T.A.G. was a very interesting and entertaining guest speaker for the BAC. Quite happy to pass on a bit of my very meagre cooking lore. It is the Frankfurt Goulash.
Ton Writes:
I picked this up in New York a quarter of a century ago and I have never forgotten it. It has been one of the most useful cooking Items I have ever got on to. I got to know a very nice Jewish family – leather manufacturers, lived in an immense old apartment on Park Avenue, must have been pretty wealthy but still couldn’t believe their luck. Some weekends a lot of us, friends of their sons, Bobby, used to go there Sunday evenings for tea , and Mrs Feldstein always pup on this goulash. So …
I work on two franks for every person at the gable. Cut them into one Ince lengths. I always have some stock in the freezer = from the dogs’ bones and meat, pits of chicken I boil up flaps I cook sometimes for the dogs. My mother always had a stockpot on the stove, but somehow that doesn’t appeal, plus in a way I can’t understand how we all didn’t finish up with typhoid of something. Anyway, if you don’t have stock, you can soon make some with a packeted soup. O’m not very good on quantities. I’n like my mother used to be, you asked her how much of something she put into a dish and she’d say “Oh enough”. So I use enough carrots, celery, onions and tomatoes all cut into manageable pieces. I think I use too much garlic for ordinary tastes – you can do what you like. You cut up your veggies – I forgot spuds – 2 pieces per person; I usually cook them separately and add them to the goulash pot at the last minute. Cook and thicken. I forgot – mix your plain flower for thickening with lots of tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce and so on. As you can see, its’a pretty elastic sort of business, but it it’s also a matter of taste and try. My father used to say “Cook to please yourself and you’r sure to please some bastard” and, that is what I do. This is a wonderful dish for cold evenings and, particularly when you are dropped on by a mob of people. If you haven’t the franks in the fridge, you can soon get them from the nearest deli. Aomwrimwa I curry the lot and do a pot of rice to go with it. Incidentally – rice, I learnt how to cook this from the Japanese girl during the Occupation – not all I leant form her either. Wash the rice thoroughly, four or five rinsing. Put it in a nice big pot and cover it with water to the depth of th joint of your middle finger – I know this sounds wacky but it really works. Put the pot on high heat with the id off. until all the moisture is absorbed in the rice, and you can hear the bottom layer crackling. Turn the heat down to the absolute minimum and leave the pot on it – it’s a good idea to put an asbestos mat under it. You an leave it there for a couple of hours you want.to – to a degree the longer the better. You’ve never tasted rice like it. This is Aldo a matter of taste end try – it might take a couple of runs to get it down pat.
All the best.
Tom Hngerford