paprikash — Hungary

Paprikás is a Hungarian meat stew built on onion, paprika and cream, widespread across Central Europe and especially reported on the Carpathian plain. It belongs to a family of peasant dishes that also includes pörkölt and goulash. These three stews entered bourgeois Hungarian cooking during the nineteenth century, and outside Hungary many Western European languages loosely group all three under the single word 'goulash,' even though each keeps its own character within Hungary. To prepare paprikás, onion is softened in fat, then paprika is added and briefly cooked before red or white meat is browned in the mixture. The stew is simmered slowly, sometimes with bell pepper or tomato added, and finished by stirring in cream near the end of cooking. It is generally served over Hungarian egg noodles such as nokedli or galuska, or dumplings. Chicken is the most reported meat for paprikás, though veal and other meats appear as well. Some cooks add bell pepper and tomato generously, others keep the sauce plainer, and the amount of cream and the sharpness of the paprika used shift from one kitchen to the next.