Goody Goody... Goulash?

Recently I’ve devoted a lot of energy to trying new things – mainly new movies and books, that sort of thing – but I’ve also wanted to try to branch out and develop some new skills. Cooking’s not exactly something I’ve expressed a lot of interest in, but I decided to give it a go over President’s Day weekend. See, several years ago, while serving a mission for my church in the Czech Republic, I acquired this book:

I don’t THINK the turducken was originally Czech…

I LOVE Czech food – all those fattening sauces and dishes dripping with sauerkraut. It’s all delicious. I picked out a recipe from the cookbook – kotlíkový guláš, a simple beef stew – and gave it a go.

I ran into some problems translating the recipe. There were a couple of words that I couldn’t find in any of my dictionaries, offline or on. Words weren’t the only things tough to translate, either. In my experience, Europeans measure most of their cooking ingredients by weight, whereas Americans usually measure volume. Conversions were a bit tricky, but (with a little help from my math-major roommate) I was able to get all the ingredients together.

Not pictured: The frozen pizza I held in reserve, just in case.

I’ve always viewed cooking as a chore. After all, it’s a lot more work to make a stew from scratch than to heat up a can of Campbell’s Chunky, especially when cooking just for myself. Still, I’ve always been able to follow a recipe pretty well – I haven’t ignored EVERYTHING my mother taught me.

Step One: Melt lard in a big pot with bacon. I’m pretty sure I heard Jenny Craig crying somewhere.

The nice thing about stew, it seems, is that once it gets going you don’t really have to pay much attention to it. After sautéing the onions, carving up the potatoes, and browning the meat, I put the whole thing in a pot with some water and let it cook for about two hours – long enough to watch the entirety of Kenneth Branaugh’s Much Ado about Nothing.

Uncovering the stew only to pose for an action shot.

We ate well last night, my roommate and I. The goulash sat in my stomach like a rock for the rest of the evening (I blame the lard and bacon fat). Sadly, I think the dish lacked something. Potatoes, for one thing – the recipe only called for about one potato to go with about a whole pound of beef, which is just silly. I’ll be trying the recipe again, adding a few more spices and definitely upping the veggie count.

But now you have photographic evidence – Braddy CAN cook.

It tasted a lot better than it looks here. Trust me.