Beef Goulash

When I was traveling around Europe in the summer I couldn't help but bring back a load of local bits and bobs to cook with! One of the things I brought back was some goulash spices from the Naschkmarkt in Vienna, because after trying goulash in Prague (and later in Hungary) I was keen to make it myself!

Last night I made this for me and boyfriend and it was really delicious! As you probably can't make a trip to Vienna just to pick up the spices, I'd say to use paprika instead. It worked brilliantly served with just some crusty bread and a green salad, but you could always have a go at some dumplings to serve in the stew or it would be tasty with some rice!

 

serves 2

Ingredients

olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped/crushed
1-2 teaspoons goulash spices/paprika
salt and black pepper
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
stewing steak (enough for two people), diced
1 beef stock cube
1/4 glass of dry white wine
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
a small handful of fresh parsley, chopped (or a teaspoon of dried if you forget to pick up the fresh stuff like I did!)
2 tablespoons sour cream

to serve
crusty bread (I used part-baked rolls from the supermarket, but some nice bread from the bakery would be lovely as well!)
green salad leaves
 

Preheat your oven to about 130 degrees.

Fry the onion in a splash of olive oil for a few minutes over a medium heat. As the onion is starting to soften, mix in the garlic, spices and a generous twist of salt and black pepper. Fry for a further two minutes before adding your chilli and pepper. Once the peppers have started to soften, tip the contents of your pan into a casserole dish.



Add the steak to the pan and mix it around until it is sealed all over (this will only take a couple of minutes). Add about 100ml of boiling water to your stock cube (probably less than the packet will recommend) and pour into the pan. Mix in the wine, tomato puree, and chopped tomatoes. Heat through for a couple of minutes and then add to the casserole dish, mixing with the veg. You should have enough liquid for all of the ingredients to be just covered.






Loosely wrap some silver foil around the casserole dish (or use a lid if you have one) and pop in the oven for about an hour and a half, stirring half way through. About 10 minutes before the end of cooking, take out and add the parsley and sour cream. Mix and return to the oven without the foil. I put the bread into the oven at this point to bake for ten minutes to serve warm with the goulash.


Serve with your chosen accompaniment and enjoy!

Food experiences in Beautiful Bosnia

Interrail Stop 8

To round off our interrail tour of Eastern Europe before hitting the Croatian beach, we visited the beautiful Bosnia and Herzegovina. Definitely one of my favourite places on our trip, with amazing scenery, fascinating markets and welcoming people, but a country still feeling the after effects of the devastating war in the 1990s. We chatted to the locals and absorbed ourselves in the history, and, of course, sampled some of the food!

Sarajevo

We stopped firstly in Sarajevo and walked all over the city, visiting the many different places of worship and browsing the markets full of interesting items. Down one of these side streets we stopped for a bite to eat in a little cafe and shared a huge plateful of ćevapčići - tasty little sausages that are a national dish in Bosnia and Herzegovina and can also be found in some of the other Southeastern European countries. Served typically with a flat bread, raw onions and sour cream or soft cheese... it's a kind of kebab that tastes AMAZING!!


After having this for lunch in the cafe, we later found the hostel guys cooking it on a BBQ... which was soooo much more delicious! Less grease but still all of the flavour, and a great way to line the stomach before a night in Sarajevo!
 

Mostar

We then traveled down to Mostar, a city you might recognise by its Old Bridge (Stari Most), which proudly stands now as a handmade reconstruction of the same bridge that stood before the war and a symbol of Bosnia's recovery.


During our brief stay in Mostar we went on a trip in a small group to see the small village at the source of the Buna river, Blagaj and the Kravice Falls (the gorgeous scene in the photo at the top of this post). At the river, we we lucky enough to eat a traditional breakfast of Burek and Bosnian Coffee.

 

We had already sampled Burek on other stops, but this was a different dish again... with the pastry formed into a different shape and filled with either cheese or meat... it was a hearty breakfast for a day of walking, swimming and jumping in at the waterfall!

The Bosnian coffee was strong and rich - not my cup of tea (or coffee!!!) as I tend to prefer it super milky - but it was worth a try and I'm sure it would be delicious if you weren't a wussy coffee drinker like me!!


So there you have it... a brilliant end to our touring around Eastern Europe with some delicious food and some of the best sights. If you've ever wondered about visiting Bosnia, then stop wondering and just go!

Thanks for reading about the food we tasted on our trip! I can't wait to go and see some more amazing sights and try some new dishes some time soon! But for now, keep popping back to see some recipes, cookbook and restaurant reviews...

Fabulous Food in Slovenia

 The sun's out and it's taken me back to my interrail tour around Europe in the summer... so today I thought I'd share a few of the delicious food experiences we had in Slovenia. This beautiful country was probably up there as one of my favourites - some of the scenery reminded me of Italy but without the price tag and some of the buildings reminded me of Austria! It was absolutely lovely and we managed to try a range of tasty dishes...

