He did all the cutting and cooking, and with a not so very good knife. My mom's knives are so old and falling apart and somewhat dangerous to use. I need to get some more.
I pretty much left my knives behind. That's okay. New page now. Moving forward.
Brown food. Brown food never photographs well. I think you pretty much need to be a professional photographer to be able to take good photos of brown food.
Don't let these photos turn you off of this very delicious recipe. This recipe is fabulously tasty and really simple to make. It uses simple ingredients as well.
This is a recipe with a real history Back when I was a very young bride I moved far away across the broad expanse of Canada to live on the wild Western frontier.
Ok, so it was really a vast urban centre . . . Calgary. But it might as well have been the wild Western frontier, because I was young and away from my mom and dad for pretty much the first time in my life. I had nobody to call on for advice or help or company.
That is until I met Lil. Lil was the mother of one of my ex husband's best mates. She lived in a small town in the northern part of Alberta called Olds. She was the salt of the earth.
Lil was a fabulous cook, a very unpretentious cook. Her food was lumberjack food . . . as robust and loveable as she was, filling, uncomplicated and quite, quite delicious!
This is one of her recipes. I have been cooking it for and pleasing my family with this recipe for over 40 years now.
It may look a little bit like brown slop. But I can promise you it is anything but brown slop.
It is a delicious gravy, filled with flavour and with tender chunks of beef. I don't eat red meat very often actually. This is one of the few ways I enjoy it. Mrs McNevin's Goulash.
It is simple and unpretentious. Just like her. It is the kind of food that screams Home Sweet Home.
That is the best kind of food you know, Home Sweet Home food. The kind of food that builds taste memories.
It doesn't come in a jar or a package. It isn't something you can touch, but boy oh boy, it sure makes things, even brown things . . . taste spectacularly delicious.
If you are wanting to cook your family something hearty which is simple to make and oh so tasty, you really need to cook them this. Fabulous with rice or mashed potatoes. It also freezes very well in single portions for you to thaw out and reheat at a future date. I think you will love it as much as we do! It might even become a family taste memory for your family as well!
Mrs McNevin's Goulash
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of stewing beef, trimmed of any fat and cut into cubes
- 2 TBS cooking oil
- 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
- ½ cup tomato catsup
- 2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 TBS soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
- ½ tsp dry mustard powder
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Season the meat lightly and coat it in the flour.
- Heat the cooking oil in a large skillet and add the meat. Brown it very well on all sides. Add the onion and garlic, Cook for a few minutes longer until the vegetables are softened and quite fragrant.
- Add the catsup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, paprika and dry mustard. Stir it all together well. Stir in the water.
- Tip it all into a casserole with a lid and then put it into the oven to cook for 2 hours or so, until the meat is very tender and the sauce is thickened. Delicious!
Did you make this recipe?
This is an older photograph of it from a much earlier post. Before I knew how to take better photographs. Brown food is alway only ever going to be brown food I guess!
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