The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
By Richard Thomas
Few things symbolize Hungarian paprika-based food more than goulash, and I love Hungarian food. When I got my hands on some Bourbon Smoked Paprika from Bourbon Barrel Foods, a pot of beef goulash was the first thing that popped into my mind.
This is paprika smoked using old Woodford Reserve barrel staves, and if you like smoky paprika, this is the seasoning for you. As with the Bluegrass Soy Sauce, it’s so intensely flavorful that is a complete departure from your normal market shelf brand. In the case of using it for making goulash, the paprika provided as much smoke to the paprika as one might get from using liquid smoke for the same purpose.
Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs/750 g of stew beef, cut into cubes
1 oz/30 g/2 tbsp of flour
Olive oil
1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 red and 1 green pepper, de-seeded and thinly sliced
1.5 oz/3 tbsp/45 ml of tomato sauce
1 15 oz can of chopped tomatoes or the equivalent in chopped, fresh tomatoes
3 tbsp Bourbon Smoked Paprika
2.5 oz/75 ml of white wine
10 oz/ 300 ml of beef stock
Parsely
Black Pepper
Coat the bottom of a saucepan in a thick layer of olive oil, then put your stew meat in and brown it. Sprinkle the beef with the flour and stir, until the cubes of beef are coated in oily flour. Put the flour-coated beef in a bowl and set aside.
Coat the saucepan with olive oil again, and put in the onion, garlic, and sliced peppers. If you are using fresh instead of canned tomatoes, put them in too. Fry until everything is softened.
Put the beef back in and add the tomato sauce and Bourbon Smoked Paprika. Stir and cook for another two to three minutes.
Add the white wine and beef stock, add black pepper to taste, your canned tomatoes if you are going that route, and from here you can either cook on the stove top or bake the goulash. If you go for the stove top, keep everything in the same pot and simmer covered for 45 minutes, plus an extra 15 uncovered. If you go for the oven, transfer to an oven-safe pot and bake it covered for 90 minutes at 350F/175 C.
Serve on pasta or spaetzle with a sprinkling of parsley on top.
