Grandma’s Goulash

1. Pat the meat dry with a paper towel and cut into cubes (3/4 to 1″ cubes).

2. Melt the butter or fat in a heavy pan (a cast-iron dutch oven is best) over medium-high heat. Brown the meat for 10 minutes, trying to sear all sides of the cubes. Do this in batches if your pan isn’t big enough to do it all at once. Set the meat aside, leave the fat in the pan.

3. Peel the onions. Slice the onions lengthwise, cutting them as thin as you can. A mandoline is great for this.

4. Add all of the onions to the hot pan. Sear the onions over medium-high heat. The onions will pick up the browned caramelized bits off the bottom of the pan.

5. Once the onions start getting some nice brown colour, return the meat to the pan, and add 2 cups of boiling water, brown sugar, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Bring this back to a boil, then cover and reduce to simmer for 1 hour or longer. The onions will almost completely dissolve into a gravy. If the onions did not start to caramelize before the water was added, the colour of the gravy will be kind of gray, but if they are well caramelized, the gravy will be a nice medium brown.

6. After an hour or so, remove the bay leaves. At this point you can check the salt level, and if you think it needs it, add another tablespoon of brown sugar. Thicken the gravy with a flour paste, and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

This dish is best served hot, over mashed potatoes. It is even better the next day, when the meat becomes more tender.