Hungarian Stew

Hungarian stew was one of the recipes Michael made to impress me when we were dating. The extent of my cooking skills was the ability to boil water and cook pasta, and here was a man who knew how to make Hungarian stew! We have been making it every winter since then. Michael got the recipe from his college friend Nato. The essentials of the following recipe are the same as Nato's, although we've adjusted the amount of spices to suit our taste.

Hungarian Stew
serves 4 adults

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound of bacon (about 4 or 5 slices). To find a corn-free bacon, look for one that has just these ingredients: pork, salt, sugar, celery powder, and spices. I recommend a bacon I find at Trader Joe's called Classic Sliced Dry Rubbed All Natural Uncured Bacon. Another corn-free bacon is Hormel Natural Choice 100% Natural Original Uncured Bacon. Be sure that the bacon you use does not have any dextrose, sodium erythorbate, sodium lactate, or lactic acid starter culture.
• 1 medium yellow onion
• about 3 pounds of boneless chuck roast
• kosher salt
  
• 1 Tbsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. caraway seeds
• 1 tsp. dried marjoram leaves
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups dry red wine. I use the inexpensive Carlo Rossi Burgundy that comes in a screw-top jug, but if you have a more expensive wine you'd like to use, go right ahead.
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups Pacific beef broth. This is the only beef broth I have found that does not contain any corn products, since most other organic beef broths contain caramel color, which often comes from corn. If you cannot find Pacific beef broth, just use water instead.
• sea salt to taste
  
• serve with boiled potatoes. I like to use small red potatoes or Yukon Gold potatoes.

Optional Ingredients:

• For those who like mushrooms, you can add some quartered or halved white mushrooms to the stew about 30 minutes before serving.
• For those who like sour cream, put some sour cream on the table for people to add to their individual bowls of stew. Check the sour cream label to make sure there is not any corn, like dextrose. Do not use light sour cream, which almost always contains corn.
  

Instructions:

Chop four or five slices of bacon width-wise into quarter-inch wide pieces. Place the bacon in a 4-quart pot over medium heat and fry. While the bacon is frying, chop the onion. When the bacon is cooked, remove the bacon from the pot, leaving the drippings, and place the bacon on a plate. Add the chopped onion to the pot with the drippings and saute the onion over medium heat until it is softened.

While the onion is sauteing, trim all of the excess fat off of the beef and cut it into 1-inch cubes. Place the beef cubes in a large bowl and sprinkle generously with kosher salt, tossing the beef so that all of the surfaces are sprinkled with the salt. When the onion is soft, add the paprika, black pepper, caraway seeds, and marjoram leaves to the pot. Stir for 1 minute to combine. Then transfer the onion and spice mixture to a plate.

Add 1 tablespoon of canola oil to the pot and turn the heat up to medium-heat. Add the beef to the pot. Stir the cubes of beef in the pot for a couple of minutes so that the beef browns slightly on all sides. Then add 1 cup of beef broth, 1 cup of dry red wine, the bacon pieces, and the onion mixture to the pot and stir. If the liquid does not just cover the meat, add up to 1/2 cup more red wine and 1/2 cup more beef broth. Let the liquid come to a simmer and then turn the heat down to low so that the liquid is just simmering. Let the beef cook in the liquid for at least three hours, but up to five hours, until the beef is tender. Before you serve the stew, taste it to determine if you need to add any more salt.

Serve with boiled potatoes and sour cream.