There are three major supermarket chains here (four, if you count Wal-Mart), Wegman’s, Weis, and Giant. Wegman’s does have a yuppie wow factor when you first encounter it, but that fades as you shop there. They have an odd inventory (they don’t carry things every store should carry), and more importantly, their meat department sucks and is laughably overpriced (8.99 for stew beef?) Weis is cheaper, but not kept well (interpret that however you will).
I usually go to Wegman’s or Wal-Mart, since they’re the closest. Weis has a post office, which is the main reason I go there. I had never been to Giant (I know, two years almost) until today.
Nice produce, not a bad meat department (it looked like they actually employed butchers, which Wegman’s does not–the idiots working behind the meat counter there don’t know beef from pork, much less one cut from another), spic and span, I was impressed. They didn’t have any stew veal, so I got a nice, lean center chuck steak–I can cube it myself. I’ll be going back to Giant–a lot.
Hungarian Veal Paprikas
I’ll be making beef paprikas today. Same recipe, same process.
1 1/2 lb. stew veal in 1/2-inch cubes
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 T. bacon drippings, lard or oil (in that order of preference)
2 T. Hungarian paprika (Spanish has comparatively no flavor)*
1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
10 mushrooms, sliced
2 T. each: heavy cream and sour cream**
1/2 T. flour
Saute the onions over medium heat, stirring frequently, until they begin to soften. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook another five minutes. Stir in paprika, veal, and tomatoes. Add about 1/4 cup water, cover, and cook over low heat for an hour, until the veal is tender. Add the bell pepper and mushrooms, stir, cover again and cook for 15 minutes, until the peppers are softened. Mix heavy cream, sour cream and flour, then stir into the paprikas. Cook a minute, just to get the “flour” taste out, and serve.
*Hungarian paprika comes in sweet (Noble Rose) and hot. If you like spicy, you can use a little hot (try a mixture of the two first), but I recommend Noble Rose for this.
**Please resist the temptation to increase this. Please. It’s so much nicer if you don’t turn this into sour cream with other stuff you can’t taste.
And you can’t have paprikas without
Spätzle
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 t. salt
Beat the eggs until frothy, then mix in the flour and salt. The dough should be very soft and sticky — halfway between cake batter and biscuit dough. Sticky, not a ball that cleans the sides of the bowl. Spoon the dough into the spätzle maker over the SIMMERING, not boiling, water and run the bin back and forth until the dough is all gone. SIMMER about five minutes, then drain and toss with melted butter.
