juice. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and then simmer. Cover and cook for 3/5 minutes until dark in colour and syrupy. Compote can be store in fridge for up to 2 weeks. Again you can split the batch into two and freeze one for a rainy day.

If you prefer a smooth compote blitz and pass through a sieve.

Perfect with the ice cream – or – as an additional layer to the following recipe for Lemon Pots ...

Then there's the ice cream ...

There's only one thing wrong with home-made ice cream you need an ice cream maker – or so they say – there are delicious no-churn versions out there and the following recipe is an example – and easy!

No-churn strawberry ice cream

The recipe will give you 960g

750g/1½lb strawberries

juice of two lemons

1 x 397g condensed milk

300g light brown muscovado sugar

Top the strawberries, cut in half or quarters if large then blitz to a purée, add the lemon juice. Tip the blitzed berries into a large sieve and allow the purée to pass through. As you're passing the strawberries there's no need to hull the berries.

Place the condensed milk and brown sugar into a large mixing bowl and whisk on high for 10 minutes. I used a hand whisk. Eventually the sugar is beaten into the condensed milk and will give you a ribbon effect. Set your timer and have patience – it's worth it. You can help your strawberry pulp through the sieve with the back of a metal spoon. Fold into your sugar and condensed milk and mix until combined. I split the mixture into two boxes. Freeze for at least 6 hours. Remove from the freezer 10 minutes before serving – no longer – it softens very quickly.

If you want a perfect scoop dip the scoop into boiling water and pat dry.

As the cook I think you're entitled to taste the ice cream ahead of serving. I confess I'm not a huge fan as a rule but I was intrigued so I took a teaspoonful as I boxed it – one word - “wow” - I ditched the spoon and took another, just to be sure.

Yum!