Vegan potato-mushroom goulash with caraway-scented rye bread: Review of recipe by Roland Rauter

Yet another review of a vegan recipe developed by Roland Rauter and published on his website under ttp://rolandrauter.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/kartoffelgulasch-mit-pilzen-und-hausgemachtem-kummelbrot/

(Photo of my finished dish follows!)

I’m married to a Hungarian and I was a bit apprehensive about serving a meatless goulash (really it’s a pörkelt because gulyás in Hungary is the soup, pörkelt is the stew), especially one that is flavoured with thyme and oregano! Like yesterday I already had almost all the ingredients in the house (apart from the juniper berries which I had to omit and the tomato purée which I replaced with Hungarian mild goulash paste. I also had only brown mushrooms).

I had to cut down on cooking time because I needed dinner on the table this evening extremely quickly. My family has come down with a particularly grotty cold and everyone’s sniffing and coughing, so I wanted something warming on the table in a flash.

Here’s the original recipe by Roland, at the end I’ll tell you what I did differently so that I could cook it more quickly.

Ingredients:

800g potatoes (preferably new potatoes), peeled

250g onion, peeled, finely diced

4 tbsp of canola oil (divided in 2 x 2 tbsp)

200g king trumpet mushrooms (not too sure of the translation), sliced

100g brown mushrooms, sliced

100g shiitake mushrooms

1 green pepper (I used red), cut into largish dice

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/2 litre vegetable stock

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp tomato purée

20g paprika, mild (I used Hungarian)

salt, freshly ground black pepper

2 bayleaves, 5 juniper berries

oregano, thyme (I used dry)

How to make it:

Heat 2 tbsp of canola oil in a saucepan and fry the onion until golden brown. Add the tomato purée, roast it briefly as you stir it into the onions, add the paprika, give everything a quick stir (don’t let it burn) and then add the vegetable stock. Add the potatoes (whole) and the herbs and seasonings and cook until the potatoes are tender. The goulash gravy should thicken through the potato starch and become creamy. You may need to add a spoonful of potato flour, blended with a little water at the end of cooking (after you’ve added the mushrooms and pepper) to thicken it a little more. Heat the remaining oil in  a frying pan and fry the sliced mushrooms and the diced pepper, season with salt and pepper and gently stir the vegetables into the potato goulash.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with freshly baked, warm rye bread flavoured with caraway (see recipe below).

What I did differently:

I didn’t have any tomato purée so I used Hungarian mild goulash paste from the tube and added a generous pinch of hot Hungarian paprika. Then I cooked the potatoes with the pressure cooker for 5 minutes while I fried the mushrooms, set them aside and then briefly fried the diced red pepper.  The amount of gravy was exactly right after I had added the potatoes and red pepper so I didn’t need the potato starch for thickening the sauce.

Now I’ll give you the ingredients for making the rye bread flavoured with whole caraway seeds which is served with the goulash.

Ingredients:

500g wheat flour

250g rye flour

20g caraway seeds, whole

30g fresh yeast

400ml lukewarm water

2 tsp salt

1 tsp barley malt (or 1 tsp cane sugar)

How to make the bread:

Tip the wheat flour, rye flour, salt and barley malt (or cane sugar) and whole caraway seeds into the mixing bowl of your food processor. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and add to the flour mixture in the bowl. Knead everything in the food processor until you have a  smooth dough. Gather the dough into a ball, place it on a floured surface, cover it and let it rest for 30 minutes. Knock the dough back and place it in a greased baking tin. Leave the dough to rise a further 30 minutes.  Bake in a pre-heated oven (fan-assisted) at 200C for about 30 minutes.

My local supermarket doesn’t stock rye flour so I had to improvise. To my shame I admit that I bought a small bag of bread mix, added caraway and baked it in the oven. We’re eating it tomorrow with the remains of the goulash which was – we all agreed – delicious and warmed our souls.