GermanBratsMy name is Walter Kurt Willi Malchow.

I was born 1948 in Luebeck on the Baltic Sea. As the youngest of 7 children, I started early getting interested in cooking. The first teacher for me was my mom, she was Austrian and very, very skillful in all different kinds of cooking. 1965 was when I started my education as a cook, in the Hotel “Kieler Yachtclub” and Restaurant “Foerdeblick”. After that I trained in many different international restaurants (Thai, Italian, Mediterranean, and others). Since 2008 I have been producing original German Brats in Mexico.

Today I want to write about how “Gulyas” came to be. No other dish has inspired Austrian cooks and housewives more than Gulyas. The preparation is very easy. The recipe is from the shepherds, so more and more amateur cooks try this recipe.

The meal and word comes from Hungary. A Gulya was the one calling the cattle, therefore derived is Gulyas the cowherd. It came in the beginning of the 19th Century to Wien, in Austria.

Again, the name in Austria is Gulyas. The German name is Gulasch. For the Hungarian Gulyas is a soup, but for us, the German and the Austrian,is it a main meal. The history of goulash is closely related to that of the paprika. We are still not sure whether the paprika comes from America or India. Certainly it was know in tropical countries. There are many different recipes for Gulyas.

Here is a very common recipe from Germany.

Beef Goulash (for 5 servings)

1kg Beef Shoulder, 120 gr. Lard, 700 gr. finely chopped onions, 40 – 50 gr Edelsüß peppers (sweet paprika), 1 splash of vinegar with 1/16 liters of water, 2 crushed garlic cloves, Salt, 1 tsp marjoram, caraway, 1 tbsp tomato puree, 15 gr. Flour.

The onions are roasted golden yellow in the very hot lard, which one must constantly stir with a wooden spoon. Then paprizieren (the process of sprinkling and stirring in the paprika), stir thoroughly and immediately add the vinegar and water. Let simmer very briefly, add the meat (cut into cubes), a little salt, the chopped caraway with crushed garlic, and add marjoram, and tomato puree. Not entirely covered, sauté everything in its own juice. Depending on how large the meat pieces are, total cooking time around is 2-4 hours.

Bon Appetite