More Hearty Winter Casseroles – Goulash

This is another of my old favourites from the 1970s. Cooked slowly in the oven for three or four hours, it transforms stewing steak or gravy beef into a savoury, slightly spicy – and in the 70s, distinctly exotic – dish redolent of paprika, tomatoes and caraway seeds. There's a potato topping to this casserole, or you can add dumplings instead to make a really filling dish

A Hungarian friend has since told me this is not an authentic goulash, so I haven’t called it Hungarian Goulash, as the 70s recipe did!

500 gm (1lb) stewing steak, cut into 4cm (1½ inch) cubes
500 gm (1lb) potatoes, sliced thinly
400 gm (12 oz) canned tomatoes & their juice
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced or smashed
slurp of oil for sautéing
1 tablesp paprika, sweet or hot, (or a mixture, depending how hot you want the goulash)
1 tablesp marjoram (or oregano if no marjoram)
1 tablesp caraway seeds
1 teasp sugar
Hot stock, about 2 cups – you may not need all of this

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are soft but not browned. Remove to the casserole. Turn up the heat and brown the beef cubes briskly all over. Sprinkle with the herbs and spices and add to the casserole.

Pour the tinned tomatoes and their juices into the frying pan and stir briskly to pick up any bits of meat or onion left behind. Add sugar to balance the tomatoes’ acidity, and pour into the casserole. Stir the mixture together. Add the hot stock, gently, a little at a time, until the meat is just covered with liquid.

Cover the casserole and cook at 160C (325F) for an hour and a half. Lower the temperature to 150C (300F) and cook for another hour and a half. While the casserole is cooking, make the dumplings, which you will add before the last 30 minutes of cooking.

If you’re not doing dumplings, layer the potato slices carefully over the top of the meat, pouring a little more hot stock over them to moisten them. Leave the lid off the dish and cook for the last 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and slightly crispy.

For the dumplings:
60 gm (2 ounces) self-raising flour or plain (all-purpose) flour and ½ teasp baking powder
a 250 gm packet of suet mix
Water, about ¼ cup to mix

Mix ingredients to a stiff dough. Divide into 8 and roll into small balls. Add these to the casserole when there is still 30 minutes of cooking to go, burying them in the stock. You may need to add a little more stock if the dumplings aren’t covered.

Serve with steamed and buttered carrots and cabbage. Serves 4.

Buon Appetito!

Tomatoes – the taste of Summer!

It’s Summer here in Australia, and when I went shopping for fruit and vegetables at our local farmers' market yesterday, I saw the most amazing range of tomatoes I’ve ever seen. I live in one of the most urbanised (and hip) parts of Sydney – Newtown – but we’re blessed with a weekly and superb farmers' market, where a huge variety of organic and almost organic foods is displayed and farmers talk enthusiastically about what they grow or rear.

The tomatoes ranged from barely the size of a grape to whoppers about 15 cm (6“) wide, and in colour from palest golden to the true tomato red. Many were heritage breeds, and I must admit, none were cheap. But the smell, and the shapes and colours! Gave a lift to the spirits even before tasting them.

Tomatoes are high in antioxidants, notably the chemical that gives them their red hue – lycopene. It’s one of the most effective antioxidants around, measured by how it quenches oxygen in laboratory tests. It’s 100 times more effective than Vitamin E, the most well-known antioxidant compound.

Given its antioxidant properties, there’s a lot of scientific and clinical research going on into the relationship between eating lycopene-rich foods and general health. Early research suggests some lowering the risks of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and even male infertility.

While tomatoes are the main source of lycopene, lycopene is also responsible for the colour of red carrots, watermelons and papayas, but not in raspberries, strawberries or cherries.

Of course, tomatoes aren’t the only antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables we can enjoy. I’ve written about the health benefits of some others: broccoli and grapes.

Eating seasonally – what a pleasure!

The wonderful aspect of eating seasonally is that food is at its best, nutritionally, but also in those important sensory aspects that make cooking and eating so enjoyable – taste, smell, colour, texture – you could almost say ‘personality’!

So here’s a couple of summer tomato recipes from Australia. For those of you in the northern hemisphere, here’s an interesting fact: processing tomatoes by canning or cooking actually increases the concentration of bioavailable lycopene. In fact, the lycopene in tomato paste is four times more bioavailable than in fresh tomatoes! Canned tomatoes and products such as semi-dried tomatoes and tomato paste will add lycopene and a rich flavour to your winter dishes.

Tomato Salad with Feta or Bocconcini



Per person:
• Handful of rocket leaves or mesclun salad greens
• Whatever fresh tomatoes take your fancy, sliced
• 3 bocconcini (fresh mozzarella balls) sliced
• OR 100 grams(3 oz) feta cheese, chopped roughly
• Handful of sweet basil leaves, torn
• Rock salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

Arrange prettily on a plate, and dress with a swirl of the best extra-virgin olive oil. Serve with crusty bread.


Roasted Tomatoes

Cut in halves 500 grams (1lb) of meaty tomatoes and lay in a single layer on a baking tray, cut side up. Sprinkle with salt, and brush with a little good olive oil.

Roast in a very slow oven (120 degrees C/250 degrees F) for 4-5 hours. Delicious on toasted crusty Italian bread with extra-virgin olive oil and some crushed garlic. Garnish with fresh basil.

Buon Appetito!