Beef Goulash

A good friend of mine gave me a cooking book "Meine Bayerische Küche" by Alfons Schuhbeck for my 30th birthday, i got awesome recipes from there and beef goulash is one of them. It's an excellent flavour combinations and absolutely the best goulash i've ever had. I know that it takes a long time to cook it but it's worth the wait:-)

Ingredients:

1 kg beef stew, pat dried with paper towel

2 tbs cooking oil

1 kg onion, diced

1 tbs tomato paste

1 litre chicken stock

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp dried marjoram, chopped

1/2 tbs paprika powder

1 tsp ground black cumin

1/2 tsp lemon zest, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

• In a large pot heat 2 tbs oil over medium high heat, add the beef and cook until the surface of the meat is crusty brown. Remove from heat and set aside. 
• In the same cooking pot add the onion, cook the onion until fragrant and glassy. Add tomato paste and cook it shortly.
• Dump back the meat, give it a stir and then add the chicken stock. Cook it for 3 1/2 hours over low heat and cover the cooking pot.
• After 2 hours cooking uncover the pot and cook it for another 1 hour. Mix paprika powder with a little bit of water (about 1 tbs). 15 minutes before the end of cooking time, add the garlic, marjoram, cumin, lemon zest and paprika mixture. Serve it with some noodle or rice.

Note: Do not over stir and stay at low heat to keep the meat from shredding apart. After 2 hours of cooking time, after you take the lid off you can add a little bit of water if necessary (i added about 1/4 cup of water).