Interrail Stop 7

 

Street Eats

We stayed in the capital Ljubljana for a couple of nights, exploring Lake Bled and Lake Bohenj on one day and the city and castle the next.

Just around the corner from our hostel was a bakery called 'Dunajska Pekarna' that made the best chocolate croissant I have ever had. Seriously. It was warm and soft with melted chocolate in the middle and crispy pastry around the edge...  YUM!

 
On the topic of tasty sweets, we also sampled this traditional Bled cream cake: 'kremšnita'. Lake Bled (photo above) was probably the highlight of our stay in Slovenia. Famous for the island in the middle of the lake, the area has also got a name for this incredible cake. Looking at the photo you might think that it would taste sickly or stodgy, but you must trust me when I say this is just SO GOOD! Light, fluffy cream and custard in the middle, with a satisfyingly sweet pastry base and topping... I repeat, SO GOOD!

This next street eat is Börek (or burek) and doesn't just appear in Slovenia. With Ottoman origins, we came across it in the former Yugoslavia countries, each putting their own twist on the style. In Slovenia, the burek that we ate was meat filled and tasty! Shaped in a spiral and then shared between the two of us, this was a great meal on the go. We couldn't decide exactly what it was made from - it seemed to be a dough somewhere in between filo pastry and pasta (!!) - but whatever it was, it was delicious!

And last but not least, the smell of Nutella tempted us to try another pancake - very similar to those that we had in Belgrade, but this time we chose a sweet filling. I don't think that I need to say very much for you to know that this was just awesome!!

So by the end of our stay in Slovenia we had sampled several of the street eats and (though I may have left with a couple more pounds in weight!) none of it broke the bank!

Meal Out

 

As none of the food was particularly expensive (and all totally yummy!) we also treated ourselves to a meal out to a restaurant recommended by our hostel owner. The restaurant was called Gujzina and was not far from the main square and the triple bridge.

It was a beautiful restaurant and we were lucky enough to be seated at the window. We admired the loveliness of the whole thing and then proceeded to order the cheapest meal we possibly could (I know it's a bad way to choose from a menu but we were running out of money!!), settling for a set two course meal for two, including a white wine spritzer each! When the food arrived, believe me, we could not have been more delighted at the meal we had chosen!

A cold meat board starter with freshly baked bread was our first treat of the evening - a tantalizing selection of meats with smooth pate, a tuna mix, cheese and salad accompaniments - I don't think I could have picked a better starter than this, it was absolutely delicious!





A warm, hearty stew of red meats and potatoes was our next treat - a prekmurski bograč - served in a delightful little dish hanging over a candle. The flavours were similar to that of a Hungarian Goulash, but not quite the same. The menu described it as a Slovenian stew, including pork, beef, venison, potatoes, onions, garlic, pepper and salt. I'd love to know what other spices they used to create this yummy dish!

And our final treat for the evening was the bill... 22.90 Euro for both of us, including the drinks!! So if you're ever in Ljubljana then make sure you try this restaurant!





Delicious food, friendly locals and amazing scenery, Slovenia is definitely one to go back to for a longer stay. To round off our trip to this lovely country, I just want to leave you with on last photo...

A Real Wiener Schnitzel

Interrail Stop 4

While in Vienna we couldn't leave without trying the famous Austrian dish. We wanted to go to a traditional restaurant that would serve us up a real wiener schnitzel and we had a recommendation for a small restaurant cafe called Schnitzelwirt that would do exactly that.

We got so lost trying to find it that we thought they might have shut the kitchen by the time we got there... they were closing up outside as we arrived!

But luckily, my friend speaks fluent German and managed to ask them if they'd do a quick schnitzel and mixed salad for us to share with a couple of glasses of their house white.

We sat at a table surrounded by awards and newspaper clippings of the restaurant. It was a very traditional setting with lots of wood and a smiley Austrian couple sat opposite smoking, and chatting to us about our visit!

When the food arrived not long later, it was absolutely huge and so tasty - very simple with the apple and cabbage salad perfectly complimenting the pork - YUM!

As we hadn't looked at a menu, and the order had been a quick chat with a waiter at the door, we were a little concerned about the bill.

Knowing that it was recommended as a cheap place we were hoping for the best, but when the bill came we couldn't believe how cheap it was!!! 15Euro for the huge meal and two glasses of wine! I would have paid double that and felt we had got a good deal... so all in all a fantastic evening out and a delicious wiener schnitzel!

Beet Soup and Krakow Style Pork

Interrail Stop Number 2

Our second city stop was the lovely Polish city, Krakow. We toured around the castle, admired the Old Town streets, square and market, as well as paying our respects in a visit to Auschwitz (which was truly haunting but I would strongly recommend it as I learned so much from our tour guide and cannot begin to describe the scale and feel of the place in words or photos).

