For us, beef goulash is a real Christmas classic. It’s easy to prepare, which significantly reduces the stress on Christmas Eve. Who wants to spend hours in the kitchen? It’s much nicer to sit together with your loved ones in a cozy atmosphere and have time for each other.
So if you want to eat beef goulash on Christmas Eve like we did, here’s what you’ll need for six servings:
800 g Onions
1 kg Beef goulash cut into cubes
4 EL Lard for frying
150 ml dry red wine
250 ml Beef stock
1-2 EL White wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
2 EL Rose peppers
2 Garlic cloves
1 Lorbe leaf
1 tsp Caraway
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tsp Lemon zest from one organic lemon
1 tbsp Butter
This is how you prepare the South Tyrolean beef goulash:
We prepare the goulash either on December 23 or December 24 in the morning. This way it is nicely cooked through and the meat melts in your mouth.
First of all, a whole mountain of onions must be peeled and coarsely diced. The goulash is dabbed with a kitchen towel and seared vigorously in a roaster with the lard. It is best to do this in portions, turning the meat repeatedly.
Remove the roasted meat from the roaster and put it aside. Now add the onions to the roaster and fry them with the remaining fat until golden brown. Then you add the meat again and continue to fry it until the bottom of the roaster has a wonderful roasted aroma. In other words, a brown crust forms. Now deglaze the meat with the red wine and vinegar and boil it down a bit. The crust on the bottom should come off.
Now add salt, paprika powder and the beef stock and let your goulash simmer on the stove for about 90 minutes at low to medium heat. Of course, with the lid closed and every now and then you have to look and stir, if necessary pour some more stock. In the meantime, peel the garlic and chop it finely together with the bay leaf, the caraway seeds and the marjoram and mix it together with the butter and the lemon zest.
When the goulash is ready – it’s best to taste it in between – stir in the spiced butter. Now everything can sit in peace until you heat it up again for the feast.
With beef goulash we recommend the following side dishes:
The ideal accompaniment are South Tyrolean bacon dumplings, which you can also buy ready-made. We always take the ones from the butcher’s shop Villgrater from Sexten and the butcher’s shop Steiner from Rasen. Both are made by hand according to traditional recipes and taste unspeakably good! The dumplings only need to steep in hot and salted water for about 10 minutes.
In combination with the Val Vernosta’s Red Cabbage from Herbert Lechner, the feast is then complete. Heavenly!
