Before the sun starts to roast us, I will write a few lines for you. A long time ago I told my readers that there are traditions in our family. Every weekend we get together and have a grill party. But recently we have improved our leisure. Now every Saturday in our yard we organize real international cuisine. Sometimes we bring our recipes from trips to other countries, and sometimes friends come to us with their recipes. And our friends are also from different countries. Today we have a Hungarian spicy dish Bograch on the menu.
"Bograch" is an amazingly tasty dish. I can write a lot and for a long time about this dish. There is no single recipe. Each housewife has her own secrets or her own technology. Someone will add cumin, someone more coriander. Translated from Hungarian, the word "Bograch" means "pot". Therefore, the most correct and real bograch goulash should be cooked over a fire in a pot. Since I didn't have a pot for the fire before, I just cooked it at home in a saucepan. But now I have a pot and we go to cook our Hungarian potion on the fire.
This dish even has a legend. Once upon a time, when the Ottoman Empire conquered Hungary, the Turks took Hungarian shepherds captive with them so that they would be guides for the Ottomans. The shepherds were also forced to cook for the Janissaries. So one day, a shepherd accidentally threw a lot of hot paprika into Bograch and the Janissaries couldn't eat it. Then the Turks gave this food to the captured Magyars. That's when the Magyars realized that if you add a lot of hot paprika, the Turks will give them back food and the Magyars will not be hungry. But this is just a legend. And we go to cook Bograch.
For the fire, we bought some bricks and built a place where we would light the fire. My husband sawed firewood and lit the fire. While my husband was preparing the firewood, I was preparing the ingredients: pork, bacon, smoked brisket, potatoes, onions, carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, dill, parsley, garlic, bay leaf, smoked ground paprika, hot ground paprika, sweet paprika, salt, ground black pepper, black peppercorns, coriander.
When the pot gets very hot, you need to put lard in it so that the lard melts. But since I didn’t have lard, I put sunflower oil and smoked brisket in the pot first. Fry a little and add chopped onion. When the onion is slightly browned, I add the chopped meat (it can be veal, beef, lamb) and fry the meat until golden brown, add chopped carrots. And now it's time for our spices. I add a lot of paprika, especially hot. Mix everything well, let it stew a little and pour in a little water so that our meat stews well.
At this time, prepare the remaining ingredients: chop the potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, herbs and crush the garlic. When the meat is already soft enough, send the chopped vegetables and garlic to the cauldron. Now pour in a sufficient amount of water and cook until fully cooked. At the very end, we add the herbs.
Maybe my recipe is not quite perfect, but it is divinely delicious. And the most important thing for me is that in cooking you can always experiment and look for your own zest.