That is Szegediner Gulyas or Szeged Goulash which is named after the Hungarian city of Szeged. The Wikipedia article on the place notes that it is "known as the home of paprika" and that "Szeged is famous" for this dish. I didn't know this – I always thought of goulash as being Hungarian generally and not associated with a particular burg.
Although it took a while to cook, Szeged Goulash isn't a very difficult dish to make. You brown some pork, add onions, and then sweet paprika. In my case, I bought some Hungarian sweet at Penzey's. You then add some liquid followed by sauerkraut and potatoes. The recipe calls for 1 cup of water but I used about ¾ of a cup of a mixture of beef and chicken stock and ¼ cup of akvavit. The brand I have has a rather pronounced caraway flavor which I thought would complement the caraway seed in the recipe.
I had my goulash with a slice of Russian rye from The Rolling Pin in Fitchburg. It tasted very good, though I'll add a bit more paprika the next time I make it. I was surprised that, despite not having washed the kraut, the flavor of pickled cabbage was quite mild. All in all, very tasty.
The Dulcinea, for her part, was busy in the kitchen as well. She baked up an apple-walnut cake with caramel.
Trust me, the cake was much better than my photography. Its texture was fluffier than I thought it would be and full of luscious buttery goodness. Plus she put just the right amount of caramel on top. It added a goodly amount of sweetness to most bites but was not overpowering.
As I said above, I had to begin fasting at 9PM last night in anticipation of going to the doctor this morning to have some blood drawn. Now, having written about last night's dinner and tweaked the photos, I am drooling at the thought of some of that cake. It is sitting on the kitchen counter all by its lonesome…
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