Mushroom Goulash Poblano from Scratch

Hello again, and welcome.

When I was nine years old, my family lived for a short time in Germany where my father, who was a college professor, was involved in some kind of academic research. I can still remember a mid-day meal that he and I shared in the old city of Munich, perched side by side like two comrades on stools at the bar of a dimly lit cellar restaurant.

The server, a bulky red-faced gentleman wearing a stained apron and a huge mustache, set before each of us a large wooden bowl of fragrant stew, a deep velvet brown with spicy red undertones, and between the two bowls, a plate of thick sliced brown bread, and that was my introduction to Hungarian Goulash. Ambrosia.

As a boy growing up in rural Nevada during the great depression, my father sometimes spent entire summers away from his family to earn extra money for the household, living in a Basque sheepherder's caravan and tending the flocks. In such an environment, he learned an appreciation of simple hearty foods, "peasant" foods, of which he used to speak with such deep affection that he infected those around him with his enthusiasm.

Those foods are still by far and away my favorites, and just last week I prepared a vegetarian version of Hungarian Goulash for my family, substituting well browned mushrooms for the beef and organ meats that are traditionally used.

It turned out quite well and everyone was pleased with the meal, but it seemed to us that the dish could have been taken a bit further, that—as is often the case when we remove the meat from a dish that traditionally relies heavily upon it—some small something was still missing.

So after playing with a few ideas, I eventually added to the basic goulash recipe some of the elements of a Mole Poblano, that gorgeously complex chili and chocolate sauce originating in Puebla Mexico, which is commonly ladled over boiled chicken.

The end result is a rich Mushroom Goulash Poblano, which enjoys some of the spicy complexity of traditional Mole Poblano, while supporting, rather than diminishing, the wonderful flavor of Hungarian Goulash. I hope you will agree that this is a treat, very hearty and satisfying, with a warm, spicy finish that lingers on the tongue and in the belly.

Serves 6, Preparation time: between 90 minutes and two hours

Ingredients

3 Roma tomatoes and one Poblano chili pepper, placed under the broiler in an ovenproof dish until the skins are evenly roasted and blackened in patches, then cored and seeded. Discard the skins. The tomatoes can be coarsely chopped, the pepper julienned. (If the skin doesn't all come off the Poblano, don't worry. Its skin is quite delicate.)

3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced for soup

2 pounds of mushrooms, washed and thickly sliced

2 yellow onions, chopped fine

1 carrot, peeled and sliced as for soup

1 Bell pepper, with the stem section, seeds, and pith removed, then julienned

Small handful parsley, chopped fine to produce one tablespoon

15 blanched almonds

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cocoa

2 teaspoons Hungarian paprika

2 teaspoons hot New Mexican red chili powder (Use mild, if you prefer.)

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

1 dash cinnamon

1 pinch sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted, sweet cream butter

Shao Xing wine, or dry sherry

Parsley for garnish

Sour cream (Be sure to check ingredient listings on sour cream. All too often this is made with gelatin.)

Egg noodles

Instructions

In a large skillet, melt two tablespoons of butter, and sauté the chopped onions over medium high heat. Stir frequently, adding a little water if the onions start to stick, until they are nicely browned. This should take about thirty minutes.

Roast the almonds and sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium high heat until they are golden brown in color, but not burned. Place them both in a spice grinder, or a coffee grinder used for this purpose, and grind to a paste. Almonds can cause problems here. If they are stubborn, remove what will not grind well, and chop fine.

Put this paste in a small pot over high heat with 2/3 cup water. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Set aside.

When the onions are nicely browned, add to them the minced garlic, the teaspoon of cocoa, two teaspoons of paprika, two teaspoons of red chili powder, the tablespoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon course ground black pepper, and enough water to make a wet paste. Continue cooking this over the burner for another five minutes, stirring constantly.

Now, scrape onions and spices into a soup pot. Add the tomatoes, Poblano, Bell pepper, carrot, parsley, and enough water to cover with one inch, or so, to spare. Bring this to a low boil and keep an eye on it to maintain the level of liquid in the pot while you prepare the additional ingredients.

Add the toasted almond and sesame broth to the soup, pouring it through a sieve, and rubbing through the sieve what will pass.

Now, stir into the soup a dash of cinnamon and a pinch of sugar.

In a large, hot skillet, sauté one pound of mushrooms in one tablespoon of butter, over high heat. As soon as the mushrooms are added to the skillet, sprinkle over them one-half teaspoon of salt, and when they expel their juices, add the juice to the soup pot. When they begin to squeak and brown in the skillet, add a splash of sherry, or Shao Xing wine, to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom of the skillet with a spoon, and continue to cook until the mushrooms are nicely browned. ( You can use water to deglaze instead of sherry, but the flavor and aroma of the added wine is marvelous, and its sugars, when cooked down, cling to the mushrooms and aid in the caramelization).

Add the browned mushrooms to the soup, and repeat this process with the second pound of mushrooms. I do this in two stages, because if the mushrooms are too deeply layered in the pan, the moisture trapped between the layers makes the browning of the mushrooms difficult.

Adjust the level of liquid in the pot after the addition of the mushrooms by adding more water.

Allow the goulash to stew at a high simmer, or low boil, for another thirty minutes, then add the diced potatoes.

When the potatoes are tender (in about fifteen minutes), the soup is done. Serve it in bowls over egg noodles. This soup is very much a meal in itself, but as a protein supplement, you could top the goulash with a poached egg, add a generous dollop of sour cream, and garnish with more chopped parsley.

Goulash Poblano goes wonderfully well with a cabbage vinaigrette, sprinkled with ground roasted caraway or cumin seeds, and a nice heavy red wine. Of course, a slice of buttered bread is great. That, and a few sour pickles with a small glass of ice cold vodka, and it's time to put on some Gypsy violin music. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did.

Best Wishes, Scratch