Desperation in the Kitchen: Goulash/Paprikash

WARNING AND DISCLAIMER: I have become aware of the fact that people are calling macaroni and cheese, ground beef and tomatoes goulash. It's not. If I ever catch you doing it, expect a lecture!



Most of you know that I'm Polish. Like, from the old country Polish. Ella has been asking me a lot about my pre-America life, and she is especially interested in cooking food from there. I've made goulash/paprikash before, but the last time I made it, we had just moved into our current place of residence, and it happened to be the day that our new washer and dryer were being installed.
The installer guy kept asking me what I was cooking because it smelled so good. So, I finally gave him a bowl of goulash to shut him up. He deemed it the best thing he had ever eaten. It's that good!

Today, thankfully, there weren't any installers or repairmen of any kind to beg me for goulash. I say thankfully because...first of all, it's HOT. And I'm grumpy. Oh, and it's been a day and a half, ya'll. Like, I had a snake fall on me out of a tree. That kind of day. Come to think of it, I might be more grumpy because of the snake.

Anyway, enough of THAT.

Here's what you need:

Flour
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Sazon (because I can, and I've always liked the taste, and my Grandma Aniela used something similar)
Paprika
Stew Beef (1-2 lbs)
Olive Oil
Cooking Wine
Butter
Onion (not pictured because I remembered it at the last minute, whoops)
Mushrooms
Green bell pepper, chunked up
Beef Broth (also not pictured)
Worcestershire Sauce
Diced Tomatoes
Sour Cream
Egg noodles
*side note: I also use Vegeta, a seasoning blend my grandmother used. It's got MSG in it (a tiny bit), but I understand if you wouldn't want to use it.

Here's what you do:

*Mix flour and dry seasonings.

*Dredge your beef in the seasoned flour

*Heat up some olive oil in a pan. Make sure it actually gets hot enough to sear the beef. Add in your onion and green pepper. Throw in a splash of cooking wine, and a tiny pat of butter.

 

 

*Let that cook down a bit, and stir, stir, stir. Add your mushrooms in and add some beef broth

 

 



*Let that cook down a bit. Add Worcestershire sauce to taste. Add your tomatoes. You'll need to adjust the seasonings after this, because it will taste tomato-ish.

 



*While all of that deliciousness is cooking, you'll want to start your noodles

*When the noodles are almost done, go back to your goulash. Drop in a few dollops of sour cream, then mix

 

 

Serve over hot noodles. Oh. my. goodness!