Sometimes you need to forget what you know in order to make something great
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For those of you out there that do not know, us cooks/chefs have a lot of training from various places. Maybe it starts in school, or maybe it is gained from experience on the line. Like most people, we build up a library of our experiences that we draw from when we form our habits.
Enter in this soup – the goulash. I have made goulash soup in school WAY back in the day. I think I may have made it here and there for functions at various times. Even with that, I have never been able to re-create the soup that my wife’s Babbi made – back when she was able to tend to her own kitchen.
Make no mistake, I have some soup making skills. I paid dearly for them in hours, ego busting tasting from my superiors, and outright failures that have taught me what NOT to do. Even with all of that, I just was not able to re-create that soup.
Enter in my mother-in-law. I asked her, “what is the recipe?” Know what? There is no recipe per se. Only a technique. I was all ears.
“First you take the onions, and brown them. Add paprika; cook for a minute. Then you brown your beef. Keep in mind it is chuck, that is what Babbi likes best. Then you add carrots and celery – but not too much, just enough to make it soup like. Then you add your garlic; cook for a minute or two. Then water – enough to make a good soup. Bring it to a boil, cover and cook until the meat is tender. Then you add in some potatoes at the end of the cooking, and cook them until they are soft. At the end Babbi adds some more garlic, and chopped parsley. Oh? There is no parsley in the fridge? Add the dried. It is important that it is there.” – My Mother-In-Law
So, of course that goes against what I had already learned about soup making. Normally we brown the beef, then add the onions, then paprika. Garlic at the end? Okay, that is weird.
All that aside, I had never re-created that which Babbi had made. It was time to turn off my library and make it like Babbi. No recipe, no step by step, just cooking in the old school way. I made up a huge batch of it for the staff – and it went over very well. There were some dissenters, but in the whole, everyone liked it.
I made it at home. You know, it went over very well. Not quite like Babbi’s, but nonetheless, a great start.
I am glad that I learned a new technique. Who knew? The onions and the paprika melted onto the beed, aiding in the browning, and I am sure that the acids helped break down the chuck meat. The smell was gorgeous. Adding a bit of garlic at the end opened up the flavor of the soup – and gave it a body almost second to none. I know the above picture does not do it justice, but trust me, the flavor was out of this world.
I asked the question on Facebook about old-school recipes. I got a few answers that I will think about making for the future.
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