Tinfoil Chef

Today I’m featuring a recipe that I created last night. I’ll be the first to admit that Brown Gravy Goulash isn’t exactly what people in this country have come to expect of a Goulash recipe. If anything it’s at least a step closer to it’s original form. Although it’s not very far removed form American Goulash recipes because it does have pasta in it and according to the Wikipedia article about it, the original Hungarian Goulash never did.

This was, like many recipes, born out of a lack of ingredients for something. I started out normally enough by putting a 1 pound box of Farfalle on to boil according to package directions. I used Farfalle (bow-ties) as the pasta because that’s what I had on hand. This will work just as well with just about any form of pasta.

While this was going I got a 1 pound package of cocktail smokies out of the freezer and held it under hot running water and broke them apart from the frozen block. Once separated, I put them in a bowl of water and microwaved them for three minutes. When they were done I drained the water, cut them up into thirds and set them aside.

Next I skinned and quartered a whole medium onion and dropped it into the food processor and ran it until the onion was pretty much pureed. I had some chopped frozen green bell peppers in the freezer to I got out about a cup and a half or so of that and ran it through the food processor as well until it resembled a green pepper slushie. (I don’t suppose there’s a market for green pepper slushie’s, do you?)

Once the pasta was done I dumped it into a colander to drain. While it was draining I got out two packets of “instant brown gravy” and prepared them according to package directions. Once the gravy was boiling and starting to thicken I added the onions and green peppers. I also seasoned it with a liberal sprinkling of Emeril’s Original Essence because I really like the way it kicks the flavor.

Of course, since the green peppers were still frozen this cooled the gravy down quickly so I gave it a few minutes to heat back up while stirring frequently to mix in the onions & peppers and break up any lumps that were still there. When the gravy returned to a boil I added the smokies and a can of diced tomatoes. I allowed that to cook for another few minutes on a medium heat while I returned the Farfalle to the large pot.

Once the sauce that started out as brown gravy returned to a boil it was just a matter of add it to the pot with the pasta and stir well to distribute it throughout the pasta. Then I let it sit for a few minutes to allow the pasta to absorb some of the sauce and the flavors in it while I cleaned up.

The result was a roaring success, I loved it. I’ll definitely be making this one again.

1 pound Farfalle (or the pasta of your choice
1 medium onion (either finely chopped or food processor chopped/pureed)
1 1/2 cups of green bell pepper (also fine chopped or food processor’d)
1 can of diced tomatoes
Emeril’s Original Essence
1 pound cocktail smokies

Technorati Tags: goulash recipes, hungarian goulash, goulash recipe, brown gravy, goulash, cocktail smokies, brown gravy, food processor, recipe, brown gravy goulash, american goulash, emeril

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