creating cuisine

[calimac]

According to the recipe I followed, there is no such thing as chicken goulash. (This is apparently not actually true, not if the Google results for "chicken goulash" are to be believed.) Goulash, it said, is made only with beef or other heavier meat.

Nevertheless, I had the sauce makings for goulash, and the only meats to be served for dinner around here are poultry, so chicken goulash it was.

Goulash is traditionally served over noodles, but I felt like serving it with polenta, so polenta it was.

I shall whimsically call this Slovenian cuisine, as Slovenia is halfway between Hungary and Italy, on the same principle that a cross between a Siamese cat and a Persian is called a Himalayan. I'm aware that Himalayan cats are not actually from the Himalayas.

Long time since I've had goulash. Delicious, and B. liked it too. And Pandora, who is none of these breeds, stuck her face and little paws up onto the table to see what was going on.

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The most traditional is to serve it over spaetzle, which is a sort of noodly dumpling.

I suppose one could call it a sort of paprikash. Sounds like a good dish, regardless.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I've made spaetzle in the past. But it is alas difficult to find in the land of low-carb cuisine. Low-carb pasta, however, I have a good supplier for, and polenta is tolerable in small quantity.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that was why a Himalayan cat is called that!

Himi rats are like Siamese only lighter--pink/red eyes, no points on paws, white rather than light tan non-point fur. (Icon is of our late beloved Chiki, a Himi. Lesson learned, though: never give a rat a Sherpa name, as they like to climb too much anyway.)

Goulash

[visualweasel.livejournal.com]

Technically, the recipe is correct: goulash is made from the meat of *herded* animals (Hungarian gulyás hús = “herdsman's meat”). Since chickens don’t gather in herds, I guess you can’t officially call chicken goulash *goulash*. But of course, unofficially, you can add paprika to anything! And it sounds delicious. :)

Re: Goulash

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Well, there is chicken paprika, another well-known Hungarian dish, and had I been thinking of that at the time I came across the goulash ingredients at the little central European deli I occasionally shop at, I could have tinkered with the recipe. But in any case this was the first time I made it, and I prefer to play it straight first time and tinker later.

The recipe did say that goulash may be made with venison, but while deer may come in herds (I didn't see them listed on a quick flip through An Exaltation of Larks), they're usually wild and not the province of herdsmen.