The day and a half we had in this city felt short, and it is somewhere that I would like to revisit for a longer period, but it was a great stop and we tried some traditional food...

After the yummy dumplings we tasted in Warsaw on the first of our interrail stops, we were looking forward to sampling more Polish cuisine in Krakow. We went to a tiny restaurant/cafe called Kuchnia u Doroty, recommended by the free walking tour group, and shared the famous Polish beet soup with croquette (Barszcz z krokietem) as a starter before two hearty main dishes - a Beef Stroganoff (Strogonoff) and Roast Pork with toast and Krakow style gravy (Maczanka po krakowsku).

Beet Soup

Croquette

We were unsure about ordering the the starter - beetroot soup, what was that going to taste like? But it was on nearly every Polish menu, so we went for it and it was absolutely delicious!! Satisfyingly salty and full of rich flavours, this warming soup had a winter food feel but without the stodge. The croquette was unusual, with undefinable meat in a pasta-come-pastry-come-potato roll, in a light crispy batter. It was a nice accompaniment to the soup, and soaked up the beetroot flavour when dipped in, but perhaps not the tastiest thing on its own!

Beef Stroganoff

Krakow Pork

The main courses were very large, very filling and unnecessarily carby (as was the case with a lot of the local food!). The stroganoff was good, but quite watery and lacking in flavour. The Krakow style sauce had plenty of flavour, but not entirely sure what flavours they were!! The pork was nicely cooked, as were the mushroom and potato accompaniments,but the toast was literally two slices of plain white bread sandwiching the pork. Obviously, with this much sauce it was just soggy bread, resulting in a very strange main course! 

So all in all, we were pleasantly surprised with the beet soup, and unpleasantly surprised with the mains!! Perhaps we were a little adventurous in ordering one of the only dishes on the menu that we had not heard of, but isn't that the point of trying food in new places?? Anyway, we had a great time, the staff were very friendly, the price was unbelievably low, and the cosy traditional setting made the meal a good one!

Polish Dumplings in Warsaw

Interrail Stop Number 1

So for our first stop on our interrail tour around Eastern European Cities, we went to Warsaw, Poland. We had been told to expect a very industrialised, built up and new looking city, which it was in some areas. But we were pleasantly surprised with the Old Town and castle, as much of what we walked through was gorgeous!

Anyhoo, the food... we had the most Polish dish we could find on the first night... dumplings!! Me and my friend ordered some refreshing lemon drinks, a portion of Great Hungarian Style Pancake (with goulash) and a mixture of savoury dumplings. Absolutely delicious but sooooo filling!!

Keepin' it Simple Paella

Paella is one of those dishes that tastes exquisite when cooked traditionally, in a huge pan with loads of different sea food and complex, rustic flavourings. I also think it can be bloody delicious cooked nice and simple with a few key ingredients.

For me, a chorizo and prawn combo captures the typical flavour of the dish, so I don't bother/can't afford to add in all the mussels or even chicken! This is a fairly quick recipe, and when you've got all the ingredients in, you can kind of just leave it to bubble away and soak up the stock. I actually chop one ingredient, throw it in the pan, then chop the next and so on, so there's not much prep involved! These quantities (only rough guides as normal) made enough for me and my boyfriend - he eats A LOT so it is probably enough for three! Here I have also used risotto rice, which makes it more creamy than you would get in Spain, but is yummy anyway!!  Enjoy!

Ingredients

small white onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped or grated
1 red chilli, chopped (optional)
paprika
salt and black pepper
100g chorizo, chopped
half red pepper, chopped
1 chicken stock cube
risotto rice (2 portions as indicated on the packet)
6-10 king prawns (I like to remove all of the shell to avoid faff when eating, but whatever your preferences are!)
a handful of frozen peas
a small handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Recipe

Boil the kettle ready for the stock.

In a large frying pan (I actually used a wok!), fry the onion in a dash of oil until it starts to soften. Add the garlic, chilli, a healthy sprinkle of paprika and seasoning.

Fry for a minute or two, then add the chorizo.

When the chorizo begins to brown a little, add the chopped pepper.

Make your stock by mixing the cube with the boiling water in a jug, measuring out the water. The stock will need to cover all the ingredients and more... usually about double the quantity of rice (follow the instructions on the rice packet), but I always end up adding more water as it seems to soak it up like crazy!

Stir the risotto rice in with the chorizo and other ingredients, making sure it is all coated nicely in the red colouring. Fry for a couple more minutes.

Then you can add the stock, prawns and peas, mixing it all together.

Then this can just bubble away for about half an hour, until all the rice is soft. You will need to keep an eye on it, give it a stir every now and again, and add more water if needed... but pop an episode of Friends or Big Bang Theory on and kick back for a bit!

Finally, stir most of the parsley into the paella, dish up, and then sprinkle a little on top of each plate with a quick twist of black pepper. Simple!