Potato pancakes with beef goulash: a Hungarian-style folded plate
A dish known from Polish milk bars and mountain hostels, and far better at home, because the pancake reaches the plate straight from the pan instead of standing an hour under a heat lamp. Two things decide everything: the goulash needs ninety minutes of gentle stewing so the beef falls apart under a fork, and the sweet paprika must go into a pot that is off the heat, because scorched paprika turns bitter and there is no undoing it.
Your own work in that: 50 min.
- Goulash 110 min
- Pancakes 40 min
- Assembling 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBrown the beef
Cut the meat into 3 cm cubes and pat it dry with kitchen paper. Brown it in the lard in batches (usually three), 4 minutes each, until every cube is dark on all sides, about 12 minutes in total. Lift each batch onto a plate. Meat crowded into the pot releases its juices and stews in grey water instead of browning, and all the colour and depth of a goulash comes from that crust.
Ingredients: 700 g stewing beef · 3 pcs onions · 2 pcs red bell peppers · 2 pcs tomatoes · 3 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp caraway seeds · 1 tsp marjoram · 2 tbsp lard · 400 ml beef stock · 1 tbsp plain flour · 1½ tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper
TipDrying the meat is not fussiness: the water on a wet surface has to boil off first, and until it does the meat simmers in its own juice instead of browning.
In batches, four minutes, until dark brownSoften the onion, then add the paprika
In the same pot fry the sliced onion 10 minutes over medium heat, until soft and browning at the edges. Add the garlic and caraway for one minute, then take the pot off the heat, add the sweet paprika and stir it into the hot fat for half a minute.
TipGround paprika burns in a matter of seconds and a burnt one makes the goulash bitter for good. A pot off the burner holds enough heat to open the paprika up and too little to scorch it.
Off the heat, paprika into the hot fatStew for an hour and a half
Return the meat to the pot with any juices from the plate, add the chopped tomatoes and pour in hot stock so it reaches three quarters of the way up the meat, no higher, and add a teaspoon of salt. Cover and stew over the lowest heat 90 minutes, stirring every half hour. Add the peppers, cut into strips, for the last 20 minutes, so they don't collapse into mush.
TipToo much liquid is the usual mistake: a goulash should be a thick sauce clinging to the meat, not a soup. The beef and onion will release plenty of their own.
Barely bubbling, covered, ninety minutesGrate the potatoes
Grate the potatoes and the onion on the fine side of a box grater into a bowl (the onion slows down the browning of the potato). Tip it into a sieve and squeeze, and let the drained liquid stand 3 minutes: white starch settles at the bottom. Pour off the water, return the starch to the potatoes together with the eggs, flour, salt and pepper.
Ingredients: 1000 g potatoes · 1 pcs onion · 2 pcs eggs · 3 tbsp plain flour · 1 tsp salt · 1 pinch pepper · 150 ml oil for frying
TipThe starch from the bottom of the bowl binds the mixture without extra flour. It is what makes the pancakes crisp instead of stodgy.
Squeezed dry, the starch goes back inFry the pancakes
Make one large pancake per serving. Heat a thin layer of oil in a frying pan (about 26 cm); a drop of the mixture should sizzle at once. Add a quarter of the mixture and spread it with a spoon into a thin pancake about 22 cm across. Fry 3–4 minutes a side, until deep gold and crisp at the edge; turn it with a wide spatula, or slide it onto a plate and flip it back into the pan. Add a little more oil before each pancake. Fry them one after another, about 30 minutes in total (half that with two pans). Lift them onto a rack, not onto kitchen paper: on paper the underside goes soft. Keep the finished pancakes on a rack in an oven at 100 °C.
TipFry the mixture as soon as it is mixed. It darkens and weeps as it stands; if liquid gathers at the bottom of the bowl before the next pancake, pour it off, or the pancake will come out heavy.
Deep gold, onto a rack, not paperThicken the goulash and assemble
Stir the flour smooth into 3 tablespoons of cold water, pour it into the goulash and cook 3 minutes, until the sauce thickens and coats a spoon. Season with the rest of the salt, pepper and marjoram rubbed between your palms. Lay a pancake on the plate, spoon a portion of goulash onto one half, fold the other half over, add a spoon of sour cream and chopped parsley.
Ingredients: 150 g sour cream, 18 % · ½ bunch parsley
Goulash on one half, the other half folded over
Before you start
Goulash the day before
Left in the fridge overnight it is noticeably better: the fat sets on top and can be lifted off, and the paprika spreads through the whole sauce. In the morning you only reheat it and fry the pancakes.
Pancakes without flour
If the potatoes are very floury, the recovered starch is enough on its own and the flour can go. Test one pancake before you fry the whole batch.
With chicken instead
Boneless thighs cut the stewing to 35 minutes. The goulash is lighter, so add a spoon of tomato paste to give the sauce some depth.
Reheating
Pancakes come back in a 180 °C oven for 6 minutes, on a rack. In a microwave they go soft and never crisp up again.
